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Glossary: Struggles for Justice in the Energy Transition: Voices from the Front Lines
No full textThis is the glossary of IDS Bulletin 56.2: Struggles for Justice in the Energy Transition: Voices from the Front Lines.</p
Enhancing Social Assistance in KRI & Iraq
No full textSocial assistance is a fundamental pillar of social justice, economic stability, and human dignity . However, in the KRI and the rest of Iraq, many vulnerable groups—including rural youth, persons with disabilities, elderly individuals, low-income families, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and women-headed households—face significant obstacles in accessing support. Discretionary aid models create uncertainty, often subject to political and administrative changes rather than being anchored in clear and enforceable laws.Iraq’s existing social protection law predates ISIS’ emergence in 2014. Since then, the ongoing war on terror has inflicted immense suffering, leading to widespread displacement. The compounding effects of climate change have exacerbated these challenges. COVID-19 further strained resources, impacting the broader population. Recent crises in Ukraine, Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon, and Syria have diverted focus from Iraq, compounded by impending cuts to foreign aid, reducing international assistance. As Iraq transitions, updating its social protection law is crucial for the government to establish a safety net and address critical gaps.</p
Key Messages from BASIC Research: Protecting the Gains: Using Social Protection to Sustain Progress in Protracted Crises
No full textSupporting social protection systems and providing social assistance in protracted crises is difficult. Access is often constrained; violence and insecurity make delivery dangerous; and governments are often weak, divided or predatory. Donor governments and International Financial Institutions (IFIs) can be estranged from crisis affected governments and unable to directly fund national systems. These difficulties often result in an over-reliance on parallel systems of international humanitarian aid for delivering assistance. Support to social protection and national systems has been limited.Despite the difficulties, evidence from BASIC Research shows that social protection systems can and should be supported during protracted crises. Sustained provision of social protection through a crisis can protect key outcomes - including progress tackling chronic poverty, prior improvements in human capital and food security, and advances towards more resilient livelihoods. Sustained provision also ensures capacity to deliver social protection post-crisis. In this way, sustaining social protection provision prevents the gains from prior investments from being lost or eroded.</p
Independent Evaluation of GDARSpaces
No full textThis report presents the findings of an independent evaluation of the GDARSpaces research network. The evaluation was led by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS). GDARSpaces is a multi-country collaboration funded by the UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), bringing together research institutions from Brazil, Jamaica, Cameroon, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and the UK, with the shared goal of generating high quality, novel and policy relevant research to inform resilient and equitable urban diet and physical activity (PA) interventions arising from risks associated with urbanization and climate change, particularly in urban areas in low- and middle-income country (LMIC) settings. The evaluation focused on how well GDARSpaces functions as an equitable, connected, and impactful research partnership. It explored three core areas: 1. Network health – the internal functioning of the network, including communication, participation, leadership, and trust. 2. Network connectivity – the strength and quality of relationships and collaboration across sites and teams. 3. Network outcomes – the network’s influence on policy, civil society engagement, and capacity development</p
IDS Annual Review 2024–25
No full textAs our current strategy period draws to a close, the IDS 2024-25 Annual Review provides an opportunity to celebrate the successes of the last twelve months, and to examine the longer-term influence of our work.Working with our partners, we have co-created high-quality evidence and analysis on a wide range of issues, including:Disability-inclusive developmentClimate preparedness and just transitionsCollaborating for gender justiceConflict research to improve education in crisis settingsTo read your eBook EPUB file, you must have an eBook reader installed. See the EPUB Download Guidelines for information on accessing EPUB files from IDS OpenDocs on your device. You can also download IDS eBooks for your device directly from Amazon, Google, Kobo or the British Library, from which they will be delivered to you in the usual way from these sites.This eBook conforms to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standard and the EPUB 3.3 and EPUB Accessibility 1.1 standards. The PDF meets the PDF/UA (Universal Accessibility) standard.</p
Neoliberalism and Gender-Based Political Violence in Brazilian Democratic Disputes
