18336 research outputs found
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Powering an Inclusive Energy Future: Driving the G20 from Commitment to Implementation
No full textAs the world accelerates toward a clean energy future, the question is no longer whether the transition will happen, but how equitable, inclusive, and sustainable it will be. Under Brazil’s 2024 presidency, the G20 endorsed a set of ‘Principles for Just and Inclusive Energy Transitions’, recognising that the shift to renewable energy must do more than reduce carbon emissions; it must also address deep-rooted inequalities and ensure that historically marginalised groups, particularly women and youth, are active participants and beneficiaries.Yet turning principles into practice remains a critical challenge. Many G20 countries face a common set of barriers: unequal access to clean energy opportunities, persistent gender and generational divides in employment, and financing systems that exclude micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) led by women and youth. Addressing these gaps requires not only national action but also collective leadership.</p
Challenges and Limitations to Entering the Workforce in Jordan for People with Disabilities
No full textThis rapid evidence review collates available evidence on challenges and limitations to entering the workforce in Jordan for people with disabilities (PWDs). The review draws upon an expanding evidence base that includes academic and grey literature. The evidence base is evolving as provisions for PWDs are extended. Whilst the review identified a progressive commitment by the Jordanian authorities to mandate the inclusion of PWDs in the workforce, a number of challenges persisted. These were often associated with the gap between rhetorical commitments (e.g., legislative frameworks mandating PWDs employment) and practical constraints on their inclusion (e.g., lack of access to education, stigma and social norms, lack of accessibility in workplaces etc.)</p
Cashless Tax Systems: Voluntary vs. Mandated Digital Payments in Eswatini
No full textThe digitalisation of tax payments is a growing policy priority in low- and middle- income countries, particularly in Africa, where revenue mobilisation remains a challenge. It is also clear that there are obstacles to wider adoption, while the impacts of digital payment on tax compliance are underexplored. This study examines this gap in knowledge, leveraging a 2021 zero-cash-handling mandate in Eswatini. Using administrative tax data, we evaluate two key questions: (i) how voluntary adoption of digital payments affects compliance and (ii) the impact of mandating digital tax payments. We employ a staggered difference-in-differences (DiD) approach for voluntary adoption and a treatment-intensity DiD strategy to assess the mandate’s effects. Voluntary adoption significantly improves compliance, reducing late payments by 19 percentage points (25 per cent) and increasing payment accuracy by 5.7 percentage points (22 per cent) for broad digital payments, rising to 9 percentage points (30 per cent) for strictly digital methods. However, it has minimal impact on total tax amounts paid. The mandate, by contrast, eliminated cash payments but had more modest compliance effects, increasing tax payments by about 2 per cent. While companies pay more, they also worsen their payment accuracy, while individuals improve payment timeliness after adoption. These findings highlight distinct compliance patterns between voluntary adopters and those compelled by enforcement. The results underscore the importance of designing digital tax policies that account for taxpayer heterogeneity and behavioural responses to maximise compliance gains.</p
Distribution of Expertise and Organisational Performance
No full textThis annotated bibliography considers the relationship between the amount and distribution of expertise in an organisation and its performance. Very little evidence was found that directly answers the research question. Some studies find a general correlation between expertise and organisational performance, but do not elaborate on either its sufficiency or configuration. Others explore an issue that may have partial relevance to the question under review but do not address it explicitly.</p
Social Assistance and Poverty Reduction Amidst Multiple Crises
No full textBASIC Research in Borno, Nigeria, demonstrates that the provision of social assistance can help build the capacity to escape poverty, even in crises. Studies show that social assistance improves poor people’s consumption levels, human capital formation and economic growth from below. Nigeria has the foundational pieces of social assistance in place (draft policy, programme, social registry) and could expand social assistance coverage rapidly to poor and vulnerable populations affected by polycrises. However, there is a lack of trust in social assistance and in government. Commitment to carrying out regular impact evaluations would improve this evidence base.</p
Youth #Protests and Political Imaginaries: Insights from Nigeria, Senegal, and Sudan
