http://www.gsdrc.org Academic and policy-relevant publications on governance and international development. en-uk Copyright © 2013 Governance and Social Development Resource Centre Fri, 24 May 2013 18:00:19 GMT Fri, 24 May 2013 18:00:19 GMT http://www.gsdrc.org/rss/open george@gsdrc.org george@gsdrc.org http://www.gsdrc.org/images/logos/logo_gsdrc.gif http://www.gsdrc.org 205 90 GSDRC logo Seema Manghee and Alice Poole This reort provides guidance on conducting political economy analysis in the urban water sector, highlighting lessons from case studies. The cases span successful reforms, such as in Chile and Senegal; reforms where the results are still incomplete or have not been replicated, such as Ghana and Panama; and those where reforms are pending, such as Pakistan. The paper identifies a wide range of political economy drivers and factors to consider in seeking to promote reform. The latter include: timing and sequencing; taking a long-term time horizon to build consensus; harnessing a crisis to promote change; improving the performance data available to policymakers and citizens; and building coalitions with non-traditional stakeholders. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=5278&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=5278&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Americas and Caribbean Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT Jonathan Sisson Dealing with a legacy of human rights violations is one of the most difficult challenges facing any society in the aftermath of violent conflict. The Swisspeace Annual Conference 2006 considered the cases of Guatamala and Bosnia-Herzegovina, the peace agreements that ended the conflicts in these countries a decade after they were signed and a number of related issues. The introductory article from the conference outlines the factors that lead to establishing truth commissions in one context and judicial tribunals in another, considering how a society can learn to live with the memory of human rights violations, and how external actors can contribute to the process of reconciliation. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4501&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4501&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Americas and Caribbean Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT Human Rights Watch Casualties from antipersonnel landmines in Colombia have increased dramatically in recent years. The use of antipersonnel landmines by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) kills and injures hundreds of civilians every year. This report from Human Rights Watch documents the impact on civilian victims of antipersonnel landmines and the assistance the government provides to survivors. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4495&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4495&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Americas and Caribbean Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT Daniel M. Brinks and Varun Gauri Optimism about the use of laws, constitutions, and rights to achieve social change is high among practitioners. But the academic literature is sceptical that courts can direct resources toward the poor. Using data on social and economic rights cases in five countries, this paper finds that not all courts are the same. Countries and policy areas characterised by judicial decisions with broader applicability tend to avoid the potential anti-poor bias of courts. Areas dominated by individual litigation and individualised effects are less likely to have pro-poor outcomes. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4315&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4315&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Americas and Caribbean Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT Mariz Tadros This paper draws on over eight country case studies to analyse the possibilities and limitations of mainstream approaches, such as quotas, to strengthening women's access to political power. It finds that any quota law needs to be complemented by other interventions to ensure that it has a positive social transformative impact. Further, concepts of and support for women's political empowerment need to be based more on women's ongoing networks of support and influence and less on pre-election moments or international 'blueprints'. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4291&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4291&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Americas and Caribbean Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT Shana Tabak How do transitional justice mechanisms perceive the role of women and men in conflict and post-conflict situations? How might a gendered approach to transitional justice apply to the situation of female combatants in Colombia? Transitional justice mechanisms fail to be gender inclusive when they neglect the multiple gendered roles that men and women play in conflict and post-conflict situations. Examining transitional justice from a gendered lens reveals crucial detail about the situation of women in conflict and provides opportunities to transform the gendered origins of conflict. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4286&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4286&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Americas and Caribbean Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT Achim Maas and Alexander Carius This paper reviews the options available for small island states to adapt to global environmental change, particularly climate change. Climate change may create new pressures for small island states (such as severe ocean acidification) and intensify others (such as sea-level changes) in a comparatively short, yet unpredictable, amount of time. Internal relocation and migration is a tested adaptation practice for such states, which already have well-established migration links. However, with greater access to financial resources – by increasing the extent to which island states profit from fishing or mining concessions, for example – and by investing in people and knowledge, states can reduce the need for future relocation. