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 18:00:14 GMT Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:00:14 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 Philip N. Howard and Muzammil M. Hussain What has the 'Arab Spring' taught us about the role of digital media in political uprisings and democratisation? What are the implications of these events for our understanding of how democratisation works today? This study argues that social media have become a significant tool for civil society. New information technologies give activists information networks not easily controlled by the state and coordination tools that are already embedded in trusted networks of family and friends. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4222&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4222&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Asia Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT Lisa Horner and Andrew Puddephatt What is democratic space and why is it important for democratic governance? Why is it fragile in the Asia-Pacific region? This paper examines the factors that affect the capacity of democratic space to give poor and marginalised groups meaningful opportunities to exercise their human rights. It shows that democracy in many Asia-Pacific countries consists mainly of formal democratic institutions rather than substantive democratic processes, values and relationships. This leaves democratic space prone both to manipulation and to closure by powerful individuals and groups. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4219&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4219&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Asia 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 Asia Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT Arjan de Haan This paper examines how India's Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes categories are applied in poverty analysis and social policy, including in India's targeted poverty programmes and BPL (Below Poverty Line) Census. It finds that, while Indian poverty debates highlight the severe inequalities between social groups, they pay insufficient attention to the nature of exclusion. In some respects, support to deprived groups has led to the opposite of what progressive legislators intended and has made social identities more deeply entrenched in political frameworks. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4202&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4202&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Asia Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT Stephen Jones What lessons can be learned from political economy analyses of Nepal to inform a) donor strategies in that country and b) future political economy analysis in any context? This paper examines political economy studies, commissioned by DFID, on Nepal's agricultural, energy, health and police sectors. It finds that, while the short-term scope for donor influence on policy and institutional reform is likely to be limited, donors can act as a counterweight to rent-seeking and short-term political pressures. In addition, political economy analysis is most useful when it can inform specific decisions and existing processes, especially joint donor analysis and action. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4195&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4195&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Asia Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT Carl Jackson et al. In what ways can social protection programming with its investments in human capital (through education, health and nutrition) stop the intergenerational transfer of poverty? This study examines social protection programmes in Kenya, Zambia and Mongolia to understand the factors (design and implementation) that account for success. It also assesses how research can be used to improve good practice within a multilateral organisation such as UNICEF. It argues that agencies need to ensure that ground-level good practice is effectively brought into policy and programming. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4189&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4189&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Asia Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT Rachel Marcus and Paola Pereznieto et al This study maps child-sensitive social protection initiatives in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), where children are typically overrepresented among the poor. It also considers the main actors involved in social protection provision, their strategies and programme limitations, and provides recommendations for improved child social protection. Challenges to more effective and child-sensitive social protection in the region include financial barriers, the fragmentation of provision, local-level difficulties in obtaining the correct documentation to obtain benefits, and citizens’ lack of knowledge of their entitlements. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4188&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4188&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Asia Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT Diana Mitlin, David Satterthwaite, Sheridan Bartlett Recent experiences demonstrate the significance of collective savings among low-income urban citizens in developing countries. Such practices have helped to raise incomes, consolidate and protect individual and collective assets, and reduce political exclusion. Some savings groups have evolved into substantive institutions. Not only can community savings initiatives trigger multiple reinforcing effects that help to move households out of poverty, they can also achieve changed relations with government agencies that support a more effective pro-poor and accountable state. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4187&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4187&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Asia Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT Roger Mac Ginty This article highlights contradictions in the liberal peace that have become apparent in post-Taliban state-building in Afghanistan. It focuses on how warlords have been incorporated into a government unable to achieve a monopoly of violence without their support, noting that some of Afghanistan's warlords have benefited from both state weakness and state-building. It suggests the need to rethink the relationship between warlords, states and state-building, and to recognise warlords as sophisticated, transnational and modern political actors. The case of Afghanistan illustrates the difficulty of extending the liberal peace in the context of an ongoing insurgency. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4177&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4177&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Asia Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT Roger Duthie How does transitional justice fit within broader responses to the problem of displacement? Conflict-induced displacement is an important factor in contexts in which transitional justice operates, yet displacement has received little attention in the literature and practice of transitional justice. This article argues that transitional justice can and should address displacement, but in doing so needs to take account of and establish links with other relevant actors. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4174&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4174&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Asia 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 Asia Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT Asian Development Bank and UNICEF How can non-state providers of education and public private partnerships work most effectively for poor people in East Asia and the Pacific? This report highlights issues, opportunities and challenges related to non-state providers and their partnerships with the state in fulfilling the right to education for all. It argues that non-state providers present a significant resource for improving access and quality that the state should harness. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4158&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4158&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Asia Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT Emmanuel Skoufias et al. How does the introduction of local elections affect the pattern of public spending and revenue generation at the local level? The relationship between institutions of political accountability and government performance remains a key concern for analysts and practitioners of public policy design. This article analyses how institutional design for electoral accountability affects public sector spending choices and service delivery in districts of Indonesia. It finds that electoral reforms had positive effects on expenditures, mainly due to expenditures brought about by the election of non-incumbents. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4157&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4157&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Asia 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 Asia Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT Marwan Muasher How have efforts towards political reform fared in Jordan in the past ten years? How can this performance be explained? Successive Jordanian governments have failed to dismantle the laws and institutions that thwart the development of an effective system of checks and balances. This paper charts efforts at reform, and finds that an entrenched elite has successfully fought off reform attempts in order to preserve a rentier system based on rewards for loyalty rather than merit. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4150&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4150&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Asia Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT Mariz Tadros How can the international community advance gender equality in socially conservative contexts through effective support to women's coalitions? This report looks at how six collective initiatives in Egypt and Jordan have formed and worked politically to advance gender equality. It argues that engaging in informal 'backstage' politics is as important as formal channels of engagement in these 'closed' political spaces. The international community plays a critical role in supporting women's coalitions. Donors have provided some positive support, but there is room for improvement. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4149&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4149&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Asia Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT William Case Does a new democracy or electoral authoritarianism better allow legislatures to check the executive? This study examines accountability and legislative power in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia and Singapore. While legislatures are weaker under electoral authoritarian regimes than in new democracies, they define the opposition better. Opposition members try to use their limited powers to check executive abuses. However, this tends to strengthen authoritarian rule by giving it greater legitimacy. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4148&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4148&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Asia Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT Kirsty Martin and Michael Wilmore Do community radio stations achieve the levels of representation and community engagement that they claim? This article describes the experience of the Hamro Lumbini ('Our Lumbini') series in Nepal, developed in response to differing local views on the development of the Buddhanagar World Heritage Site (WHS). The programme received positive feedback for its inclusion of local voices and the opportunity it provided to comment on and shape future local development. It was criticised for not providing enough content in local language and has struggled with financial sustainability. The government needs to provide a more sustainable enabling framework for community radio. http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4139&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=4139&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gsdrc&utm_source=newsfeed Asia 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 Asia 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 Asia Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT