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 »

2005 was the year of the Africa Commission, the G9 conference, the Live8 concert and the Make Poverty History campaign. Demands were made, promises were made. Now it is time to fulfill those promises, satisfy those demands. DFID has published an update of the commitments: future milestones to keep an eye for.

If completed, DFID expects that by the end of the year we would have:

1. An effective mechanism to ensure delivery of African and donor commitments, with first Africa Partnership Forum Annual Progress Report published in October 2006.
2. Increased aid in 2006 and plans in place to ...   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 »

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 »