18336 research outputs found
Sort by
Enhancing Skills and Capacities for Women and Youth Clean Energy Enterprises: Lessons from Kenya
No full textWomen and youth in Kenya face significant challenges in participating and thriving clean energy enterprises due to skills gaps, limited access to support systems, and gender disparities. Despite the sector's potential to drive sustainable development and economic empowerment, technical training and business development services often fail to address the unique needs of these groups. With Kenya positioning itself as a clean energy leader in Africa, understanding the capacity and support needs for women and youth entrepreneurs is essential to achieving inclusive green growth. Further, despite women's varying energy needs, energy access interventions have traditionally assumed equal benefits for men and women. Businesses owned by women receive significantly less general business support services compared to those owned by men, highlighting the need for more targeted and inclusive support that considers gender differences (IFC, 2021). Empowering women and youth in clean energy is crucial not only for advancing social equity but also for fostering economic resilience and environmental sustainability.</p
Informality, Tax, and Markets in Kinshasa: Everyday Realities and Resistance
No full textThis paper explores the everyday realities of taxation in Kinshasa’s markets, which play a crucial role in revenue generation and sustaining the livelihoods of the local population. Understanding market taxation in this context is critical given the plurality of state and non-state institutions and actors which govern markets and engage in revenue extraction. The study draws on qualitative data collected from eight formal, informal, and customary markets in Kinshasa. The research documents the experiences of market vendors, their perceptions of taxation, and how these perceptions shape interactions with the state and affect their willingness to pay taxes while also capturing the variations in everyday experiences based on structural differences in market governance. We find that market vendors are subject to multiple layers of formal and informal taxation, and there is a pervasiveness of coercive tax collection practices and informality in the administration of taxes. Correspondingly, vendors widely view market-based taxation as unfair, though some likewise report greater willingness to pay informal taxes because they see tangible benefits. Formal taxes are perceived as offering few returns. In this context, everyday resistance to taxation is common, but given the vulnerable positions of most vendors and the limited channels for accountability, the paper finds few instances of a broader challenge to the tax systems or demands for reform. The study also finds distinct differences in the tax collection experiences across formal, informal, and customary markets, with market taxation led by customary authorities eliciting a greater sense of fairness and voluntary compliance.These findings contribute to the wider literature on informal institutions and taxation, providing a case study of the everyday experiences of both market vendors and tax collectors and documenting the micro-level dynamics that shape tax morale, perceptions of fairness, and resistance in a context of pluralised tax and governance authority.</p
Climate Change, Water and Agriculture in Morocco
No full textThis report provides an overview of the literature on climate change and its effects on Morocco’s water supply, its agricultural sector and the wider economy. The report starts with a summary of the country’s water sector, the role of the government and the current projections for the effects of climate change on future water supply. The second section outlines the strategic agricultural sector and its linkages with the growing threats of climate shocks and recurrent droughts. The last section provides summaries of literature on how climate change will affect the economy.</p
Property Taxes in Sri Lanka: Proposal for a More Effective Valuation Method
No full textThis paper focuses on reforming Sri Lanka’s main property tax, commonly known as the rate assessment system, which currently generates only tiny amounts of revenue for local councils. Despite its potential to provide councils with independent financial resources, the system remains underutilized. The core issue lies in its antiquated method of property valuation manual site inspections that are costly, slow, and prone to corruption. The focus of reform is on adopting more effective digital methods that enable fair, consistent, and low-cost property valuations at scale.</p
The Praxis of Transformation and Adaptation to Climate Change: Contestations in Uncertain ‘Marginal’ Environments
No full textThis article aims to examine and further develop the concept of praxis – processes to critique the status quo and search for alternatives – in relation to transformative adaptation to climate change. The need for transformative change to support climate change adaptation is clear. However, there are gaps in our understanding of connections between, on the one side, individual and household-level action, and on the other, the broader structural change necessary to support transformative adaptation, and in particular, how these processes unfold on the ground. We use praxis to interrogate these connections, drawing on empirical data from ‘below’ in four sites across India and Bangladesh, all representing uncertain environments, and all considered ‘marginal’: Kutch, Mumbai and the Sundarbans. We focus on praxis as manifest in contestations with the state/capital across these sites, proposing a heuristic of three Cs: confrontation, compromise and coalition. We find that the relative emphasis of these three vary widely across the sites and discuss the characteristics of these unfolding processes in terms of tensions, trade-offs and synergies. We see agency employed and, in some cases, expanded to support transformative change, while in some cases, risks of maladaptive outcomes are observed. The article’s contributions are twofold; first, to expand on the use of praxis in its opening of structure–agency linkages and tensions, and second, to use praxis as a term to better understand processes of adaptation and their transformative prospects, particularly nuancing the notion of maladaptation beyond its common interpretation as ‘unintended’ outcomes of well-intended processes.</p
K4DD Health Evidence and Discourse Summary November 2025
No full textK4DD’s monthly 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 in the following way:Top ReadsLinks to articles under the headings Health System Strengthening, Health Promotion and Prevention, Health Equity and Rights and Multisectoral Working</p
Conceptualising Gender Backlash Definitions and Frameworks
No full textAcross the world – including within our own organising spaces – feminist, queer, and gender-justice movements are encountering intensifying pushback. This includes hostile public narratives, shrinking civil-society space, threats to legal protections, retracted funding, and tensions emerging within movements themselves. The term gender backlash is now widely used to describe these pressures, yet it remains difficult to define because backlash takes multiple forms, is experienced differently across contexts, and is shaped by local histories and power relations.While no single account can capture every expression of backlash across regions, this is a simple resource from the Solidarity Network project to pull from to open space for common language, cross-movement learning, and stronger collective resistance.</p
Executive Summary: Biometric Digital-ID in Africa
No full textThis is the Executive Summary for Biometric Digital-ID in Africa: Progress and Challenges to Date - Ten Country Case Studies.</p
Role of Civil Society Networks in Advocacy and Social Accountability
No full textThis report explores the characteristics of effective civil society networks, how such networks can improve advocacy and the extent to which they can improve social accountability. There port finds civil society networks as a popular approach to improving advocacy and social accountability, though the evaluations of such outcomes are infrequent. Evidence suggests that civil society networks can be effective in strengthening advocacy and building social accountability; however, context and characteristics of the network matter.</p
Suivre et imposer les transactions numériques transfrontalières : le cas de la TVA au Sénégal
No full textLes services numériques ont connu une expansion mondiale, qu’il s’agisse de la diffusion en continu, du commerce électronique, des logiciels ou encore de l’enseignement en ligne, ce qui a créé de nouveaux défis fiscaux, en particulier pour les pays en développement. En Afrique, les gouvernements ont réagi en mettant en place des régimes de TVA ciblant les fournisseurs de services numériques nonrésidents. Ces réformes visent à réduire les pertes de recettes, à harmoniser les règles du jeu pour les entreprises nationales et à adapter les systèmes fiscaux à l’ère numérique.Cependant, il existe d’importantes disparités dans la conception et la mise en oeuvre de ces réformes à travers le continent. Cette étude compare les modèles juridiques et administratifs de plusieurs pays africains. Elle prend le cas du Sénégal et analyse les progrès réalisés ainsi que les défis rencontrés lors de leur mise en oeuvre à la lumière des pratiques internationales recommandées. Elle s’appuie en outre sur les références internationales tirées de la Boîte à outils numérique sur la TVA pour l’Afrique 2023 pour montrer comment les choix de conception, comme les portails d’identification numériques ou l’absence de seuils d’identification, peuvent influencer les résultats en matière de conformité et les charges administratives.</p