18336 research outputs found
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Local Solidarity Mechanisms for Resilience and Crisis Response in Niger
No full textIn the absence of adequate formal assistance, many communities rely on informal solidarity mechanisms for support in meeting daily needs, building resilience, and responding to multiple shocks and crises. This is the case in Niger, where a variety of local mechanisms exists across diverse communities – some with demonstrated capacity to respond to shocks. While these mechanisms are often overlooked in policies and programmes, two exceptions include support for women’s informal savings groups or tontines, and adaptation of a local pastoral redistribution system for relief and development initiatives. Further strategies are needed to heighten understanding and promotion of such mechanisms in national policies and programmes.</p
The Role of Education in Countering Mis- and Dis-Information in MENA
No full textThis rapid evidence review collates available evidence on the role of education in countering mis- and dis-Information in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The review draws upon an eclectic evidence base that includes both academic and grey literature. The evidence base is currently limited in relation to education in MENA. However, there is a more extensive evidence base that highlights the role of education in countering mis- and dis- information more broadly.</p
Serious and Organised Crime’s Exploitation of Borders in North Africa
No full textThis Rapid Evidence Review (RER) examines serious and transnational organised crime (SOC and TOC) in the border zones of North Africa – from Morocco to Libya – particularly the smuggling of weapons and drugs (mostly cannabis and cocaine). It also looks at regional states’ efforts to cooperate at addressing these types of TOC.</p
Internet Shutdowns in Africa: Technology, Rights and Power
No full textAuthored entirely by African researchers, this open access book provides ten in-depth case studies of state-sponsored internet shutdowns across all regions of Africa. In so doing, it offers the first-ever comparative analysis of how African states use internet shutdowns as tools to close civic space, suppress opposition, and maintain power, all of which produces actionable recommendations.Put simply, an internet shutdown is an intentional disruption of online or mobile communications. Shutdowns intentionally prevent the free flow of information and communication and obstruct social, economic and political life online. Each internet shutdown typically violates the fundamental human rights of millions of citizens, including their rights to freedom of expression, trade and commerce, democratic debate, and civic participation online.Internet shutdowns in Africa are becoming more frequent and more sophisticated, despite repeated resolutions and statements aimed at ending the practice by the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR), the Economic Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the United Nations. As the authors in this book explain, the perpetrators of internet shutdowns are using the novel technical affordances of mobile and internet infrastructures to diversify the types of internet shutdown and improve the precision of their targeting to impact chosen groups or regions. In recent years foreign states, military regimes and warring parties have also resorted to the use of internet shutdown as a weapon of war, by targeting and destroying telecommunications infrastructure or impeding the entry of essential resources such as the fuel necessary to maintain connectivity.</p
K4DD Health Evidence Summaries and Discourse August 2025
No full textMonthly Health Evidence and Discourse Summaries aim to signpost FCDO and others to the latest relevant evidence and discourse on global health. This summary is structured around the following topics:Health Systems Strengthening including service delivery, human resources for health, health information systems, access to essential medicines and technologies, health financing and leadership and governance.Health Equity & Rights.</p
International Democracy Aid 30 Years Later
No full textFrom the mid-1990s to the end of 2024, international democracy aid expanded exponentially in size and sources, embraced more flexible methods for empowering local actors, and incorporated new issue areas. Aid providers adapted as democracy’s ‘third wave’ gave way to sustained democratic recession, but the field’s basic trajectory was largely one of iterative evolution. The return of Donald Trump to the United States (US) presidency, however, has triggered upheaval in the aid world, including the near cessation of US democracy aid. While many non-US actors are still engaged in supporting democracy internationally, their capacity to fill the gaps in leadership and funding left by the US is challenged by domestic pressures of their own. As a result, the future of international democracy aid is deeply uncertain.</p
A Review of the Business Case for Workforce Nutrition Initiatives
No full textUndernutrition and malnutrition remain persistent challenges in low-and middle?income countries (LMICs), especially among workers in labour-intensive sectors. Workplace nutrition programmes (WNPs) have shown promising health benefits, but evidence on their business impact remains scarce—particularly in LMIC contexts. This review examines whether WNPs generate measurable business outcomes that could incentivise employer investment. Using a structured literature review (SLR) approach, we systematically analysed 24 relevant studies—10 systematic reviews and 14 empirical papers. Search terms targeted nutrition-related workplace interventions and business outcomes, including productivity, absenteeism, and return on investment. Searches were conducted across Scopus, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, and grey literature sources. Studies were included if they assessed business-related outcomes of health or wellness interventions with nutrition components. Only four studies were based in LMICs; the remaining 20 were from high-income countries (HICs), underscoring a major evidence gap. Despite this, two main impact pathways emerged: (1) healthier diets improve workers’ concentration and energy, reducing absenteeism and saving costs; and (2) improved nutrition enhances motivation, productivity, and work quality, which may increase sales and revenue. The first pathway is more relevant to skilled workers who are harder to replace, unlike the easily replaceable labour force common in many LMIC industries. In the second pathway, while improved nutrition may boost productivity, structural barriers—such as limited bargaining power in global supply chains—can prevent these gains from leading to better pay for workers. This review outlines key pathways through which improved worker nutrition may benefit businesses and identifies critical gaps in the evidence. It also proposes outcome indicators relevant to private sector stakeholders in LMICs, helping to guide future empirical research.</p
Technical Note: Area-wide Programming for Safely Managed Sanitation
No full textExposure to human faeces is hazardous to human health. An estimated 564,000 children die from diarrhoeal diseases caused by unsafe sanitation annually. A lack of access to safe sanitation is also a major cause of cholera outbreaks, with almost all cases coming from countries with the lowest levels of safe sanitation and water services. Despite this recognition, progress towards universal access to a safely managed sanitation service (SMSS) is alarmingly off track. It is estimated that combined efforts need to increase fivefold to achieve the 2030 target. Yet, service delivery projects are often fragmented, mismatched, development partner-led and donor-driven rather than consistent, comprehensive government-led programming designed to strengthen the system as a whole.A shift is needed from a select number of communities or villages to universal access for everyone in a given administrative area, and from stopping open defecation towards durable and climate-resilient sanitation infrastructure, services and behaviours that support safely managed sanitation services (SMSS).Area-wide sanitation (AWS) aims to accelerate progress by strengthening subnational government leadership, aligning stakeholders and resources, pushing for universal access to resilient, safely managed sanitation infrastructure and services and prioritizing equity and inclusion in an administrative area.This technical note presents ideas to encourage the necessary shift towards area-wide programming for SMSS at subnational level. The note complements existing resources designed for governments (especially those at subnational level), development partners, the private sector and other stakeholders to support area-wide programming for SMSS.Please also see the Executive Summary.</p
Rapid evidence synthesis: Mpox community protection
No full textThis note presents a rapid synthesis of evidence related to community protection in countries affected by the mpox clade 1b outbreak.</p