No full textThis article advances understandings of how social media was used both as a space and as a catalyst of political mobilisation by youth-led movements in Africa to advance their democratic demands. It examines youth-led movements in three countries: the Sudan protests from 2018 to 2019, the #EndSARS protests in Nigeria in 2020, and the #FreeSenegal protests spanning 2021 to 2024. These movements highlighted significant concerns regarding governance, economic disparity, human rights, and democracy. While African youth continue to be sidelined from formal politics, their online protests and street protests did not just counter autocratic tendencies by the state but also reflected their political imaginaries. Their political expressions indicate adherence to democratic tenets such as participation and accountability.</p
Tackling Political Barriers to Effective Social Assistance in Nigeria
No full textThis Policy Briefing is intended for international development and humanitarian partners working on social assistance policy and programming in Nigeria. It synthesises emerging lessons from research conducted by the Better Assistance in Crises (BASIC) Research programme, predominantly in the northeastern region of the country (which comprises Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe states). The Briefing showcases how social assistance provided by partners and other actors is strongly shaped by entrenched as well as evolving political economy challenges. These include systemic corruption, clientelism, the politicisation of aid, and fragmented responses, resulting in widespread exclusion and a growing deficit in trust between public authorities and citizens. Despite these challenges, opportunities are identified to strengthen coordination and communication involving government, development partners and citizens, and to encourage the uptake of evidence to improve targeting, with government actors at the forefront of change.</p
Unpacking Informality for Tax Purposes: Evidence from Urban Zimbabwe
No full textNarratives about taxing the informal sector have led to unproductive top-down policies. They have not been underpinned by evidence on the distribution of earnings, local fees, licences, permits, and informal payments, which increase the cost of compliance and doing business.Drawing on data from 2,490 urban informal operators in Harare and Masvingo in Zimbabwe, this study unpacks informality by examining the distribution of earnings, and the taxes, user fees, permits, and licences paid by informal sector operators. The findings reveal that only the top earnings quintile is potentially taxable. Quintiles 1 to 4 barely reach the poverty line using the lower poverty line threshold – even before factoring in taxes and licences. Women are concentrated in low-barrier, low-earning, informal economic activities. Despite only 6 per cent of the sample paying formal taxes under the national simplified tax regime (mainly presumptive taxes), other payments and associated compliance burdens increase the cost of doing business. As a result, bribes have become a pervasive informal payment, effectively collected by street-level officials. When informal operators fail to meet the requirements and cost of licences and permits, bribes often function as a catch-all payment – replacing official collection with unofficial arrangements that further undermine tax policies. Streamlining and reducing the number and value of licences and fees has the potential to improve the business environment, while encouraging formalisation in the long run.These findings have important implications for research and policy, showing the need for tax policies that reflect the diverse realities of informal work. Informal activities range from those that are subsistence-level, to productive informal firms on the threshold of formalisation. They all require tailored policy responses that are sensitive to gender, sector, and city dynamics.</p
Unpacking Informality for Tax Purposes: Evidence from Urban Zimbabwe
No full textInterest in taxing the informal sector continues to grow – but little attention is paid to earnings distribution, and the user fees and permits that increase the cost of doing business and the vulnerability of those earning low incomes in the informal economy. This study unpacks informality by examining earnings, taxes, user fees, permits and licences paid by informal sector operators in Zimbabwe. The country presents a compelling case for exploring taxation and urban informality. Its informal sector contributes nearly two thirds of economic output and four-fifths of employment – more than in other low- and middle-income countries. Various initiatives in Zimbabwe, such as introducing presumptive taxes (similar to other countries with high informality), aim to expand domestic revenue mobilisation beyond the formal economy.Summary of ICTD Working Paper 225.</p
Humanitarian and Social Protection Approaches to Inclusion
No full textThis paper explores how and how far considerations of inclusion are found in the policy and programming space described as the ‘humanitarian-social protection nexus’. It starts with a hypothesis that while maximising linkages between social protection and humanitarian assistance are at the top of policy agendas, there is little assessment of opportunities for and obstacles to ‘linking’ when it comes to the inclusion of vulnerable people and groups. The paper explores whether humanitarian and social protection actors are broadly in agreement when it comes to inclusive social assistance: whether they speak the same language and follow similar principles, and whether they have similar or differing priorities and approaches. Understanding these similarities and differences is critical to inclusive social assistance – without it policymakers and programmers will be unable to achieve linkages in ways that improve the situations of vulnerable groups.</p