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Climate Change and the Challenge of Non-equilibrium Thinking
No full textClimate change is happening, that much is certain. But in what way? How much? And with what impacts? Complex, non-linear models try to predict trends and patterns, but, inevitably, each model is different, parameters are difficult to estimate and the precise impacts remain uncertain. We live in an uncertain world, one where the knowledge about both likelihoods and outcomes remains uncertain. The striving for increased predictive power over the consequences of climate change has yielded results in the past few decades. We clearly know a lot more than we did. But this is not enough to allow climate science to inform people to direct the future. While global circulation models and forecasting approaches will improve with better technology, more empirical data and faster number-crunching capacities, the nature of climate–ecosystem interactions is such that non-linearity and the complexity of dynamic interactions means that uncertainty will always be present. This article explores the implications of this, drawing lessons from the drylands of Africa, where non-equilibrium thinking has challenged conventional approaches to pastoral development.</p
Dimensions of Urban Poverty in Zambia: Insights, Challenges and Policy Directions
No full textThis study, conducted between May and July 2024, provides empirical evidence on urban poverty among men and women in Lusaka and Ndola. Using a qualitative case study approach, it engaged diverse stakeholders – including informal sector workers, local government officials, district social welfare officers, and civil society representatives – to offer a comprehensive understanding of urban poverty and inform policy recommendations. Data was collected through focus group discussions and key informant interviews, ensuring a multi-stakeholder perspective on the lived realities and structural drivers of urban poverty. Despite Zambia’s resource wealth and its status as one of Africa’s most urbanised nations, urban poverty is widespread. With 40 per cent of Zambia’s 19.6 million people residing in cities, poverty affects 31.9 per cent of urban dwellers – an increase from 23.4 per cent in 2015. This trend underscores the urgent need for targeted antipoverty strategies. While many individuals display resilience, they face persistent challenges such as income instability, food insecurity, inadequate health care, limited educational opportunities and poor housing conditions, all of which undermine their wellbeing and economic agency. </p
Fragmented Power, Access and Legitimacy: The Politics of Social Assistance in Yemen’s Conflict (2014–24)
No full textThis paper examines the politics and dynamics of social assistance in Yemen, where international humanitarian aid dominates support to conflict-affected populations. The landscape for social assistance provision in Yemen is bifurcated between areas controlled by the Government of Yemen and those by the de facto authority of the rebel Houthi movement, also known as Ansar Allah. The role of the Yemeni government in social assistance processes is limited and symbolic, with limited capacities for planning and oversight. In areas under Houthi de facto authority control, challenges for effective assistance include restricted access and mobility, especially for women, visa difficulties for international staff, and harassment and security threats for local staff, all of which impede direct engagement with on-the-ground realities and enable increased local authority intervention in needs assessment and aid distribution. In October 2024, the Houthis dissolved the second body they had created to control aid, the Supreme Council for the Management and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and International Cooperation. Part of its functions were transferred to their internationally unrecognised Ministry of Foreign Affairs in an attempt to manoeuvre externally to ease pressure on the movement and restore the Houthis’ credibility. The Social Fund for Development (SFD) is one of the few entities able to work across the country, delivering World Bank-supported unconditional cash transfers to over 1.2 million people. Yet, a pattern of increasing Houthi interference has put the SFD’s relatively successful record under threat. Despite ongoing challenges, it is essential for international responses in Yemen to progress towards a more appropriate and sustainable approach that rebuilds and strengthens social protection systems. This shift towards nationally owned and directed social assistance requires stronger political commitment and collaboration, both locally and internationally. This report details several ways international actors can strengthen their commitments, including through investments in building and rehabilitating the technical, infrastructural and logistical capabilities of social assistance agencies in areas under the control of the Government of Yemen.</p
The Tax Era of Development: Taxing Smarter for Equity, Growth, and Resilience
No full textAt a time of substantial uncertainty for global development, three things are clear. First, aid is retreating substantially, and probably permanently. Second, lower-income countries’ debt servicing costs are spiralling, and their ability to take on new debt is constrained at the same time as principal sums are coming due. Third, the resources needed to finance development investments and core public services, including adaptations to the climate catastrophe, are continuously increasing. The consequence of this is already visible: the pressure and hope are on states’ ability to mobilise domestic resources. The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development’s recently agreed ‘Compromiso de Sevilla’ highlights the centrality of domestic public resources for sustainable development.</p
Práticas colaborativas melhoram a responsabilização e a governança
No full textEsta nota informativa analisa seis estudos de caso do programa POTENCIAR, implementado no setor da saúde em Moçambique. Destaca lições para os programas de governança e discute a forma como o POTENCIAR facilitou a partilha de conhecimentos, o planeamento participativo, a coordenação institucional e a responsabilização mútua, conduzindo a uma melhor prestação de serviços de saúde (para o relatório completo, ver Alexander et al. 2025). É urgente alargar os modelos de governança participativa, apoiar abordagens de implementação específicas ao contexto, integrar estruturas de colaboração nos sistemas nacionais e garantir modelos financeiros flexíveis nos programas adaptativos.</p
Environmental Crisis and Sustainable Development in South America
