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WFP’s Support to Strengthening the National Social Protection System in Zimbabwe
No full textThis case study explores the World Food Programme’s (WFP) role in supporting social protection in Zimbabwe over the last decade. It assesses how WFP has supported the building blocks of Zimbabwe’s national social protection system, focusing on non-contributory social assistance as the government’s main mechanism for supporting poor and vulnerable people. This is a light-touch exercise, undertaken through a rapid literature review and interviews with WFP staff.</p
Collaborative Practice Pathways Improve Accountability and Governance
No full textThis policy briefing looks at six case studies from the POTENCIAR programme, implemented in Mozambique’s health sector. It highlights lessons for governance programmes and discusses how POTENCIAR’s interventions facilitated knowledge-sharing, participatory planning, institutional coordination, and mutual accountability, leading to enhanced health service delivery (for the full report, see Alexander et al. 2025, forthcoming). There is an urgent need to scale up participatory governance models, support context-specific implementation approaches, embed collaborative structures within national systems, and ensure flexible financial models for civil society support within adaptive programmes.</p
National Data Systems and Domestic Resource Mobilisation
No full textThis annotated bibliography draws on a rapid review of literature that explores the link between national data and statistical systems and DRM. The evidence appears to be very limited and fragmented. The search revealed two studies that directly focus on the relationships between informational capacity and fiscal capacity, and between the national statistical office and the revenue authority, as well as studies that consider the value of third?party data for the tax system. Another body of evidence explores the link between a particular data source or system and the capacity to generate revenue. This link may be the paper’s principal focus or only an element within it. In the latter case, only those parts of a paper that are directly relevant to the research question are reviewed.</p
Viral haemorrhagic fevers question bank: Qualitative questions for understanding transmission dynamics and experiences of care
No full textViral haemorrhagic fevers (VHFs) are a group of severe illnesses caused by viruses that affect multiple organ systems and damage the cardiovascular system. VHFs include Ebola virus disease and Marburg virus disease. There is wide variation in how VHFs are diagnosed, how pathogenic they are, their geographic distribution, their known reservoirs (i.e., animals or insects that spread the disease) and the availability of vaccines or treatments. When using this Question Bank for a specific public health emergency in connection with an identified VHF, consider these factors in addition to an updated country context analysis and the clinical progression of disease among at-risk populations.The development of this Question Bank has been based on over 10 years of extensive social science research conducted during outbreaks of VHFs and other public health emergencies involving infectious diseases. Many of the thematic areas covered by this Question Bank will be relevant to outbreaks of VHFs where person-to-person transmission has been identified as a significant contributor to the spread of the outbreak and where patient experiences of care must be understood for a community-centred response. The questions must be adapted for the specific VHF, the country context and the respondent population.</p
Key considerations: Mpox response in urban informal settlements
No full textThe World Health Organization declared the second mpox public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) in August 2024. Cases of mpox have been reported in both endemic and non-endemic countries in diverse settings in Central and East Africa. In urban areas, there is sustained human-to-human spread of mpox via close physical contact including sexual contact. Of particular concern are urban informal settlements that often face high population densities, overcrowded dwellings and inadequate infrastructure. It is important that the mpox response is adapted to these unique contexts. The mpox response should build upon an array of local capacities and knowledge, including the strategies that these communities have used during previous disease outbreaks.The brief highlights key issues and good practices that can be carried into the design and delivery of mpox response activities. This brief is based on a rapid review of published and grey literature, drawing on social science evidence on health emergencies in urban informal settlements in sub-Saharan Africa.This brief complements the collection of SSHAP resources on mpox.</p
Adapting Programming to Major Insecurity in Burkina Faso
No full textThis case study documents experience from SNV in the Eastern region of Burkina Faso during the COVID-19 pandemic. Insecurity led to high numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs) arriving in programme areas, impacting WASH implementation efforts, for example disrupting behavioural changes that had become a given in some communities, and putting increasing pressure on the use of water points and sanitation facilities. Many communities became inaccessible overnight due to insecurity, making standard implementation processes impossible for project staff. Communities were also experiencing increased climate shocks such as flooding, storms and droughts; and struggling with construction in a tough physical environment with rocky ground. Insecurity and climate shocks exacerbated gender inequality and had a disproportionate impact on girls and women, compounded still further if they were also IDPs. During the pandemic, programme areas were not accessible for programme staff, and adaptations were made to enable implementation to continue with remote support. Successful initiatives included training of existing village or neighbourhood sanitation committees (CAVQs) to undertake triggering, remote monitoring, and development of post-ODF action plans that incorporated IDPs; integration of IDPs and women into sanitation committees; introduction of village savings and loans associations (VSLAs) to increase the purchasing power of communities and female-headed households; and training masons to develop adaptations to meet the challenging physical conditions in the area.</p
