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Effective Ways for External Funders to Support Civil Society Networks
No full textThis rapid evidence review looks at the most effective approaches for external actors/funders to support civil society networks. Civil society networks are one of the types of civil society actors. They can offer a platform for multiple civil society organisations to think collectively about core issues and values, learn from each other, strategise, plan ways to influence discourse and policies. Importantly civil society networks can help strengthen civic space, strengthen advocacy and accountability. This report reviews available literature on how external funder/donors can support civil society networks.</p
Tributação dos Ricos nos Países de Baixo Rendimento: Porque é Importante e Como Fazê-lo
No full textO mundo confronta-se com diversas crises, tais como o aumento das tensões mundiais, subida em flexa das dívidas e alterações climáticas. Os países de baixo rendimento (PBR) são os mais afectados por estas crises.1 As suas finanças, quer sejam provenientes de fontes internas quer da ajuda internacional, não estão a crescer de maneira suficiente para satisfazer as suas necessidades. As suas necessidades em matéria de despesas são maiores do que nunca – a melhoria dos serviços, a expansão da protecção social e a promoção do investimento aumenta a factura. Esta nota de orientação defende que uma das ferramentas que os governos dos países de baixo rendimento têm à disposição é particularmente subutilizada: tributar as pessoas detentoras de património elevado de maneira mais eficaz.</p
Achieving Area-Wide, Safely Managed Sanitation and Hygiene Services: Reflections from Eight Years of WASHPaLS
No full textAt the end of February 2025, the USAID WASH Partnerships and Learning for Sustainability (WASHPaLS) #2 project was terminated for the convenience of the US government, a little over three years into what was planned to be a five-year activity. While cut short, WASHPaLS #2 had started harvesting evidence and (preliminary) findings that, combined with the conclusions of the first WASHPaLS project (2016 to 2022), made valuable contributions to sector learning in the space of rural sanitation and hygiene service delivery. In this SLH Learning Brief, we reflect on some of the key themes and findings of WASHPaLS and WASHPaLS #2 around area-wide, safely managed, market-based sanitation, and where to possibly go from here. Nine key findings are discussed, with future priorities for area-wide sanitation (AWS) proposed: Monitoring and adaptive management are key cornerstones for AWS but countries lack systems, tools, and practices.Government-led consideration of gender equality and social inclusion is key to ensure and sustain AWS outcomes.Workforce development is key, but severely neglected.MBS in an AWS context should more proactively address population segments not easily reached by the market.The proportion of customers requiring some form of financial assistance is extensive.Enterprise-led customer financing for rural sanitation is restricted by general rural financing limitations.Smart sanitation subsidy design can increase the number of people able and willing to take up sanitation.Subsidy and market adjustments need to be supported by a tailored mix of interventions, including strengthened community engagement.Rural faecal sludge management business models require public funding to be viable, but diversification of service options may help improve access to SMS.</p
Most Favoured Nation Clauses in Double Taxation Agreements: Identifying Problems and Recommending Policy Solutions for the Global South
No full textDouble taxation agreements (DTAs) usually ensure appropriate division of taxing rights and benefits between the treaty parties. However, when a DTA is between a capital-exporting and capital-importing country, the negotiations and DTA may be marred by the unequal bargaining power of the countries. Capital-exporting nations often influence the fundamental design of these treaties to favour the entities in their economies that are responsible for the capital outflow. This paper aims to understand the potential detrimental impact of one clause – the most favoured nation (MFN) clause in DTAs – on revenue collection and tax certainty of host/capital-importing nations. The study considers recent tax litigation and controversies surrounding MFN clauses in India, South Africa, the Philippines, and Colombia, to assess the impact of negotiated MFN provisions on the Global South. Interestingly, neither the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nor the United Nations (UN) Model Tax Convention has a standard MFN provision. Therefore, we explore whether a template for MFN clauses can be framed to help Global South nations protect their interests against capital-exporting countries.</p
International Law on Ecocide and Extreme Environmental Harm
No full textThis rapid evidence review presents information on ecocide laws in force as of 2025, and highlights significant regulatory action taken to introduce ecocide legislation between 2021 and the present in both international and national law. Since the 2021 definition of ecocide put forth by the Independent Expert Panel (defining ecocide as “unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts”) there has been significant movement to adopt ecocide legislation at both international and national law.</p
Can Education for out of School Children in South Sudan have Peacebuilding/Social Cohesion Benefits?
