A new resource from the RAPID group at the Overseas Development Institute: a synthesis report on more than 18 months of research on how civil society organisations make use of evidence to influence policy. From their website:

Civil society organisations (CSOs) make a difference in international development. They provide development services and humanitarian relief, innovate in service delivery, build local capacity and advocate with and for the poor. Acting alone, however, their impact is limited in scope, scale and sustainability. CSOs need to engage in government policy processes more effectively.

 

With increased democratisation, reductions in conflict, and ...   more »

Taken from: http://www.eldis.org/cf/search/disp/DocDisplay.cfm?Doc=DOC21550&resource=f1

Since the 1990s, the concept of good governance has taken center stage in development thinking and practice. While it has been increasingly viewed as a key ingredient for development, the decade also witnessed a renewed focus on poverty reduction as the major goal of development. This paper reviews the concepts of good governance and pro-poor growth, and develops a conceptual framework that specifies the linkages between different aspects of the two.

The paper uses the framework developed to review a range of quantitative cross-country studies that include measures of governance as independent variables and focuses on the ...   more »

This year, 12 election will change the political face (and soul?) of Latin America. the ODI is launching a meeting series (in partnership with the Oxford University Latin American Society) to "discuss what the effects of these elections will be on the region as a whole, and on particular countries, with a focus on Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Peru. It will serve as a discussion session for larger issues on the quality of democracy, governance, institutions and economics in Latin America, and the comparative lessons that might be drawn from the democratisation process the region is experiencing. "

Some recent ...   more »

Often we find that in participatory processes, robust statistical analysis finds little support. No wonder econometricians are rarely seen in a workshop drawing on flip charts or assigning values to people and things with coloured pebbles. However, new work on how statistical methods and participatory approaches can be integrated is increasingly available. Barahona and Levy's paper is based on participatory surveys used to evaluate free agricultural inputs to smallholder farmers in Malawi. The paper describes a methodology that integrated statistical principles into the design of the participatory tools to be used in the workshops at the village level.

In a ...   more »

Decentralisation is opening up new opportunities for better policy implementation. New research in Kenya suggests that the decentralisation of agricultural extension improves access. Most importantly, service also improved in quality and farmers reported to be more satisfied with them.

A similar result is observed from a better use of evidence when allocating health funds in a decentralised manner. The TEHIP case study is an example of how small changes in the process or the use of (sometimes very simple) evidence, in this case child mortality, can have significant effects on access and the quality of basic public services.

 

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The 4th WWF is underway in Mexico. Alan Nichol from ODI is reporting live from the event -catch it all at the ODI Blog. This year, the Forum is focusing on local actions for a global challenge. As in most international events such as this one, civil soceity has been present both at the workshops and presentations as well as on the streets.

On a related issue, tomorow, March 22 is World Day for Water and UNESCO is leading this year's theme: Water and Culture. Its "draws attention to the fact that there are as many ways of viewing, ...   more »

The World Bank has been giving us some interesting excuses of 'double takes'. First it was the report on Poverty and Growth in Latin America which considers that Poverty must be tacled if the region ever wants to secure sustainable growth (wan it not the other way around what they proposed?). Now it publishes a Report on Peru with deals with the issue of inequality head on. It suggests that Peru needs to grow even more than other countries to defeat the process of poverty growth -and that current economic growth is biased towards capital rich sectors that do little ...   more »