http://www.gsdrc.org Academic and policy-relevant publications on governance and international development. en-uk Copyright © 2012 Governance and Social Development Resource Centre Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:00:13 GMT Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:00:13 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 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 Merilee Grindle How is capriciousness and private and party interest minimised in the administration of government? This paper suggests that the answer is 'slowly and gradually'. It examines efforts to introduce neutral, stable civil services in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and Chile, noting that patronage persists after laws on career civil service reform have been passed. Implementation (and the political negotiation involved), not law, determines the persistence of patronage and shapes the characteristics of emergent career services. Reforms are caught in an ongoing political process of construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction. It is likely to be slowly, incrementally, and adaptively that patronage systems will eventually be supplanted by career civil service systems. Expectations about what career civil service systems can achieve need to be moderated. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4010&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4010&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Americas and Caribbean Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT R. Paul Battaglio Jr. How do employment-at-will (EAW) policies affect public service motivation? This study examines the motivation of public employees in the US state of Georgia, using a survey of human resource (HR) professionals. It suggests that EAW policies have a significant negative impact on motivation in the workplace, particularly for minorities. The potential for EAW to erode progress in the promotion of public sector diversity should not be ignored. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4009&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4009&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Americas and Caribbean Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT Degol Hilou and Fábio Veras Soares (eds.) What are the challenges facing conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes in Latin America and social cash transfer (SCT) programmes in Africa? How can CCT and SCT advocates address the issue of expanding social assistance programmes in the face of government fiscal restraints? This issue of 'Poverty in Focus' notes that there is evidence of CCTs having had positive impacts on education, health and nutrition and no major negative impacts on labour supply. Large-scale programmes have had impressive results in reducing inequality. The future of CCTs and SCTs will depend on their institutionalisation and on convincing the public and governments that cash transfers are not handouts, but necessary social investments. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3985&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3985&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Americas and Caribbean Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT Andrew Puddephatt How does civil society contribute to the passing of access to information (ATI) laws? This paper examines this process in Bulgaria, India, Mexico, South Africa and the United Kingdom. Civil society has impacted on measures to promote access to information through: advocating for ATI legal reform; building popular support; drafting and shaping legislation; helping citizens understand ATI; and monitoring implementation. The country studies reveal contrasting experiences. It is crucial that civil society groups understand the process of change in their context. They must also avoid overselling what ATI can achieve. Demonstrating the practical value of ATI may be civil society’s most important function. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3978&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3978&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Americas and Caribbean Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT Shahra Razavi and Anne Jenichen Has the growing presence of religion in politics made it harder for women to pursue gender equity? This article explores how religion as a political force shapes the struggle for gender equality in developing and developed countries. It is based on studies in Chile, India, Iran, Israel, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, Serbia, Turkey and the United States. The political influence of religious actors and movements worldwide has increased post-Cold War. The 'private sphere' has become politicised and is often the focus for conflict between religious actors and human rights advocates. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3977&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3977&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Americas and Caribbean Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT Ann-Kathrin Hentschel and Christian Rebhan Can human rights budgeting make governments more accountable? This report presents the experiences of human rights budgeting (HRB) initiatives undertaken by civil society in Argentina, India, the Philippines, and South Africa. HRB initiatives rest on the assumption that engaging in economic and fiscal policies is essential to protecting human rights. There is an increased integration of human rights perspectives into macroeconomic policy following an increased emphasis on good governance after the end of the Cold War. Experiences from the four countries show that HRB must focus on civil and political rights as well as on social, economic and cultural ones. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3964&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=3964&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Americas and Caribbean Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT