434 research outputs found
Sort by
Exploring the Research-Policy Linkage: The Case of Reforms in Financing Primary Education in Tanzania
Get PDFTanzania abolished school fees in primary schools as from 2002. This move was made possible because of shifts in the policy of major donors, not least the World Bank. In the subsequent years Tanzania recorded a rapid increase in enrolment rates. It is generally argued that fees in primary education turn away children from school, but researchers disagree on the relative importance of this effect.
In this paper we use this case of policy reform to study the role of research. Was this an example of evidence-based policy making? If so, where did the evidence come from? Our main focus was on the role of national researchers and findings from relevant research on Tanzania. The study shows that this research has had particular problems in becoming relevant and used, and identify the major factors that can explain its marginal role
Evaluation of the UNDP/UNOPS Peacebuilding and Community Development Project in Ituri, the Democratic Republic of Congo
Get PDFBuilding peace through community development: this was the key idea of the evaluated project, which was run in the war-torn Ituri district of the DRC from 2003 onwards. The planning of the project did not take sufficiently into account the difficult conditions under which it would be run. Centralisation of project management tasks to UNDP and UNOPS in Kinshasa, and the shortage of resources that were made available for the project at this central level, complicated implementation efforts on the ground. Strategic management was also weak. Still, many positive results materialised as the local partner organisations welcomed the idea of building peace through community development and acted on it in their micro projects. Thanks to many skilful local partners and a dedicated
UN project team in Ituri, and despite considerable delays, the micro projects came a long way towards reaching the aims of reconciliation, reconstruction, local capacity building, and HIV/AIDS awareness raising. As a whole the project contributed to launching the processes of peacebuilding and community development in the district. But given the uniqueness of the project and its weak coordination with other agencies, little ground was prepared for a scale-up and a transfer of results in a subsequent phase.
The peacebuilding and community development project was hence a success – but a success that materialised in spite of an unsuitable organisational framework, weak strategic management, insufficient coordination, and continued violence in Ituri. It was in other words a “success by default”; one that came about despite choices made within the project that were not the most amenable to goal attainment. Yet given the project’s positive results, its still unrealised potential, the need for such a project in Ituri, and the learning of lessons within UNDP; the report recommends that the project continue and proposes a number of reforms that should be made within it in a new phase
Accountability on the Move. The Parliament of Angola
Get PDFThe Parliament of Angola was established and elected in 1992 in a watershed election that coincided with the peace process in Angola and the democratisation process in much of Africa. There has still been no second election, which means that this parliament is now working on a feeble legal basis. This study explores the strengths and weaknesses of the Angolan Parliament. It demonstrates that the Angolan Parliament is very weak in terms of its constitutional mandate, mainly because it is operating within a strong presidential system. It is also weak in terms of resource allocations and working conditions, because the ruling party is so dominant. Despite this, a slow and uneven process of increased parliamentary power for possible checks and balances is just beginning
Corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina 2005. Options for Swedish Development Cooperation 2006-2010
Get PDFIn Bosnia and Herzegovina, we find that corruption exists in all its facets – bribery, nepotism, embezzlement, diversion of public funds, tax fraud, illegal rent seeking, kick-back schemes etc. The victims of corruption are often the most vulnerable groups: the elderly, the unemployed and other low-income groups, who cannot afford to pay for up-grades of health care services; women, who, through traditional role patterns, are more often exposed to corruption; and minorities, facing a judiciary and administration appointed according to ethnic majority criteria, are denied impartial treatment based on clearly established rules and regulations.
Defining an anti-corruption agenda for the international community in general, and for bilateral donors like Sida in particular, is a challenge under these circumstances. Experience from anti-corruption interventions elsewhere suggests that progress cannot be achieved without the full cooperation of national authorities. The lack of political will described in this report could justify a recommendation not to engage until the circumstances have changed.
However, the authors believe that it is essential to address corruption and organized crime in BiH – both in order to minimize the consequences for Europe and to facilitate the countries progress towards Europe. ging the way NGOs interact with citizens, government and the donors
How middle-men can undermine anti-corruption reforms
Get PDFThe anti-corruption reform in the Tanzanian tax bureaucracy in the mid-1990s was apparently a short-lived success. In the wake of the reform, a number of “tax experts” established themselves in the market, many of them being laid off tax bureaucrats. We argue that middle -men can undermine the effect of an anti-corruption reform by reducing the uncertainty that firms face vis -à-vis a reformed tax bureaucracy, which in turn may encourage firms to pay bribes rather than taxes.
Indeed, under some circumstances, middle-men can cause corruption to be higher after the reform than before the reform. Since the demand for middle –men may increase with the extent of the reform, we also demonstrate that a small reform may be more efficient in combatting corruption than a more radical reform
Social Rights Litigation as Transformation: South African Perspectives
Get PDFThe paper analyses the role of litigation as a strategy to fulfil the social rights laid down in the South African constitution. Critically examining litigation as a means to bring the constitutional provisions to life, it explores how different aspects of the social, political and legal context condition the litigation process. Focus is on the social rights cases that the South African Constitutional Court has decided over the past decade. Comparative perspectives set the South Africa experience in relief, and inform the theoretical framework structuring the analysis. By systematically examining the South African experience, the aim is to shed light on what has been achieved through social rights litigation; what has facilitated these achievements; and future prospects for social rights litigation in South Africa. Furthermore, it aims to extract some general insights into the potential and limits of litigation as a strategy for advancing social rights
Does Social Development Affect Poverty? The Role of Participation in Income Dynamics in Indonesia 1993-2000
Get PDFThe objective of this study is to assess whether there are any effects on household income changes and poverty reduction in Indonesia from living in a community that has a more democratic system of decision making, or from being a member of a society with a higher degree of cooperation. We constructed a democracy index and a cooperation index and find that a household would have had two percentage points higher income growth from 1993 to 2000 if it had lived in a society with a high degree of cooperation compared to living in a society with the lowest degree of cooperation, if our results imply causality. This is substantial, since the average household per capita real income growth in the period 1993 to
2000 was 11 per cent. Moreover, our results suggest that cooperation may be of particular value for the poorest. We find that a poor household would have had six percentage points higher income growth from 1993 to 2000 if it had lived in a society with a high degree of cooperation compared to living in a society with the lowest degree of cooperation, even if the total income growth for this group was only around seven per cent during the period. The democracy index was found to be insignificant in all specifications and subsets
SADC's Restructuring and Emerging Policies Options for Norwegian Support
Get PDFIn 2001 SADC approved an ambitious program for a major overhaul of the organisation.
Through institutional reform SADC hoped to establish a more efficient Head Office and Secretariat which could provide stronger leadership, ensure a more regionally focused programme of action, and close the gap between policies and implementation.
Norway was major donor behind this process and provided a de facto core funding the restructuring. The present report was commissioned by the Norwegian Embassy in Harare. The Embassy is responsible for managing Norwegian assistance to the SADC Secretariat in Gaborone. The report sets out to take stock of what has been achieved in terms of reforming SADC and developing a new programme of action in all areas of SADC’s operation. This provides a basis for discussing and making recommendations for continued Norwegian support to the organisation and its objectives
The NORAD Programme in Arts and Cultural Education. A review of the first phase 2002-2004
Get PDFThe Norad Programme in Arts and Cultural Education was established in 2002 and is administered by Centre for International University Co-operation (SIU). The total budget for the programme period (2002-2005) is NOK 15 millions. The main objectives of the programme are to strengthen the cultural institutions in the partner countries and to contribute to the professionalisation of the artists and the art forms. Norwegian institutions of higher learning collaborate with partners in Africa to achieve these goals through eight projects. Collaborations take the form of scholarships to study dance and music in Norway (Zimbabwe, Tanzania), arrangement of courses and degrees on choral conducting (South Africa), series of workshops providing artists with a diploma in fine arts
(Zambia), workshops on music and music education for children (Tanzania), as well as research on the potentials of cultural heritage and tourism (Tanzania). A review of the results concludes that the great majority of the projects have fulfilled the two major goals of the programme in a satisfactory way. Projects that focus on formal qualifications and are part of larger, long term collaborations in politically stable countries are the most successful. The report discusses challenges met during the first phase of the programme and provides a number of recommendations for the next phase:
•The programme should have a longer time frame
•Training projects should focus on formal qualifications
•The SIU requirement that partnerships must involve university level institutions should be removed
•“Sandwhich” degrees should be encouraged
•Co-operating partners should develop binding contracts for students
•Project applications should include concrete plans for employment of the students to ensure strengthening of the institutions
•Partners should consider to broaden and consolidate their partnerships with mutual exchange through the Norwegian Peace Corp
Norwegian Support to Bunda College of Agriculture - Phase II. An Evaluation
Get PDFThis report is an evaluation of NORAD’s support to Bunda College of Agriculture, University of Malawi to the tune of NOK 35 million for the period 2001–2004.
Results were assessed in five output areas: (a) organisational restructuring; (b) financial and administrative management; (c) revenue generation; (d) improved priority teaching facilities; and (e) improved teaching and research capacity.
Notable achievements included the preparation of a strategic plan for the
College; the commercialisation of Bunda Farm; the resuscitation of the Bunda
Journal of Agriculture, Environmental Science and Technology; installation of a local area network and a new software package for accounting purposes; rehabilitation of buildings; provision of equipment and improvement of library services; and upgrading of professional staff qualifications through a large number of scholarships at MSc and PhD levels. Among the shortfalls were the failure to transform Bunda College into a fully-fledged university; the continued undercapitalisation of Bunda Farm; no monitoring and evaluation system installed to ascertain the effectiveness of new systems and procedures; no policy formulated on consultancies, including overheads to be paid to the College; and limited outreach to the ultimate beneficiaries of agricultural research, i.e. the farmers. With respect to the next phase, it was recommended that more attention be given to outreach activities; that sustainability concerns be taken more seriously; and that a lean and simple management structure be established to avoid top-heavy, multi-layered arrangements which would increase transaction costs