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Social Assistance and Forced Displacement: A New Solution to an Old Problem?<i></i>
No full textSocial protection is a well-accepted means to tackle poverty. This article focuses on social assistance, one aspect of social protection primarily involving non-contributory transfers, in cash or in-kind. Forcibly displaced people, particularly those displaced across international borders, have typically been excluded from state-provided social assistance. This has begun to change. In addition, informal sources of social assistance—community organizations, neighbours, faith groups, and family networks—are particularly significant for displaced people. A more transformative understanding of social protection should encompass this wider array of sources. Interpreted in this way, social assistance offers a new way of bridging humanitarian and development responses to displacement.</p
Trade Barriers: Impact and Mitigation Approaches
No full textThis is the second review in a series on trade and development. The first review conducted introductory evidence mapping of trade agreements looking at the types of trade agreements and the impact of trade agreements on trade outcomes (trade creation, trade diversion and trade harmonisation). This second review goes further to look at the trade barriers (particularly in developing countries and LICs) that exist/arise from trade agreements and regulations and its impact on trade; and what approaches are cited in the literature for mitigating these barriers.</p
Role of Donors in the Delivery of Services in Protracted FCV Settings
No full textService delivery in fragile, conflict-affected and vulnerable (FCV) settings is extremely challenging for multiple reasons. At the same time, failure to deliver services exacerbates fragility. Donors are finding ways to address these challenges and continue engaging in FCV situations but approaches and effectiveness are very context dependent. This review looks at the role of donors in supporting this. It assesses both current practice, and recommendations for how this can be strengthened/be effective. The review draws on a mixture of academic and grey literature, the latter largely consists of reports by international development organizations. The available literature was found to include gender aspects to some extent but made few references to persons with disabilities.</p
What Does a Good Digital Welfare State Look Like?
No full textThe introduction of ‘digital-by-default’ welfare and social protection systems in the UK and beyond has delivered efficiencies and cost savings for governments and can be convenient for recipients. But, given the rapid pace of change, we need to understand the ethical, social, and political implications of digital welfare from the perspectives of the poorest and most marginalised members of our societies. In the face of a growing body of research on these communities’ challenges in accessing their entitlements, this briefing looks at what a ‘good’ digital welfare state might look like. Our research shows the need for systems which are designed to treat people with care and dignity, inclusivity, adaptiveness, and transparency. Digital welfare systems need to work for the hardest to reach first. In the words of a workshop participant: ‘a good service makes you feel trust in the service itself, the platform, and the government’.</p
Global Practices of Building Civic Culture
No full textStrong civic culture makes for inclusive, participatory, and adaptive democracies. Citizen University is a non-profit that engages with civic catalysts to build civic culture across the United States (US). Citizen University supports civic catalysts to work on five tried-and-tested strategies: deepening civic commitment, building civic skills and infrastructure, providing encouragement, reckoning and repairing, and strengthening community. This report explores the relevance of each of these strategies in a global context. The learning we present is based on appreciative inquiry with seven inspiring civic catalysts from seven countries – Brazil, Haiti, India, Kenya, Papua New Guinea, Poland, and the United Kingdom – whom we, at IDS, have collaborated with and admired, often over many years. Their contexts share resonant societal and political similarities with the US: their peoples are diverse; their economies are changing rapidly; and polarisation between different groups in society threatens to undermine the growth of their democracies.Drawing on the experiences of the seven catalysts, this report finds that the five strategies are key to civic culture in each of these different contexts, in one way or another. It goes on to add a sixth strategy that the inquirers felt was key to maintaining a strong and sustained civic culture even in the face of great challenges: civic catalysts help build a culture in which people building a democratic civic culture can channel emotions and recognise individual experiences. This sixth strategy leads the report to its conclusions. It calls on us to use the strategies now to support strong civic culture wherever we are, and it also reminds us that civic catalysts sustain their commitment over the long term in patterns that we should understand and appreciate.</p
