18336 research outputs found
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Tax and Gender: Why Informality Matters
No full textRecent policy debates have increasingly focused on the gendered impacts of taxation, yet much of this work is rooted in high-income contexts, overlooking the realities of low- and middle-income countries where most individuals, particularly women, work in the informal sector. This policy brief highlights the significance of informality in understanding gendered tax burdens. By synthesising recent research, this policy brief explores how informal sector taxation affects men and women differently, its policy implications, and the research needed to advance a feminist fiscal agenda.</p
Local Self-Governance on the Somalia–Kenya Border
No full textThirty years of civil war, insurgency, and counterinsurgency in Somalia and neighbouring northeastern Kenya have hollowed out state services and left borderland communities beleaguered. Yet in this apparently ‘ungoverned’ space, local self-governance persists. Citizen-led reflection shows how communities are repairing the social and physical damage wrought by violence, organising basic services, and providing public goods. This brief suggests ways that local and international agencies can work with local self-governance in zones of insecurity, acknowledging and responding to community strengths.</p
Validation of Traditional Pastoralist Practices Based on Ecological Observations of a Camel Herding Community and Coastal Mangrove Forests of Kutch, Gujarat, India
No full textThe livelihoods of pastoralists in coastal regions of western India are sustained mainly through rearing Indigenous Kharai camels, which rely on mangrove leaves as a primary food source. Remote sensing monitoring data for these mangrove forests between 1988 and 2020 provide evidence that traditional pastoral practices support sustainable mangrove growth, rather than inflicting damage. It remains unclear whether current laws restricting access to these mangrove forests for conservation purposes are necessary; indeed, they may have negative impacts on biodiversity and the coexistence of traditional pastoralists and mangroves.The livelihoods of pastoralists in coastal regions of western India are sustained mainly through rearing Indigenous Kharai camels, which rely on mangrove leaves as a primary food source. Remote sensing monitoring data for these mangrove forests between 1988 and 2020 provide evidence that traditional pastoral practices support sustainable mangrove growth, rather than inflicting damage. It remains unclear whether current laws restricting access to these mangrove forests for conservation purposes are necessary; indeed, they may have negative impacts on biodiversity and the coexistence of traditional pastoralists and mangroves.</p
Community-Based Sustainable Development: Consensus or Conflict? [Editorial]
No full textIn the 1990s community-based' approaches to environment and development have become de rigeur. With the environment firmly on international development agendas, and in the wake of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), there is an emerging global consensus that the implementation of what has come to be known as 'sustainable development' should be based on local-level solutions derived from community initiatives.This IDS Bulletin seeks to add to and complement an emerging set of critiques and offers some reflections on the practice of community-based sustainable development. It does so by taking to task several key, base assumptions embedded in community-based sustainable development: assumptions concerning the existence of homogeneous, consensual 'communities'; the existence of stable, universally valued 'environments', and of a potentially harmonious relationship between these. By taking a different starting point – one grounded in an appreciation of social and ecological difference, and of differential perspectives on and command over environmental goods and services – the IDS Bulletin suggests that conflict, rather than consensus, may be the key defining feature of the situations which such initiatives address. This, in turn, carries very different implications for policies and practical strategies in the environment and development field. The existence of conflict should certainly not be a justification for rejecting community-based approaches, but it does require them to be pursued differently.</p
Social Accountability for Place-based Nature Recovery
No full textThis social science commissioned report explores the potential for a social accountability approach to accelerate nature recovery in the UK context. It explores how far elements of this already exist within nature recovery approaches and what can be built on.Social accountability refers to ways that the public and civil society organisations can hold authorities and responsible parties accountable for their actions through social participation, engagement and mobilisation. Under the right conditions these approaches can: i) improve public service delivery ii) engage the public in collective problem-solving and iii) improve relationships between the public and service providers or decision-makers at the local level. The research draws on extensive study of social accountability in the field of international development to apply a conceptual framework. The methodology used in this research primarily involved interviews and workshop discussions with Natural England staff and colleagues involved in nature recovery projects with a particular focus on: Biodiversity Net Gain, Local Nature Recovery Strategies, and Landscape Recovery Schemes.Our study did not find existing examples of social accountability for place-based nature recovery to learn from directly, in the organisations where interviews took place. However, we found many of the relevant building blocks or conditions for social accountability in place or being developed across the initiatives reviewed, offering potential.We found that significant commitments have been made and actions taken by government and other responsible parties towards nature recovery, signalling positive state action. There is notable public energy and action on nature issues at both local and national scale, demonstrating a level of citizen action. We saw evidence of increases in the kind and volume of information needed for those policy commitments to be tracked and monitored. In relation to citizen-state interfaces, there are opportunities to build on existing consultations between authorities and the public on these issues to create longer term engagements that enable the public to play a role in accountability processes. We also saw that public energy is being mobilised to support these kinds of engagements, including by mediating organisations such as environmentally focused NGOs, which indicates the presence of civic mobilisation.</p