No full textSouth America has compelling reasons to address the climate and environmental crisis. First, the region is highly vulnerable to its impacts due to its economic reliance on natural resources and the susceptibility of its population. Addressing these vulnerabilities is crucial for the well-being of current and future generations. Second, as the global economy shifts toward more sustainable pathways to address the crises, South America has the potential to benefit economically by leveraging its clean energy matrix and abundant reserves of critical minerals, positioning itself as a key supplier in the global transition toward renewable energy and electric mobility. However, challenges such as poverty, inequality, and political and economic instability often divert attention and resources away from environmental priorities, constraining the region’s ability to fully embrace and implement comprehensive environmental policies.Integrating decarbonization efforts with economic diversification objectives could help address environmental and developmental challenges simultaneously, building the necessary internal support for difficult policies. This approach is essential to avoid a new “green resource curse,” which, in South America, would mean remaining limited to being providers of natural resources, but now for a decarbonizing global economy. This scenario could perpetuate historical and persistent social, environmental, and economic challenges.A major obstacle to green industrialization in the region is “structural path dependency”—a phenomenon that typically affects regions heavily reliant on a few low-complexity economic sectors, limiting their capacity to diversify into more complex products.To address this challenge, significant socioeconomic and political efforts are needed. Restricted resources, limited institutional capacities, and heavy dependence on powerful stakeholders, typically linked to carbon-intensive and environmentally damaging activities, hinder effective environmental governance, often leading to a “race to the bottom” where regulatory leniency is granted to attract large extractive investments.</p
Banque de questions sur le Mpox : Questions qualitatives pour la collecte de données au niveau communautaire
No full textLa banque de questions sur la Mpox est une liste de questions qualitatives portant sur la transmission et la riposte contre le virus de la Mpox. Elle vise à faciliter la collecte de données qualitatives sur les capacités, les comportements, les pratiques et les perceptions des individus et des communautés concernant la prévention et la gestion de la Mpox. La banque de questions peut être utilisée par les équipes de terrain et/ou les équipes de recherche locales qui travaillent dans des communautés au sein desquelles le virus de la Mpox est transmis, et dans des communautés à risque de transmission.Cette banque de questions a été élaborée par la Plateforme des Sciences Sociales dans l'Action Humanitaire (SSHAP) en collaboration avec le Service Collectif. Elle fait partie d'une série de banques de questions commandées par le Service Collectif afin de soutenir la collecte et l’utilisation de données sociales et comportementales cohérentes et de haute qualité. Elle s’appuie sur celles développées précédemment pour le choléra, le COVID-19 et le virus Zika. Le répertoire de ressources sur la Mpox du Service Collectif est accessible sur www.rcce-collective.net/resources/thematic-kits/mpox/.</p
Just Food Transitions a Plurality of Framings and Repertoires from Below
No full textIn this paper we apply the concept of just transition to food systems, a domain central to environmental sustainability and social justice. We broaden and democratise the just transition debate by foregrounding a new set of voices and experiences from civil society organisations and networks in Brazil, Sierra Leone, the United Kingdom, and Zambia. We analyse the understandings of just food system transition as voiced in participatory exchanges between these organisations and their networks, highlighting the plurality of perspectives on just food system transitions. Certain viewpoints highlight the need for gradual changes, whereas others advocate for radical food system transformation.</p
Gender and Climate Change in the MENA Region: Would Women’s Participation in MSMEs Accelerate the Transition to Clean Energy?
No full textIn a nutshell:The process of combatting climate change and transitioning to clean energy affects women and men in distinct ways in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), a region where there is abundant renewable energy (RE).There is heightened awareness about the environment and climate change in the region, especially among youth, women, and high-income groups.Although women and women’s organizations in the MENA region are advocating for climate justice, including in global forums, they are underrepresented in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and in the energy sector.Structural inequality, discrimination against women and girls, and the traditional division of gender roles within the household, including the responsibility to often find fuel for cooking, compound the impact of climate change on women. Women spend long hours fetching wood for cooking, during which they face gender-based violence—including sexual gender-based violence (SGBV)—in certain areas such as Darfur in Sudan. The transition to clean and RE would help girls and women save time, enable them to access educational and economic opportunities where available, and aid in protecting them from SGBV.Achieving gender equality and recognizing the roles that women play in halting climate change and in the transition to clean energy are important in their own right. A just transition entails women’s participation and a commitment to social justice and gender equality.Quantitative research in Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco has shown that the age and education of top managers are key factors in explaining the transition to clean energy. Additionally, the economic and institutional context of the country might play a significant role in the transition to clean energy.Women’s organizations and movements play an important role in addressing climate change. There is a need for future research that documents their roles, struggles, good practices, and lessons learned as a result of their mobilization and organization.Arabic translation available.</p
Taxing the Wealthy in Haiti: Evidence from a Survey Experiment on Property Tax Preferences
No full textHaiti is often called the Republic of NGOs – it is a country where non-state actors provide most basic services, like healthcare, education, and policing. Decades of failure to address corruption, gang violence, and natural disasters have shattered trust in the state. Amid such chaos, how can citizens – especially those with the capacity to pay tax – be encouraged to support property taxation?Summary of ICTD Working Paper 219. </p