No full textThis rapid literature review explores the potential peacebuilding/social cohesion benefits of targeting out of school children (OOSC) in South Sudan through community-based education activities. It focuses on the targeting methods, activities, and approaches taken by Education in Emergencies (EIE) programmes.</p
Reframing Socio–environmental Relations in Coastal Mumbai and Kutch, India
No full textIn this article, we explore how local livelihoods and socio–environmental relations can be reframed through co-productive knowledge practices and legal activism. We start by tracing the emergence of colonial declensionist views of environments in India as ‘productive’ and ‘normal’, which have powerfully shaped visions of environments and socio–environmental relations in contemporary times, marking certain landscapes ‘marginal’ or ‘unproductive’. The emergence of environmental legislation, particularly the Coastal Regulation Zone, sought to promote a vision of nature and coastal ecologies and communities as having intrinsic value. Yet, contestations around these spaces have been intense and the knowledges and practices of artisanal fisherfolk and pastoralists remain invisible and devalued in official policy discourses. In order to shine a light on how people living in these environments are perceived and governed, and how engagement of co-production and reframing has helped challenge existing power relations, we focus on two communities in India, the artisanal fisher people, Kolis, of Mumbai and the Maldharis, traditional camel herders in Kutch, Gujarat. We draw attention to how the often ignored perspectives of local people can be made more visible through interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research, visual and participatory methods of mapping socio-ecological relations, engaging in co-production of knowledge that can help challenge some of the prevailing dominant framings of landscapes as ‘marginal’ and local communities as ‘destructive’. Reframing socio–environmental relations through co-producing knowledge has the scope to reverse the modernist and globalising instinct that colonises land, livelihoods and the commons, and strengthen the agency and voice of local communities.</p
Unlocking Women and Youth Clean Energy Entrepreneurship Potential through an Enabling Environment: Lessons from Kenya
No full textWomen and youth in Kenya hold immense potential to drive clean energy entrepreneurship and there is a growing opportunity to unlock this potential by enhancing policy support, expanding access to financing, strengthening capacity gaps, simplifying regulatory environment processes, and improving market integration. Tapping into this underutilised talent pool can accelerate the adoption of renewable energy technologies crucial for mitigating climate change and reducing energy poverty. Financial constraints, lack of technical skills, and burdensome licensing processes are among the main causes, resulting in underutilization of human capital, missed economic opportunities, and slow progress toward sustainable energy solutions. Women’s business success translates into reinvestment in families and communities, compared to male entrepreneurs (Pazarbasioglu, 2017). To realize these transformative impact, policymakers and stakeholders should develop inclusive financing mechanisms, provide targeted capacity-building programs, streamline regulatory processes, and enhance market linkages, ensuring women and youth are supported to lead in clean energy innovation and entrepreneurship.</p
What Next for the Social Protection Agenda in Zambia?
No full textAs an early adopter of cash transfers, Zambia has led the way in the region in the development and funding of the social protection sector. Zambia has experimented with a wide range of social protection approaches and models since the first SCT pilot scheme in 2003. The range of designs has provided rich experience for learning and adapting.This brief gives an overview of Zambia's social protection approaches and looks at Zambia’s 2025 National Social Protection Policy which is moving to a life-cycle approach. The brief concludes by suggesting that the success story of the scale-up of social cash transfers and the shift towards a cash plus approach provides several lessons that Zambia can build on and share with other countries.</p
L’ère de la fiscalité pour le développement : une fiscalité mieux pensée pour l’équité, la croissance et la résilience
No full textAlors que nous vivons une grande incertitude quant au développement mondial, trois faits sont clairement établis. Premièrement, l’aide est en train de diminuer considérablement, et probablement de façon durable. Deuxièmement, les pays à faible revenu doivent faire face à une montée en flèche des coûts associés au service de la dette et sont limités dans leur capacité à contracter de nouvelles dettes alors que le remboursement des encours arrive à échéance. Troisièmement, les ressources nécessaires au financement des investissements pour le développement et les services publics essentiels, notamment pour ceux liés aux adaptations au dérèglement climatique, sont en constante augmentation. Les conséquences sont d’ores et déjà visibles : la pression et les espoirs reposent désormais sur la capacité des États à mobiliser des ressources propres. Le « Compromiso de Sevilla », récemment adopté lors de la quatrième Conférence internationale sur le financement du développement, souligne le rôle central des ressources publiques nationales pour le développement durable.</p