No full textIn Brazil, since 2013, the struggle between women’s rights and the defence of the patriarchal family has intensified. This struggle follows years of achievements towards gender equality. In 2016, a parliamentary-legal-media coup ousted Brazil’s first woman president, paving the way for a series of neoliberal reforms. The election of far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro as president solidified the process. This regressive slide was partially halted in 2022 on Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s election to the presidency. Amongst disputes and setbacks, Brazil presents a unique scenario for analysing the liberal democracy crisis and the rise to institutional power of the far right. In this article, we reflect on the dynamics of regression, specifically in relation to gender-based political violence and attacks on minorities. The reflection is based on media articles and the results of recent surveys on election results.</p
The Transnationalisation of Illiberalism (and Democratic Resistance) in Europe
No full textThe transnationalisation of illiberal far-right parties and social movements is increasingly evident in Europe today. While there is a growing body of research on different types of regressive illiberal political actors (for example, anti-immigration parties, anti-gender organisations) and their cross-border political mobilisation, research has tended to focus on a ‘division of labour’, pertaining to either political parties or social movements. Applying the concepts of ‘transnationalisation’ and ‘diffusion’ as used in collective action research, this article seeks to bring these strands of analysis together in a common analytical framework to understand the transnationalisation of different types of illiberal far-right actors (including both political parties and non-party organisations) in terms of organisational networks, identity frames, and protest events. All aspects of the framework will be shown through the cases of the anti-gender movement in Europe, the European ‘counter-movement’ (against the populist far right), as well as the wokeism frame.</p
Water Resources in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries
No full textThis rapid bibliography summarises key literature on the sustainability of the GCC’s water resources. The paper covers four themes: the overall sustainability of existing water resources; issues of inequality of access to water; transboundary water resources; and lastly, the impact of climate change on water availability. The focus is largely on Saudi Arabia, with several case studies and reports cited covering the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar, and to a lesser extent Kuwait and Bahrain.</p
The Politics of Cash Plus in Zambia
No full textSocial protection is now well-established on the policy agenda in Zambia, including various cash plus initiatives and social protection responses to shocks, such as the recent drought. This paper considers lessons from the success story of expanding social cash transfers in Zambia and applies these to the country’s current social protection context. Using a 3I(R) approach to political economy analysis, which focuses on institutions, interests, ideas and resources, the paper proposes a series of conclusions and recommendations drawn from this analysis. These include the value of consistency and persistence in promoting a policy idea, ideally through a strong policy coalition; the importance of connecting policy and political constituencies; the role of political motivation and suggestions for alignment with government ideas and priorities. There is currently political momentum for cash plus, as well as a growing evidence base both globally and within Zambia, which now needs to be translated into financial commitment. Establishing a more comprehensive suite of social protection programmes for households with and without labour capacity can contribute to upward mobility out of poverty and building resilience to future shocks in Zambia.</p
Vernacular Resilience and conflicting temporalities in Côte d’Ivoire: Between Resistance, Resignation, Débrouillardise and Hope
No full textBuilding on critical scholarship on multiple resiliencies, this article takes temporalities seriously as the basis for its analysis. While disasters are usually described by resilience scholars as moments of temporal rupture, the article engages with different notions of temporalities with respect to long-term repertoires and plural lived experiences of resilient practices in Côte d’Ivoire. It involves looking beyond the immediate object or subject of resilience, drawing on a combination of ethnographic, historical and constructivist methodologies to identify alternative and subaltern forms of resilience. It shows how the everyday and emergency blur and become indistinct, revealing the outcome of long processes of slow violence. These are the outcome of racial colonial governance and post-colonial state neglect. Vernacular resilience takes the form of the distrust of the racial and the institutional other and is about cultural resistance. The ecological crisis should not underscore the importance and wealth of water and a way of living. However, the cultures and practices of débrouillardise clearly show the tension between human and ecological time, leading to a breach in the collective governance of resources. Finally, vernacular resilience also takes the form of an imaginary, a hope in the future.</p