Technological Cooperation Frameworks between India, Africa and High-Income nations
No full textIndia and Africa have a long history of cooperation in different domains and areas. Given the shared areas of concern and challenges, it has been a natural trajectory of partnership. Ever since 1964, the Indian government’s Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) has engaged in African countries. Currently, the status of technological co-operation is managed and established through forums and summits between India and African countries, transfer of successful technology and governance models from India to Africa, technological innovation partnerships and implementation by civil society organisation and leveraging of different financial instruments and loans by India to support technological projects in Africa. Some of the major areas where India partners with Africa are agriculture, food security, renewable energy, digital technology and e-health governance. </p
What Impact Do Tax Agents Have on Taxpayers' Compliance in Uganda? Evidence from Tax Administrative Data
No full textThe role of tax intermediaries in encouraging or hindering compliance with tax obligations in low-income countries has received little attention in the literature. A rare example are two small-scale surveys carried out in Uganda, which suggest that tax agents might have a broadly positive impact on taxpayers’ compliance. This study builds on that exploratory evidence through the analysis of all corporate income tax (CIT) and value added tax (VAT) returns submitted in Uganda between 2019 and 2023. The impact of tax agents, proxied by the presence of audit expenses in CIT returns, and audit or tax preparation VAT input claims, is confirmed as broadly positive. Returns prepared with agents’ support show no difference in declared liabilities in the aggregate, and higher declared CIT liabilities for small and medium taxpayers. They also carry forward higher losses. Significant but small increases in total VAT declared are mediated by the impact of agents on reporting behaviour for both input and output VAT, both of which increase. Taxpayers seeking agents’ services are also less likely to nil-file, and slightly more likely to file late. A higher likelihood of being subject to audit does not lead to significant differences in audit adjustments. These results are robust to different specifications, and an alternative definition of the use of agents.</p
Beyond the Tax Bill: Measuring Tax Compliance Costs for Ugandan Firms
No full textLow-income countries require increased tax revenue to support economic development. An important barrier to increasing tax collection is the growing complexity of the tax system, which many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) struggle to navigate. Tax compliance is often time consuming, confusing, and requires frequent in-person interactions with tax officials. This all contributes to the time, money, and effort incurred by taxpayers in meeting their obligations, over and above their actual tax liabilities. While compliance costs directly increase the total effective tax burden faced by firms, that is not their only effect. High compliance costs are often part of the explanation for taxpayers failing to take up provisions that would benefit them, such as not claiming tax credits for input costs (Almunia et al. 2024; Brockmeyer et al. 2024). This can particularly affect smaller firms, which may even overpay taxes as a result (Tourek 2022). This paper documents the substantial tax compliance costs faced by Ugandan firms, using survey data from 1,972 taxpaying businesses matched with administrative tax records. It highlights the composition of compliance costs, the role of tax agents, and the limited impact of digital compliance tools. The results show that compliance costs often exceed tax liabilities and disproportionately affect smaller firms.Summary of Working Paper 223.</p
Gold Mining, Conflict, and Post-war Governmentality in Côte d’Ivoire
No full textOver the last twenty years, there has been a new gold rush in West African countries along a new resource frontier. The article’s key question is how mining governance reform and discourses around the 2014 Mining Code in Côte d’Ivoire create socio-environmental conflicts over the local development model, property rights and identity politics. The article draws upon direct observation, semi-structured interviews, focus groups with gold panners, mine managers and local village populations, as well as a household survey.Building on the resource frontier literature, this article explains how gold mining sites in Côte d’Ivoire are spaces at the intersection between patronage economies, state territorialisation, capital accumulation and informality. The governance of gold mining can be viewed as a shock which destabilises local political, social and cultural practices and thereby leads to a reconfiguration of the local social order along this resource frontier.The analysis around three dimensions, the development model, property rights and identity politics, reveal a number of important characteristics with respect to the evolution of the local social order in Côte d’Ivoire. More broadly, these conflicts are a microcosm of post-war governmentality in Côte d’Ivoire: conflicts around the new norms and values in defining the social order and direction of the Ivorian state.</p