(2020). Editorial. Development in Practice: Vol. 30, No. 8, pp. 979-981.

ABSTRACT This paper evaluates the impacts of a Brazilian home-based programme on violent behaviour of elementary school students. To identify the causal impact, it explores the variation between schools with potentially treated students and the municipalities that implemented the programme over the years. The results suggest a reduction in verbal or physical abuse, theft or robbery, and attack or threat

ABSTRACT The mining industry is often associated with decisions that have huge social significance. Using the example of the AGL mining company and the Damang community in Ghana, this study sought to assess the extent of adherence to government policies as well as the implications of resettlement on the livelihood dynamics of the affected communities. The paper argues that the existing policies create

ABSTRACT There is an increasing involvement of a number of non-state actors such as NGOs and community based organisations (CBOs) in poverty alleviation programmes. This calls for greater coordination among the actors for the effective implementation of such programmes. This article explores the various factors influencing coordination in multi-actor policy implementation, using a case study of a rural

ABSTRACT Poor sanitation infrastructure can impact the physical and psychological well-being of marginalised communities. This article explores sanitation-related psychosocial stress among men and women in a peri-urban slum in Bangalore, India. It finds that women in Jayanagar slum, Karnataka, experienced psychosocial stress from open defecation due to the risk of sexual violence and socio-cultural

ABSTRACT This viewpoint discusses women's roles in relation to food security in Sierra Leone, one of the hungriest countries in Africa. While key to improving food security, women have often been underrepresented in relevant programmes and discussions at the community and national levels. The viewpoint offers recommendations for integrating women in Sierra Leone into food security discussions, policies

ABSTRACT This paper describes urban WASH interventions (hardware, hygiene promotion, and institutional support) implemented in the Small Towns WASH Programme (STWP) across 14 towns in Zimbabwe with the associated costing. Key lessons in terms of urban WASH rehabilitation include the need for flexible funding and programme approaches accommodate changes during implementation, and that strong programme

ABSTRACT This article reports on a study that aimed to identify potential business constraints that hinder the economic development of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in Ethiopia. Results of multiple linear regression and principal component analyses of data collected using stratified random sampling of 181 enterprise operators/managers showed that the age, gender, family size, and working experience

ABSTRACT Livestock productivity for pastoralist households, who depend upon their livestock as a source of livelihood, is constrained by infectious diseases among other factors. Pastoralists in the arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) of the Horn of Africa lack access to livestock health inputs and services. To assess the profitability of private animal health service delivery, mobile veterinary clinics

ABSTRACT This article identifies factors of NGO interventions that enable an escape from the poverty trap, through in-depth analysis of the life courses of at-risk youths engaged with an NGO in the Philippines slums. Applying the Trajectory Equifinality Model for interview analysis, the study found the following crucial factors: a mentor role based on continuous support between youths and NGO staff;

ABSTRACT This qualitative case study examines a pilot community mobilisation initiative to increase access to qualified primary health care services among slum dwellers in Bangladesh. Emerging from analysis are a series of key considerations in the design and implementation of mobilisation activities in poor urban settlements. These include who best to mobilise in highly stratified social settings;

ABSTRACT This paper presents the experience of malt barley value-chain development through cooperative-based contract farming. The descriptive and qualitative analysis used primary data collected from the actors involved and secondary data. The results indicate that side selling is a major challenge, estimated at about 30%. Promoting the role of cooperatives and avoiding side selling by addressing

ABSTRACT This article investigates the influence of land titles on farmers’ perceptions about the ease of conducting three types of land transactions: land sales, leases, and transfers by bequest. A questionnaire survey was conducted in a Brazilian municipality. Results indicate that farmers who have land titles perceive that land sales can be conducted more easily than those who do not have titles

ABSTRACT Using qualitative methods, this article examines savings groups that have been in operation for five to ten years in Tanzania to understand internal and external factors influencing savings group longevity and explore member perception of how long-term participation affected the well-being of their households and children. Although groups did not consistently adhere to best practices, they

ABSTRACT Climate change disproportionately affects livelihoods of poor and vulnerable people. The Upper West Region of Ghana is a climate-affected area where agrarian livelihoods have become unsustainable, with migration to the Brong-Ahafo Region (BAR) becoming a key adaptation strategy. There is little research on postmigration experiences in BAR. Using qualitative methods, this article explores migrant

ABSTRACT Beekeeping is commonly adopted as an additional livelihood activity that can help smallholder farmers diversify and enhance their livelihoods. However, it is unclear whether it is resilient to environmental shocks and stresses. This article investigates beekeepers’ experiences and perceptions about challenges to beekeeping in the Taita Hills Mountains, Kenya. Key findings demonstrated that

ABSTRACT This viewpoint discusses the role of women in the fight against corruption in Ghana. It argues that although there is no evidence that women in Ghana by their nature are less corrupt than men, gender parity presents an opportunity for women to be change agents in creating, nurturing, implementing, and enforcing systems, institutions, and values that sanction as well as disdain corrupt behaviour

ABSTRACT This article assesses the challenges facing both local and international NGOs in Mwenezi district of Zimbabwe in their efforts to ensure financial sustainability. Drawing from a qualitative approach that employs interviews and documents, the study revealed that reduced funding from the donor community, changing priorities of funders, poor resource allocation and lack of transparent structures

ABSTRACT This article examines the effects of location and legal status on the performance of microfinance institutions (MFIs) within sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) using panel dataset of 138 MFIs in 31 SSA countries covering 2004 to 2014. The econometric results show that legal status and location significantly influence the capitalisation, portfolio quality, profitability, liquidity, and deposit mobilisation

ABSTRACT This article examines the relationship between caste, land ownership and agricultural productivity in India, utilising data from a large-scale survey of farm households. Access to resources like information, technology, inputs, markets, and support institutions are important for sustainable and inclusive growth of agriculture. The results indicate that socially disadvantaged households (Scheduled

ABSTRACT This paper investigates 90 different factors contributing towards the success of Engineers Without Borders USA water-well borehole projects based on four indicators. Seventy-five per cent of the 22 well projects studied were successful according to at least three of the four success definitions. Different factors impact the success indicators in complex ways. Community engagement should be

ABSTRACT The recent shift towards agricultural innovation systems recognises that agricultural development is complex and must involve multiple actors. This makes innovation through a project framework inherently challenging. This article draws lessons from a project that fostered post-harvest innovations in Uganda. First, a two-stage design allowed scoping out business cases with partners to identify

ABSTRACT Auditing firms tend to promote rule-bound orthodoxies about management based on the fiction that the world is more predictable than it is. Managers in INGOs find that long-term planning requires endless readjustment. This article explores what happens when these conflicting knowledge regimes clash during auditing. It draws on Bourdieu’s ideas to illuminate how different forms of social capital

ABSTRACT Over the past decade, donors have engaged faith-based organisations (FBOs) in health system reforms and health programmes in many sub-Saharan African countries, including Cameroon. Little knowledge is available concerning the types of FBOs that exist in the health sector in Cameroon. This article describes the complex landscape of Christian FBOs operating in Cameroon’s health sector and provides

ABSTRACT Savings groups are an economic strengthening intervention used to enhance the well-being of vulnerable groups. However, it is unclear how savings groups influence treatment outcomes for people living with HIV. This article reports on a study that conducted 48 in-depth interviews with HIV-positive savings group members in Ethiopia and used their narratives to qualitatively assess pathways linking

ABSTRACT This paper challenges the assumptions and practices of many externally-driven women’s advocacy initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa. It examines much misunderstood concepts (advocacy, agency and empowerment) and highlights how their constructions are fundamentally flawed. It draws conclusions from advocacy training for women conducted by an international NGO in Nigeria and DRC. Illiteracy, poverty

ABSTRACT Large-scale secondary data show that water access is improving in Indian slums; however, women still need to procure water from multiple sources. Based on field research conducted in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, this paper examines the everyday negotiations that urban women from slums undertake at different water sources. The study finds that women depend on street taps, water vendors, water tankers

ABSTRACT Community development has many meanings. The strength of this conceptual openness is that it creates space for communities and their knowledges, values and interests. Its weakness is that, without general agreement on the nature of community development, the concept is applied inconsistently and becomes a “buzzword” which is high on application, yet low on meaning. This paper presents an analysis

ABSTRACT Social policies such as conditional cash transfer programmes (CCTs) have technical and measurable outcomes which are favourable for countries in the Global South, where development impact on health and education matters. This paper presents grounded narratives of women beneficiaries of the Philippines’ Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), and outlines how conditionalities have reconfigured

ABSTRACT In the search for solutions to global challenges, the way scientific research is carried out is rapidly changing. Interdisciplinary approaches through collaborative research projects are replacing traditional approaches. As complex operational details, including stakeholder perspectives, are oft overlooked in these projects, conflict and failure are more likely. Analysing the conflict experience

ABSTRACT Innovating is vital to farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, to adapt to challenges and benefit from opportunities. Stakeholders’ decisions to engage in innovation programmes are influenced by their perceptions. This article uses the Q-method application to investigate these perceptions along the swine value chain in Benin. Fifty-five statements were established with local stakeholders and then graded

ABSTRACT This article uses an urban case from West Bengal, India, to reveal that people lacking socio-economic and cultural capital have marginal access to civic services provided by the municipality. This marginalisation is a product of the municipality’s highly inequitable approach to governance practices, where there is a deliberate aversion to government schemes, infrastructure, and developmental

ABSTRACT Fair trade has come under a barrage of criticism in recent years. Often the two targets of this criticism have been the impact of fair trade and the asymmetry of power between the Global North and South that benefits the North. This article presents a case study from Madagascar which illustrates the positive aspects of fair trade, along with its capacity to involve Global South producers higher

ABSTRACT This paper presents an analysis of social mobilisation and community engagement in contexts where traditional relations of power are elite-based and exclusionary. Informed by contemporary critiques of community development, it takes the Pakistan-based Rural Support Programme Network’s (RSPN) “three-tier social mobilisation strategy” as a case study and asks whether and how it has transformed

ABSTRACT A critical component of community-level efforts to reduce intimate partner violence (IPV) is the meaningful engagement of opinion leaders. This paper assesses the successes, challenges, and processes of change that Indashyikirwa – an IPV prevention programme in Rwanda – encountered while engaging opinion leaders to combat IPV. The paper draws on three rounds of qualitative interviews with

ABSTRACT Qualitative research is not just the study of words and meaning: researchers should also provide a critical reflection on theoretical or practical problems in the research process. This practical note is a reflexive account of some the author’s personal experiences learning about bureaucratic process in Ethiopia. From opening a bank account as an “authentic” way to access money in 2007, to

ABSTRACT The development and well-being of children are important to governments. In Ghana and elsewhere in Africa, policies directing children’s welfare are mostly influenced by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Despite enormous energy devoted to generating policies and guidelines, little attention is given to the rejection of indigenous knowledge on childhood, and

ABSTRACT What wider lessons can be drawn from a single impact evaluation study? This article examines how case study and source selection contribute to useful generalisation. Practical suggestions for making these decisions are drawn from a set of qualitative impact studies. Generalising about impact is a deliberative process of building, testing and refining useful theories about how change happens

ABSTRACT Finance is vital for commercialising seed businesses and the Government of Nepal has launched a priority sector-lending plan (PSLP) for financing agriculture. This article assesses the use and role of finance and the challenges in accessing PSLP loans, using interviews with 197 farmer households and stakeholders. The results show that awareness about PSLP can increase gross margins by 46%

ABSTRACT Socio-cultural norms can potentially enhance the adaptive capacities of some groups while constraining the capacities of others. Using household surveys, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews in four communities in the Nkoranza South municipality, Ghana, this article examines how socio-cultural norms influence the climate change adaptation of smallholder farmers. While socio-cultural

ABSTRACT One criticism of how women’s empowerment is operationalised in development interventions is the lack of consideration of its context specificity. This quantitative study investigates how women participants in development projects in Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam perceive the meaning of empowerment and the associated positive effects of participating in empowerment activities. The findings indicate

ABSTRACT Migration is a complex behavioural pattern which is shaped by cross-scale variables and heuristic rules. This article captures the complexity and dynamic behaviour of migration in Tehri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand using agent-based modelling (ABM). Scenarios considering different starting points were developed to understand variables influencing migration. Migration is governed not only

ABSTRACT Although historically a contested concept, it has been argued that civil society has become a victim of its own ubiquity in development; its potential for radicalism and innovation blunted by donor-driven narratives and the unquestioning acceptance of those narratives by donor-dependent NGOs. Donor influence is charged with weakening civil society as an arena for political debate and citizen-driven

ABSTRACT Ageing farming communities and youth abandoning agriculture are serious issues, with attracting and retaining youth in agriculture a key challenge. This article reports on a gender-sensitive study of rural youth conducted in eastern India. The willingness to be involved in agriculture varies across region and gender, with the high readiness of female youths signalling a feminisation in agriculture

ABSTRACT In recent years, many international search and rescue (SAR) teams have been deployed to large-scale disasters across state borders. However, previous lessons show that, in some cases, the affected countries received unnecessary, unqualified, or too many teams, resulting in further burdens on them. The practical note aims to provide a model for decision-making for affected governments in receiving

ABSTRACT The civil society policy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands shifted from service delivery to lobby and advocacy in 2016 with the new Dialogue & Dissent policy framework (D&D), representing a large change in thinking from a managerial to a social transformative perspective. This article discusses how D&D has made this shift and navigates tensions arising from it: (1) by stressing

The public narrative surrounding international NGOs (INGOs) often envisions sectors in crisis. Right-wing media narratives highlight growing popular hostility towards INGOs and record declining giv...

ABSTRACT While the amounts of ODA funding that OECD-DAC countries are channelling to and through civil society organisations (CSOs) are at an all-time high, there are growing concerns over the future of government-to-CSO funding. This analysis of the funding situation in five European countries reveals that despite the resilience of CSO funding, there have been important changes in how this funding

ABSTRACT Transnational NGOs (TNGOs) confront challenging operational environments in the pursuit of their missions. Less attention is typically paid to the cultural and regulatory home environments of TNGOs that can also shape their influence and impact. As US-based TNGOs confront criticisms about their accountability, legitimacy, and effectiveness, this article critically examines the impact of the

ABSTRACT International NGOs (INGOs) in the global North have rapidly grown in number over the past two decades, the majority of which are grassroots organisations (GINGOs). Despite an abundance of research on “professionalised” INGOs, little empirical data is available to characterise GINGOs. This study constructs a dataset of 607 Canadian GINGOs based on the Canada Revenue Agency T3010 forms and organisation

ABSTRACT Recent scandals in the media have questioned the legitimacy of and public trust in international NGOs (INGOs). Yet, little research has explored the complex relationships that influence public trust in INGOs. This article addresses this knowledge gap by analysing data from an experimental survey of English-speaking Canadian residents to explore how trust varies based on the different ways

ABSTRACT A paucity of systematic research into development NGO sectors means that we have underestimated their contributions to international development. In 2015 Britain’s development NGOs spent nearly £7 billion, equivalent to over half of the UK government’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) that year. Mapping the sector reveals its size and significance and gives new insight into its structural

ABSTRACT Using new panel data from the Aid Attitudes Tracker (2013–18), this article draws on a set of 18 actions to map public engagement with global poverty in France, Germany, Great Britain and the United States. It introduces a new engagement segmentation comprised of five distinct groups – the totally disengaged, marginally engaged, informationally engaged, behaviourally engaged, and fully engaged

ABSTRACT This article analyses the evolution of the European Union’s development policy in relation to civil society. Based on a review of overall policy trends, strategies and practices in Central Asia, it demonstrates how the EU’s development policy has gradually moved from a focus on European NGOs towards civil society organisations, broadly defined and increasingly associated with the private sector

ABSTRACT This article traces the development of Dutch INGOs over 2010–2017 using a unique dataset of 366 organisations. Overall, the Dutch INGO sector has remained quite financially stable and shows resilience in offsetting declines in one type of income by intensifying income generation from another source. However, this overall picture obscures diverging dynamics for subgroups based on the size of

ABSTRACT Food systems need to focus more on health, prosperity, and environmental sustainability. This requires changes in what, where, how and by whom food is produced, marketed, and consumed. Interdisciplinary research and trans-disciplinary collaboration are needed. Stakeholders need to agree on their respective roles, values, responsibilities and modus operandi so that research better responds

ABSTRACT This article determines the effect of transaction costs and socio-economic factors on smallholder natural rubber farmers’ decisions to sell at the farm gate to itinerant traders or in the alternative markets in Liberia. Cross-sectional data were collected from 200 smallholder natural rubber farmers through multistage sampling. The results indicate that transaction costs and socio-economic

ABSTRACT Volunteering for development is a long-standing form of development assistance. Vision Aid Overseas is an international NGO that works to enable people living in poverty to access affordable spectacles and eye care. Volunteering has been at the core of its interventions since its formation in 1985. In 2019 the organisation undertook a comprehensive review of its approach. A literature review

ABSTRACT This article reports on a study that investigated the adoption of sustainable rice farming practices and its social and cultural impact on rural women in Myanmar through the use of semi-structured interviews. The findings show that adoption resulted in a great variety of changes, which have impacted on both a personal level and at a community level. Families use extra income to invest in farming

ABSTRACT There is a need to reflect on approaches to reaching all in rural sanitation, given evidence that disadvantaged groups often miss out on benefits from programmes. This article presents approaches from area-wide rural sanitation programming undertaken by SNV across five countries. Analysis identified ten strategies used in combination to support inclusion. The article describes the strategies