A Global Review of Climate Change and Social Protection in Protracted Crisis Contexts
No full textThis Working Paper examines views on the integration of climate change into social protection, with specific reference to protracted crisis settings. Via documentary analysis and stakeholder interviews with international social protection actors, the paper examines three broad issues generally and in protracted crisis settings specifically: (1) the integration of different aspects of the climate change challenge into social protection; (2) understandings of climate vulnerability and its programming implications; and (3) organisational challenges. The paper closes by summarising interviewees’ overall assessments of the integration of climate change into social protection, identifying key areas of progress and remaining challenges, and making recommendations for practitioners and policymakers.</p
Renewable Energy in the UK, Botswana and Kenya
No full textThis rapid evidence review privileges recent evidence, drawing on academic literature, national government energy strategies, published NDC commitments to the Paris Agreement, and relevant grey literature, including from multilateral agencies such as the IEA, to provide an overview of the comparative maturities of the renewable energy markets in the UK, Botswana and Kenya. The review also draws on open-source online data from Our World in Data and the Open Infrastructure Map to build a comparative picture of the existing energy mix in each country and the current role of renewables in national energy infrastructure.</p
Learning from Cash Plus: A Summary of Evidence
No full textThis paper aims to provide an evidence base for what works best in terms of cash plus programmes, referring to approaches that combine cash transfers with additional inputs, interventions and support to amplify the effects of the transfers. As a desk-based review, it draws on secondary literature, including existing studies and evaluations. The paper identifies different potential cash plus combinations and delivery models, emphasising that cash plus and graduation are not directly interchangeable. The paper then presents and discusses existing evidence of cash plus approaches and impacts across a range of sectors: nutrition, health, women’s empowerment, livelihoods and assets. Drawing on the evidence base and wider literature, the paper identifies key lessons for countries adopting or expanding cash plus programmes, focusing on policy-level factors, basic building blocks and programme-level factors, and supply-side factors.</p
What Interventions Work for Addressing Trade Barriers in Agriculture and Manufacturing
No full textThis rapid review synthesises literature from academic sources and knowledge institutions to assess the effectiveness of investment and market system interventions aimed at addressing export barriers for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). While the review focuses on South Asia, it also draws from broader global evidence. The review examines interventions in agriculture and manufacturing, with a particular emphasis on factors to address gender disparities.</p
Political Economy Analysis of Pro-poor Policies in Zambia
No full textIn 2024, Zambia experienced the driest agricultural season in over 40 years, with significant crop losses, increased livestock deaths and, consequently, worsening poverty. Over 9 million people in 84 out of 116 districts were affected. Rising inflation impeded access to food for vulnerable households Being dependent on hydropower, the drought resulted in an enormous power deficit. In 2024 and early 2025 Zambia experienced power cuts of 21 hours a day, disproportionately affecting small and medium-sized enterprises that cannot afford solar power or generators.A debt crisis has exacerbated these climate-related challenges. Zambian debt peaked at 140 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020. Along with Covid-19, debt service pressures resulted in Zambia becoming the first African country to default on its external debt service obligations in November 2020, missing a US$42.5 million interest payment on a Eurobond. In addition, Zambia has been hit by three droughts in the past decade. Due to the deaths of two presidents in office (in 2008 and 2014), Zambia has also seen high levels of political turnover, which has impacted policy consistency.The multiple crises Zambia has faced have had political repercussions, as economic decline has created discontent. The economic effects of crises have further strained the kwacha and resulted in increased inflationary pressures.2 Zambia is under an International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme that has strict benchmarks when it comes to subsidies for fuel, electricity and fertiliser. This programme ends in August 2025, opening various policy options, though it will lack the fiscal space which gave President Levy Mwanawasa’s free reign after the completion point of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative in 2006. The forthcoming elections in August 2026 will be tightly contested; if the opposition can unite behind one candidate, it will also influence policy decisions.Within this context, this working paper discusses the following questions: How can poverty reduction experience a step change in Zambia? What are the political and economic conditions? And what can research tell the competing political parties and how best to achieve change The paper will briefly focus on the anti-poverty measures undertaken by the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) government (2011–21), which started as a leftist movement, before zooming into the current United Party for National Development (UPND) regime, which is more liberal in outlook. It then focuses on the political economy of current pro-poor programming. The paper is based on a literature review, unpublished reports, and interviews and interactions with relevant stakeholders (government officials, civil society organisations, think tanks and analysts).</p