IDS Research Summaries
The IDS Research Summary series are short two-page summaries available for recent all IDS Working Papers and other publications published since January. The most recent one is listed below. All others can be accessed through each year of publication date.
A New Deal? Development and Security in a Changing World
A growing proportion of aid spending now goes into conflict-affected states and conflict prevention. As a result, development and security are increasingly intertwined and this inter-relation is hotly debated. More details
Who Drives Economic Reform in Vietnam’s Provinces? - Research Summary
Vietnam has undergone rapid and far-reaching economic transformation. The decentralisation of certain economic powers from central to provincial government has contributed to this success. More details
A Village-up View of Sierra Leone’s Civil War and Reconstruction Multilayered and Networked Governance - Research Summary
Sierra Leone’s bitter civil war saw the collapse of the state to a large degree, while rural governance systems continued to function. While the international community has tended to focus on rebuilding from the centre outwards, this paper analyses the reconstruction from the perspective of local communities and their chiefs. More details
Insecurity and Local Governance in Congo’s South Kivu (Research Summary)
For more than 15 years, Congo’s South Kivu province has experienced recurrent war and violence. But while the state collapsed during this time, governance did not entirely disappear. This paper examines how and why local systems of governance survived, and draws lessons for how to rebuild human security. More details
Lessons from Social Protection Programme Implementation in Kenya, Zambia and Mongolia (Research Summary)
This Research Report (conducted by the Centre for Social Protection at IDS with UNICEF) examines how social protection programming can interrupt the intergenerational transfer of poverty (IGT) through investments in human capital (education, health and nutrition), aiming to capture best practice and enhance lesson learning within a multilateral organisation (UNICEF). More details
Mapping Police Services in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Research Summary)
This paper examines the roles, responsibilities and interactions between the various formal and informal institutions and stakeholders involved in the management of police services in the DRC. More details
Can China Grow Global Brands?
China is at the forefront of the huge shift in production capabilities from OECD nations to East Asian developing countries. More details
Digging in, Spreading out and Growing up: Introducing CLTS in Africa
Community-led Total Sanitation (CLTS), an approach that focuses on community-wide behaviour change to stop open defecation, has spread widely but with varying outcomes in Africa. More details
Becoming and Remaining a ‘Force for Good’ Reforming the Police in Post-conflict Sierra Leone
Officers of the Sierra Leone police force once drew respect from the public and fear from offenders but were reduced to shabbily-dressed men and women who drew only scorn and mistrust from the community. More details
States of Citizenship Contexts and Cultures of Public Engagement and Citizen Action
Throughout the 2000s, development agendas have emphasised democratic reform and the promotion of citizenship. More details
NGOs’ Strategies and the Challenge of Development and Democracy in Bangladesh
In recent years Bangladesh has achieved rising rates of growth and a slow but steady decline in poverty, it has made remarkable progress on the social front in terms of health and education. More details
Expert Advocacy for the Marginalised How and Why Democratic Mediation Matters to Deepening Democracy in the Global South
Democratic mediation is already a common element in most forms of participatory engagement between citizens and public authorities. More details
Mobilising the State? Social Mobilisation and State Interaction in India, Brazil and South Africa
The ways in which citizen mobilisations and state actions interact are an underexplored area. More details
The Politics and Policy of Aid in Spain
In the last years the international community has moved aid effectiveness forward while some debate on aid effectiveness has focused on donor's behaviour and development agencies' practices. More details
Power, Politics, and Political Entrepreneurs: Realising Universal Free Basic Education in Indonesia
Several developing countries have introduced policies for universal free basic education. But often schools still charge illegal fees, which form a major obstacle to the success of such policies. More details
The Tobin Tax: A Review of the Evidence
The Tobin tax, a small levy on foreign exchange transactions, should theoretically discourage speculation and thereby stabilise markets. More details
Infrastructures of Consent Interrogating Citizen Participation Mandates in Indian Urban Governance
This paper examines contemporary practices of participation and consultation in the context of urban governance in India. More details
The Last Golden Land? Chinese Private Companies Go to Africa
The widely-held perception of Chinese investment in Africa is that of large state-owned enterprises in search of natural resources. More details
Does Research Reduce Poverty? Assessing the Welfare Impacts of Policy-oriented Research in Agriculture
This paper seeks to identify different ways of assessing the impact of 'policy-oriented' development research. More details
Benefiting the Resource Rich: How Can International Development Policy Help Tame the Resource Curse?
It is widely recognised that a country’s fuel and mineral wealth can be more of a curse than a blessing. Norway and Chile challenge this assumption. Their success in transforming resource wealth into economic growth highlights how the international development community can help poorer resource-rich nations tackle the resource curse. More details