Below the surface, a game changer in Congolese politics
25 July, 2018
The 2015 break-up of Congo’s existing provinces from 11 to 26 has upended politics, creating second- and third-order challenges ...
How Kinshasa’s markets are captured by powerful private interests
13 March, 2018
Markets, informal connections and 'branchement' in the DRC. Published on The Conversation....
Humanitarianism beyond gender as women and women as victims
09 March, 2018
Introducing a new Disasters issue on gender and humanitarian. Posted on Oxfam's From Povery to Power. ...
The challenge of retirement in the Congolese administration
14 February, 2018
Recent research by SLRC called on development agencies to 'build the capacity of the aid industry to develop capacity.' But how ca...
DR Congo: The case for taking the administration seriously
20 December, 2017
Stylianos Moshonas, Tom De Herdt and Kristof Titeca explore the challenges facing the DR Congo civil service....
Durable research uptake in DRC
19 December, 2017
What have we learned about how to make research count for development?...
Emergency sexwork: should NGOs recognize transactional sex as livelihood strategy?
27 October, 2017
How humanitarian agencies ignore the reality of transactional sex and why they should rethink their views on the issue....
Legitimacy: the dark matter of international development
27 September, 2017
Aoife McCullough outlines three problems with the way development actors currently seek to improve state legitimacy....
A systems view to building the capacity of the aid industry to build capacity
08 August, 2017
Recent research by SLRC called on development agencies to 'build the capacity of the aid industry to develop capacity.' But how ca...
Mainstreaming gender in an eight year research project: what we’ve learned
25 July, 2017
SLRC worked to mainstream gender throughout the first phase of its research. In this post, Dyan Mazurana reflects on what went wel...
$15bn is spent every year on training, with disappointing results. Why the aid industry needs to rethink ‘capacity building’
06 July, 2017
Lisa Denney explains why the aid industry needs to rethink capacity building. Read the blog on From Poverty to Power....
Six out of seven ain’t bad: reflections from a two wave panel survey in five conflict-affected countries
06 July, 2017
Rachel Slater reflects on what she’s learned from the SLRC survey....
Conflict, fragility and recovery: six years of research, three surprises
22 June, 2017
Read Rachel Slater, Paul Harvey and Richard Mallett’s reflections on SLRC’s research on the ODI’s comment site...
SLRC’s first phase in pictures
22 June, 2017
View images from SLRC’s first phase of research on Flickr...
Sanitation work and caste in Sri Lanka
31 December, 2016
In Jaffna, Sri Lanka, sanitation workers employed by the state all belong to one caste: the Parayar. Here, Aftab Lall argues that ...
Women beedi rollers and necrocapitalism in Sri Lanka
06 June, 2016
Women in one village in the Jaffna district of northern Sri Lanka have been rolling beedi with their bare hands for over fifty yea...
On the trail of respondents in Ilam, Nepal
25 November, 2015
The SLRC Panel survey is examining people’s access to services, livelihoods and perceptions of governance in 5 countries. We’r...
Change-makers: how a new generation of Afghan women are inspiring others to action
22 October, 2015
Sunday 11 October was International Day of the Girl. This year’s focus is on Adolescent girls. Despite the MDG targets to achiev...
Ebola, health systems and the human face of capacity
22 October, 2015
Give a man a fish, he eats for a day; teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime. But what happens when he is unable to practi...
Why capacity building needs to smarten up
13 July, 2015
Richard Mallett reflects on the importance of capacity building in this blog posted by Devex....
Beyond the medical crisis: The politics of Ebola in Sierra Leone
15 April, 2015
The response to Ebola has overlooked the political dimensions of this crisis, argues Lisa Denney in this IDS blog....
International Women’s Day: Living in conflict
06 March, 2015
This Sunday will mark International Women’s Day across the world. Many will celebrate the progress that has been made towards el...
What Ebola tells us about how to do state-building
04 March, 2015
Last Wednesday, we were lucky enough to be invited along to the launch of the Institute of Development Studies’ Ebola: Lessons f...
In search of dignified work: rebuilding lives and livelihoods in northern Uganda
02 March, 2015
SLRC worked to mainstream gender throughout the first phase of its research. In this post, Dyan Mazurana reflects on what went wel...
Good jobs in conflict: A difficult agenda
09 February, 2015
Action on pay and working conditions in conflict-affected situations is needed, and this should be connected to the long history o...
Better services in DRC: Changing the state, starts from within
13 January, 2015
Sometimes we forget that the state is not a thing, but a set of institutions made up of people. People can shape how the state fun...
How migration is international development’s biggest good news story…almost
14 December, 2014
In the run up to International Migrants Day, SLRC has teamed up with Al Jazeera to bring together academics and journalists to tel...
Always regulated, never protected: How markets work
12 November, 2014
Most economic activity in developing countries is informal [^] in nature. But the mistake people make is thinking that it is there...
Formal social protection initiatives in Nepal
10 November, 2014
Although the state has been primarily responsible for financing and administering social protection initiatives in Nepal over the...
Where do people go when they’re sick? Traditional healers versus modern clinics in Sierra Leone
06 October, 2014
Making judgements about whether the continued use of traditional health providers in Sierra Leone is right or wrong misses the poi...
Understanding rainy seasons, malnutrition, & community health in Sierra Leone
16 September, 2014
We have known about the impacts of the seasons on health and agriculture for decades. It therefore seems remarkable that this fund...
Gender and post conflict development: Experiences of female-headed households
28 August, 2014
An increase in female-headed households is one of the most significant features of post-conflict realities in Asia and Africa. It ...
The challenges to post-war development in Asia and Africa
12 August, 2014
Countries recuperating from conflict situations face both unique and common challenges that require a shift from narrow conception...
Engaging with plural delivery systems: Community approaches to health and justice in Sierra Leone
24 July, 2014
If development practitioners aim to improve people’s lives – either by providing improved healthcare or ensuring access to jus...
Women in the local economy in post war Sri Lanka
02 July, 2014
Understanding the role that women play in the local economy and the challenges they face in post war Sri Lanka, is very much linke...
Beyond stuff: Capacity as a relational concept
26 June, 2014
What are we talking about when we talk about capacity? The answer should be straightforward, given that ideas of “capacity” an...
One step backwards two steps forward? Unlocking gender equality in fragile and conflict-affected situations
25 June, 2014
What we are doing to convince people of the importance of gender in development isn't working. We need to go beyond ‘target wome...
What’s yellow, black and tantalising?
25 June, 2014
The Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium has started to publish baseline survey reports for Uganda, Nepal and Pakistan, with mor...
The New Deal and South Sudan: Eggs in one basket state-building?
25 April, 2014
How resilient will the New Deal prove to be in the face of renewed conflict in South Sudan? ...
Tax, electricity and the state
10 April, 2014
Many Nepalese believe that electricity blackouts are akin to a tax on their livelihoods. So how should the state respond?...
‘Outside the net’: women’s participation in fishing activities in Trincomalee district of Sri Lanka
19 March, 2014
The invisibility of women's fishing related activities at the household, community and decision making levels leads to their exclu...
Service delivery in fragile states: meeting expectations or missing the point?
18 March, 2014
Is it possible to deliver basic services effectively and efficiently, and at the same time enhance state legitimacy in fragile sta...
Malnutrition in Sierra Leone: Moving away from training, training (and more training)
13 March, 2014
Capacity building is stuck in a rut and tackling malnutrition in Sierra Leone requires different approaches...
Post-war development in Northern Sri Lanka: why some people are unable to return to their lands
12 February, 2014
A visit to a village in the North three years after the fighting ended provides insights on the challenges of resettling the war d...
More questions than answers as South Sudan crisis unfolds
22 December, 2013
Political loyalties in South Sudan are never set in stone, nor are they simply “tribal”. Allegiances may be complex, conflicti...
Time to give up on Community Driven Development?
04 December, 2013
The World Bank recently published the findings of its impact evaluation of Afghanistan’s largest development programme, the Nati...
Nepal elections: Stuck between a rock and a hard place
18 November, 2013
"Nepal's elections need to be conducted in a free and fair environment, and parties should shift their focus towards the task at h...
The Coping Economy: What’s lurking in the shadows of informal employment in conflict affected situations?
13 August, 2013
The view that informal economies are detrimental must be reassessed in the face of examples which show the importance of such jobs...
Informal taxation and livelihoods: A neglected research agenda
27 June, 2013
Informal taxation plays an important role in people's everyday struggle to secure their livelihoods. We need to look at what peopl...
One small step for democracy, one giant leap for Pakistan?
29 May, 2013
"With these elections, Pakistan has taken an important step towards democracy, but to transform the country in more fundamental wa...
The Missing Piece of the Jobs Puzzle? Reflections on the 2013 World Development Report
04 April, 2013
"The WDR 2013 has created space for discussion of employment issues in fragile and conflict-affected situations. But we now need t...
Making the thought count: Pension provisions need to be accessible to Nepal’s elderly
20 March, 2013
"A proper mechanism for implementation is needed to address the practical shortcomings of this important and commendable initiativ...
From supply and demand to power and data: the case for a more restrained handling of job creation programs in conflict-affected situations
11 March, 2013
"The case of job creation is symptomatic of a broader issue: that, perhaps because of the absence of high quality impact data, lar...
Getting beyond seeds and tools in eastern DRC
01 March, 2013
"Difficult and risky contexts should not be an excuse for inaction or inadequate action when it comes to securing livelihoods"...
Fertile land needs people – The case against displacing people from fertile agricultural lands in Sri Lanka
14 February, 2013
"It’s very important that development initiatives – as important as they are – do not result in displacing people from ferti...
The strangling effects of multiple taxation in Nepal
05 February, 2013
"Multiple taxes imposed on small scale subsistence farmers is a very common in Nepal – but this often means that once farmers fi...
Do cross-border comparisons affect our understanding of how delivering basic services contributes to state legitimacy?
21 January, 2013
"How are people’s attitudes towards government are affected when they are accessing services in two countries simultaneously?"...
What are SLRC researchers reading?
09 January, 2013
"We've pick out a few good reads which look at different forms of taxation, development, governance and the New Deal."...
A longitudinal panel survey in a conflict-affected situation! Are you crazy?
19 December, 2012
"Are people right to be so scathing or sceptical about us trying to use quantitative survey methods in the Secure Livelihoods Rese...
The New Deal in difficult places
10 December, 2012
"The New Deal is an exciting new development, but this shouldn't prevent critical analysis of its limitations"...
Mind the gap: the fragile state of the impact evidence base
03 December, 2012
“What do we do if we need results to justify a development or humanitarian programme, but don’t have the evidence to demonstra...
Taxed to death (really)
22 November, 2012
"For those living in the villages we visited, it is often impossible to carry out daily activities without being taxed... But can ...
MDGs and ‘Fragile States’
16 November, 2012
"Are 'fragile states' failing to meet the MDGs? The answer might not be as black and white as one might expect."...
‘What works’? Systematic reviews in international development research and policy
12 November, 2012
"Although well established in the natural sciences, systematic reviews are relatively new to the world of international developmen...
Why political settlements matter: a response to Mick Moore
12 November, 2012
"How useful is the concept of political settlement? Not very, according to a recent post by Mick Moore. Taking particular issue wi...
Big Men, African Conflicts And Informal Power – A Review By Richard Mallett
12 November, 2012
"For me, the volume is more than anything about the blurring of boundaries – analytical and spatial – and the (increased) hybr...
Service delivery and state-building: the 46.7 billion dollar question?
12 November, 2012
"Since 2007, OECD DAC members have been signed up to state-building as the ‘central objective’ of their engagement in fragile ...