Making Inclusion Meaningful: The Human Centred Design Approach to Building Latrines for People with Disabilities in Vanuatu
No full textThis case study documents findings from the Laetem Dak Kona (LDK) Project which was implemented by World Vision Vanuatu and partners in the two northernmost provinces of Vanuatu (Sanma and Torba), with funding from the Australian Government’s Water for Women Fund. The focus of this study is on efforts to improve inclusion and wellbeing of people with disabilities in Vanuatu. Actions were taken to uncover taboos and unspoken challenges faced by people with disabilities in Vanuatu to raise awareness, acceptance, inclusion and the voices of people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups at the grass roots level. Successful adaptations included adopting a human-centred design approach that focussed on developing sanitation facilities which met the individual needs of people with disabilities and their families and included them in the decision- making process. Sufficient budget was allocated to ensure increased costs were covered, such as multiple visits to target sites, as well as transportation of materials required. Purposeful recruitment of people with disabilities on the project team made a difference to the engagement and acceptance of people with disabilities in target communities. Development of a range of knowledge sharing behaviour change communication resources such as talking books was particularly useful in the target communities with low literacy levels.</p
Considerations Cles: Communication des Risques et D'engagement Communitaire (CREC) pour la Vaccination Contre la Mpox dans l'Est de la RDC
No full textUne surveillance étroite des développements politiques et conflictuels permet une conception sensible et une adaptation en temps opportun des activités de communication des risques et d’engagement communautaire (CREC) ainsi que des activités de vaccination afin d’éviter l’exacerbation involontaire des conflits dans l’est de la RDC.</p
Feminisms in Brazil: Confronting and Dismantling Backlash
No full textThis paper explores the research undertaken by the Nucleus of Interdisciplinary Studies on Women (NEIM), of the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), Brazil, involving faculty and graduate and undergraduate students as part of the Countering Backlash research programme. The study focused on three major issues: the termination and re-installation of the ‘Bolsa Família Program’, a conditional cash transfer to poor families during the pandemic; the rising number of cases of gender-based violence, both in the domestic sphere and the political arena; and the continuous attempts to block access to legal abortions. The study analyses the different ‘actors’ who have been involved either in pushing back against women’s rights or in acting to protect or advance them, looking at how the backlash manifested and the tactics and strategies used to counteract it.</p
A North-South Agenda for the Renewables Challenge: Ensuring Sustainable Supply Chains, Equitable Green Development and Transparency Standards
No full textAchieving the COP28 pledge of tripling renewable capacity by 2030 is crucial to tackle the climate crisis. Such a substantial and rapid shift poses challenges that need to be addressed to ensure the equity of the energy transition. Three key challenges emerge. Firstly, minerals used in the renewable value chain are unevenly distributed geographically. This not only presents supply risks but also concentrates environmental and social impacts associated with mining in specific areas, while the majority of extraction benefits accrue elsewhere. Secondly, insufficient financing in the Global South can delay renewable energy deployment, and barriers to entering high-value segments in green value chains may result in an energy transition that disproportionately benefits advanced economies. Lastly, weak governance mechanisms amid large flows of financing, rapid investment scale-up and expectations of high returns in renewable energy projects can pose corruption risks and can result in violations of community rights, which may undermine societal support of the sector's growth.</p
National and Multilateral Development Banks during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of the IADB and CDC-BII during the Second Phase
No full textThis article focuses on the strategic role played by a multilateral development bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), and a bilateral development bank, the UK BII (formerly the CDC Group), during the COVID-19 pandemic. In detail, we will compare the initial activity of these two development banks (DBs) during the first phase, in 2020, with their actions in the following period. The analysis will also reflect on the role of safeguard policies in ensuring that the activities of DBs are in line with the fulfilment of their public purpose mandates and whether these rules were sufficiently broad and flexible enough to respond to an unexpected event such as the COVID-19 pandemic.</p