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4205&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4205&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Americas and Caribbean Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT Alexander Ramsbotham and I. William Zartman This article reviews peacebuilding strategies in Asia, Europe, the Caucasus, Africa, Central America and the Middle East. It shows that country-based analysis can produce flawed conflict responses. Instead, policy based on conflict systems can shape more flexible and comprehensive responses. It can identify actors and dynamics that exist outside state borders, such as narcotic networks that support insurgent groups, and incorporate these into peacebuilding interventions. Thus, cross-border peacebuliding needs to 'think outside the state' – both beyond it, through regional engagement, and below it, through sub-state cross-border community or trade networks. To work effectively, supra- and sub-state initiatives need to be strategically linked. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4168&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4168&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Americas and Caribbean Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT Arne Tostensen et al. This report synthesises lessons learned from an evaluation of Norwegian and Swedish aid interventions that aimed to promote child rights in Guatemala, Kenya, Mozambique and Sudan. It notes that a child rights perspective is integrated to the extent that interventions embody the four main principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. More effort is needed to implement in particular the principle of the child's right to express views and be heard, as child participation currently tends to be tokenistic. The strategies of mainstreaming a child rights perspective and of focusing interventions on children are complementary. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4161&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4161&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Americas and Caribbean Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT Masud Mozammel (ed.) What is the role of communication in Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) processes? This study looks at communication in PRS processes in Ghana, Tanzania, Moldova and Nepal, and in Latin America and the Caribbean. It also explores how the use of strategic communication is being integrated into national development planning and implementation. The rise of new information technologies has helped make civil society even more central in the national development debate. Improving communication can provide opportunities to reconfigure the relationships among government, donors, and civil society. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4154&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4154&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Americas and Caribbean Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT Peter P. Houtzager and Arnab K. Acharya To what extent does participation in associations increase active citizenship? How does associationalism impact on the quality of citizenship? Civic engagement theory suggests that associations empower members to engage in public politics and improve the quality of democracy. Empirical demonstration of this argument outside affluent countries is rare, however, and so this paper examines associationalism in São Paulo and Mexico City. It finds that associationalism leads to higher levels of active citizenship, but does not improve the quality of citizenship practices. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4142&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4142&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Americas and Caribbean Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT Ranjita Mohanty, Lisa Thompson and Vera Schattan Coelho (eds.) In what circumstances is citizen mobilisation to claim rights and entitlements responded to by democratic states in ways that deepen democracy? This book explores the interaction between citizen mobilisation and the state in India, Brazil and South Africa. It finds that the gains won through mobilisation are often selective and partial, and sometimes non-existent. Mobilisation that adopts a critique or protest approach seems less likely to elicit a positive state response than collaborative engagement. State actors prefer to interact with citizens within their own policy frameworks and spaces, and within their own ideologies. State engagement with mobilised citizens in the countries studied has had both progressive and regressive outcomes: it has increased space for participation in policymaking, and increased state resistance to critique. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4121&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4121&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Americas and Caribbean Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT Anthony Bebbington What roles do social movements play in poverty reduction? This study explores the connections between poverty and social movements, particularly relating to production and to collective consumption (for example, housing, services, water). It argues that social movements are integral to livelihoods and also to state formation, and can therefore play a central role in poverty reduction. One of the most important effects of successful movements is to induce the creation of new institutions that contribute to poverty reduction and more equal power relationships in society. Context will determine the most productive strategy for a movement to adopt. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4120&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4120&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Americas and Caribbean Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT Clare Castillejo What role do women play in statebuilding? How do statebuilding processes affect women's participation? Support for statebuilding has become the dominant model for international engagement in post-conflict contexts, yet donor approaches lack substantial gender analysis and are missing opportunities to promote gender equality. This paper presents findings from a research project on the impact of post-conflict statebuilding on women's citizenship. It argues that gender inequalities are linked to the underlying political settlement, and that donors must therefore address gender as a fundamentally political issue. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4112&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4112&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Americas and Caribbean Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT Harry Jones and Simon Hearn What is Outcome Mapping (OM) and why is it valuable? When does it work best? How can donors facilitate its use? This note draws on case studies to review OM – a flexible, actor- and learning-centred approach to planning, monitoring, and evaluating social change initiatives. It finds that adopting OM for appropriate projects could help development agencies to increase their effectiveness and meet commitments to managing for results. OM is well-suited to areas involving complex change processes, capacity building work, and knowledge and decision-making processes. Shifting to OM's learning-oriented mode requires donors to adopt more realistic expectations and to dispense with the idea of 'controlling' change processes. Crucially, OM must be underpinned by real trust between the donor, project implementers and partners. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4098&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4098&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Americas and Caribbean Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT H. Dean Nielsen How effective are community empowerment programmes in World Bank-supported educational programmes? Can community-led school management help to improve the quality of teaching and learning for the poor and disadvantaged? This article reviews 12 country case studies for evidence of their effectiveness. It suggests that school development features that contribute to learning outcomes – such as curriculum development, teacher assessment and student assessment – need to remain the responsibility of education professionals. A realistic model of community empowerment in support of basic education would contain an appropriate mix of community and professional involvement. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4080&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4080&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Americas and Caribbean Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT Bert Hoffmann How has the spread of digital media across international boundaries affected the role of civil society under authoritarian regimes? Examining the case of Cuba, this paper compares civil society dynamics prior to the internet – in the early to mid-1990s – and a decade later. It finds that in the pre-internet period, civil society's focus was on behind-the-scenes struggles for associational autonomy within the state-socialist framework. A decade later, digital media has supported the emergence of a new type of public sphere in which the civil society debate involves autonomous citizen action. However, its effects on political reform depend on the extent to which web-based voices connect with off-line debate and action. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4066&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4066&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Americas and Caribbean Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT Christian von Haldenwang Can semi-autonomous tax agencies play a role in strengthening the effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy of decentralised tax systems? This article analyses semi-autonomous tax agencies in nine Peruvian cities. It shows that the Servicios de Administración Tributaria (SAT) collect local taxes and non-tax revenues more effectively than conventional tax administrations. Efficiency may improve once the SAT are consolidated. Positive effects on fiscal governance will materialise when reforms cover the whole fiscal cycle, including budget formulation and execution. SAT needs to be embedded in a broader context of fiscal reform promoting transparency and accountability. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4016&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4016&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Americas and Caribbean Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT Rebecca Holmes and Nicola Jones To what extent is social protection programming reinforcing women's traditional roles and responsibilities, or helping to transform gender relations in economic and social spheres? How can policy and programme design and evaluations better address gender-specific risks and vulnerability? This paper synthesises multi-country research, finding that the integration of gender into social protection approaches has so far been uneven at best. However, all the programmes studied had both intended and unintended effects on women and gender relations. Attention to dynamics within the household can help to maximise positive programme impacts and reduce potentially negative ones. Relatively simple design changes and investment in more strategic implementation practices are needed. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4015&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4015&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Americas and Caribbean Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs To what extent can decentralisation help to institutionalise citizen engagement in governance and promote sustainable peace? This study analyses the concept of decentralisation and looks at the challenges of implementing it in several post-conflict countries. It argues that participatory governance at the local level facilitates the involvement of local communities in policy decisions. This creates a shared commitment to peaceful progress that reduces the likelihood of violent conflict. Peace cannot be lasting unless both men and women, as well as those in minority groups, participate in shaping post-conflict reconstruction and are able to enjoy its benefits equally. However, effective decentralisation for participatory governance requires political will, civic will, capacity development at the local level and careful implementation. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4012&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4012&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Americas and Caribbean Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT