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Role of Trade Unions in International Development and Diplomacy
No full textThis rapid evidence review of the literature focuses on the role of trade unions in international development and diplomacy. The literature reviewed includes journal articles, reports by Solidarity Support Organisations (SSOs), donor agencies, trade unions and policy documents. While there is a long history of international trade union work there is limited literature on the role of government-funded work in this space. There is almost no academic literature on best practices for how governments and donors in the Global North should engage with trade unions in the Global South. The academic literature speaks more to transnational trade unionism, its history, and its forms with very few explorations of how government donors directly engage with trade unions on international development and diplomacy. Therefore, this review had to rely more on grey literature to answer the research questions. Additionally, due to the lack of literature on the links between trade unions and growth, this review included literature which links trade unions to outcomes such as reduction in wealth and income inequalities, increase in social protection and social dialogue that in turn were linked to improved long-term sustainable and inclusive economic growth.</p
K4DD Humanitarian Evidence and Discourse Summary July 2025
No full textThis monthly Humanitarian Evidence and Discourse Summary aims to signpost FCDO and others to the latest relevant evidence and discourse on humanitarian action. It is structured around FCDO humanitarian framework themes:Protect: Protect civilians, IDPs, refugees, marginalised groups including women and girls, and humanitarian access.Prioritise: Prioritise effective humanitarian assistance to people in greatest need.Prevent: Prevent and anticipate future shocks and rebuild resilience in protracted and recurring crises.This summary covers July 2025.</p
Informality, Tax, and Markets in Kinshasa: Everyday Realities and Resistance
No full textMarket taxation is central to local governance and livelihoods in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), yet remains poorly understood. This research explores the experience of taxation in Kinshasa’s markets. The working paper documents how taxation operates in environments where formal state authority intersects with, and is often embedded in, informal institutions and governance structures, and where a plurality of state and non-state actors engage in revenue extraction. Specifically, the study focuses on how market vendors experience taxation, both formal and informal, how they perceive it in terms of fairness and reciprocity, and how these perceptions shape their relationship with the state and govern their willingness to pay.An important contribution of the study is how these lived realities and responses to taxation vary across different types of markets – those authorised and regulated by the state (what we call formal markets), those unauthorised by the state (what we call informal or pirate markets), and those managed by customary authorities (what we call customary markets). Looking at structural variation in this way helps to shed light on the broader governance implications of taxation in a context where both formal and informal systems coexist.Summary of ICTD Working Paper 224. </p
Towards a New Solution for Taxing Cross-border Services? Trade-offs in Designing UN Tax Convention Protocol 1
No full textThis brief analyses the institutional trade-offs facing negotiators of Protocol 1 on cross-border services in a digitalised and globalised economy under the proposed United Nations (UN) Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation. It examines design choices across legal form, nexus, tax base, thresholds, and treaty interaction, and situates them within broader administrative and political constraints. Drawing on national practices and existing models, it shows how fiscal interests, legal infrastructure, and strategic alignments may shape countries’ negotiating positions. Rather than offering a singular blueprint, the brief maps the range of institutional pathways available, and the trade-offs they entail. It argues that the success of Protocol 1 will depend not just on technical feasibility, but on aligning legal design with political incentives and uneven capacities. Even if outcomes remain partial or uneven, the process may still shift expectations and institutional norms.</p
Financial Inclusion and CSA Adoption - Enhancing the Resilience of Smallholder Farmers to Climate Change in Zambia
No full textFinancial inclusion is essential to empower smallholder farmers in Zambia, particularly women, enabling them to adopt climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices and build resilience against climate variability. However, access to financial services, such as credit, savings and insurance is limited, impeding farmers’ ability to invest in CSA practices that require significant upfront costs and risk management. This paper explores the challenges and opportunities in promoting financial inclusion for smallholder farmers in Zambia, emphasising the importance of tailored financial tools to address the unique needs of rural communities, especially the most vulnerable groups.</p
Succeeding in the Snakes and Ladders Game of Development in Mozambique: The Role of Collaborative Approaches
No full textThe existing wisdom on efforts to promote accountability highlights the importance of ‘thinking and working politically’ (TWP) and moving from confrontational to collaborative approaches. This is particularly relevant given current trends, including closing civic space and the decline in international development cooperation funding for service delivery and accountability work.This report explores the innovative use of the board game Snakes and Ladders as a heuristic tool to analyse and encourage collaboration in Mozambique’s health sector. Drawing on the POTENCIAR programme, a UK aid-funded initiative implemented by a consortium led by the Chemonics Group UK, the study examines how a ‘brokering and convening’ approach can shift power dynamics and foster collaboration amidst challenging political and economic contexts. The research uses six case studies to explore the political economy factors that help or hinder collaborative practices. It introduces a ‘Ladder of Collaboration’ framework to unpack these dynamics. This framework illustrates how incremental trust-building efforts can establish new ways of working that improve governance and service delivery, even in resource-constrained environments. The findings underscore the importance of evidence-based TWP strategies, continuous issue-based engagement, and adaptability in achieving sustainable impact.</p
Ideologically Motivated Sexual Grooming
No full textAcross diverse societies, coercion often hides behind cultural norms, religious expectations, legal systems, and gendered power structures. This book exposes a disturbing but overlooked form of abuse: ideologically motivated sexual grooming – the manipulation of women and girls from religious minorities for both sexual exploitation and coerced religious conversion.Through case studies from three parts of the world, the book examines how this phenomenon unfolds across different faiths and contexts. The stories shared reveal a consistent pattern: women from minority backgrounds are sometimes targeted not only because of gender but also because of their religious identity.This book is not a critique of interfaith relationships or religious belief. It does, nonetheless, interrogate whether there is an ideological driver behind men’s insistence on women converting, even when the legal system does not require it. In all the cases of the women whose stories are told here, the same question arises: If there is mutual love and respect, why is there such emphasis on – and indeed glorification of – the conversion of the women concerned from minority to majority religion?Ideologically Motivated Sexual Grooming is an urgent call to recognise, understand, and address a subtle but devastating form of gender-based violence – and to create conditions where all women, regardless of faith, can live, love, and believe freely.To 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
Engaging People for Biodiversity Net Gain
No full textAs an approach to planning, England’s Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) legislation introduced in 2024 relates not only to nature but also to people. It is clear that people will be key to the success of BNG legislation. It is also clear that engaging the public is central to housing developers’ place-making, marketing and ambitions. Yet little attention has been paid directly to the forms that public engagement with BNG might take, how it can be mobilised and sustained, and what benefits it can bring. This report presents the findings of a study that addresses this gap.The Institute of Development Studies and Natural England researched opportunities for people’s engagement to support the delivery of BNG in the housebuilding sector. We collaborated with a reference group of key BNG experts in the housing development sector and local government and Natural England. The findings are based on case studies and interviews with expert observers and practitioners. The case studies were selected because they offer rich learning and inspiration which is relevant to the question of public engagement in the context of mandatory BNG. We expect the lessons from this study to be useful to a range of stakeholders involved in delivering BNG – principally developers and local authorities but also others – and to be applicable more widely to sectors beyond housing, and in other areas of the United Kingdom beyond England.</p
Bioeconomy Development in Uganda
No full textThere is limited evidence reviewing the life-cycle development of many nascent bioeconomy industries, and limited evidence to demonstrate directly attributable nature positive outcomes. There is more evidence for food systems value chains, with analyses, for example, for different applications for banana fibre and cassava utilising end waste, and for investments in soldier flies as a lucrative alternative feed protein and source of organic fertiliser. The increased development of food value chains reflects agriculture’s proportionate share as part of Uganda’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), though value addition for additional products derived from crops is nascent.</p
Local Perspectives on Reconciliation in the Western Balkans
No full textDefinitions of ‘reconciliation’ in conflict-affected societies are contested, with limited consensus on what it means among academics, politicians, practitioners and in everyday usage. A useful response is to accept reconciliation as inevitably contested and to study how actors in different places understand the term (Mitchell, 2023). There is limited scholarship, however, that explores ordinary citizens’ perceptions and interpretations of reconciliation, including in relation to the Western Balkans. This rapid review presents key findings from the limited evidence base on local interpretations of reconciliation in the region. It draws primarily from academic articles and donor reports, with much of the available literature centring on Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).</p