Service delivery in fragile states: meeting expectations or missing the point?
Is it possible to deliver basic services effectively and efficiently, and at the same time enhance state legitimacy in fragile states?...
18
Mar
Blog
13
Mar
Malnutrition in Sierra Leone: Moving away from training, training (and more training)
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
A visit to a village in the North three years after the fighting ended provides insights on the challenges of resettling the war displaced....
22
Dec
More questions than answers as South Sudan crisis unfolds
Political loyalties in South Sudan are never set in stone, nor are they simply “tribal”. Allegiances may be complex, conflicting, and ultimately dependent on whatever seems to offer the best chance for survival at any given moment....
04
Dec
Time to give up on Community Driven Development?
The World Bank recently published the findings of its impact evaluation of Afghanistan’s largest development programme, the National Solidarity Programme. The findings are not hugely positive, so is it time to give up on Community Driven Development? ...
18
Nov
Nepal elections: Stuck between a rock and a hard place
"Nepal's elections need to be conducted in a free and fair environment, and parties should shift their focus towards the task at hand (finalising a new constitution). Only then can the future of Nepal be built on a foundation of stability."...
13
Aug
The Coping Economy: What’s lurking in the shadows of informal employment in conflict affected situations?
The view that informal economies are detrimental must be reassessed in the face of examples which show the importance of such jobs in economically-challenged conflict affected situations....
27
Jun
Informal taxation and livelihoods: A neglected research agenda
Informal taxation plays an important role in people's everyday struggle to secure their livelihoods. We need to look at what people have to pay to get by if we really want to open up opportunities to create resilient livelihoods in conflict affected situations....
29
May
One small step for democracy, one giant leap for Pakistan?
"With these elections, Pakistan has taken an important step towards democracy, but to transform the country in more fundamental ways will require more than (recycled) electoral promises. What Pakistan needs is a bold plan of action, and whether Sharif and his party can deliver on...
04
Apr
The Missing Piece of the Jobs Puzzle? Reflections on the 2013 World Development Report
"The WDR 2013 has created space for discussion of employment issues in fragile and conflict-affected situations. But we now need to build on the momentum around the current ‘good jobs’ agenda by taking questions of politics, governance and state-society relations seriously, and working out what...