Publications

Educational Policy Choice and Policy Practice in Malawi: Dilemmas and Disjunctures

IDS working papers;124

Following democratic elections in 1994, the Government of Malawi embarked on an ambitious programme of free primary education (FPE). As a result, access to education increased dramatically. However FPE was enacted before a comprehensive policy framework had been developed examining the...

Forms of Governance, Learning Mechanism and Upgrading Strategies in the Tobacco Cluster in Rio Pardo Valley – Brazil

This paper analyses how the production activities in the tobacco cluster in Rio Pardo Valley are organised through a complex network linking local producers to multinational companies and global markets. The relationship between global chain governance and local upgrading strategies has received...

Strengthening Democratic Governance in Conflict Torn Societies: Civic Organisations, Democratic Effectiveness and Political Conflict

IDS working papers;129

What is the role of civil society organisations in helping to build more effective democracy in societies which have recently emerged from violent civil conflict? To some extent, the answers depend on how the terms 'civil society' and 'democracy' are defined.

Richard Crook

Mainstreaming the Poverty-Reduction Agenda: An Analysis of Institutional Mechanisms To Support Pro-Poor Policy Making and Implementation in Six African Countries

The paper uses case-studies from six countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to illustrate improving practice on policy processes and institutions relating to poverty reduction. It presents these results in a simple analytical framework, which highlights the importance of three factors to the...

Martin Greeley

Conflict and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Assessment of the Issues and Evidence

IDS working papers;128

This Working Paper argues that armed conflicts have been the single most important determinant of poverty and human misery in Sub-Saharan Africa, affecting more than half the countries of the continent during the past two decades.

Robin Luckham

Education Provision to Nomadic Pastoralists

Educationally, pastoralists appear to be a paradox. From the point of view of official education they are a complete failure: in terms of enrolment, attendance, classroom performance, achievement, continuity to higher education and gender balance they regularly score badly.

Deprivation, Discrimination and Delivery: Competing Explanations for Child Labour and Educational Failure in South Asia

IDS Working Paper 135

The high incidence of both child labour and out-of-school children in the South Asian region has given rise to competing explanations. Broadly speaking, these can be categorised as those which focus on poverty and under-development and those which focus on policy failure and poor implementation...

Naila Kabeer

Of Other Spaces’. Situating Participatory Practices: A Case Study from South India

This paper analyses the particular approach to participatory development developed by SPEECH, an NGO working in Tamil Nadu, India. We explore the extent to which SPEECH's approach transformed gender relations in the communities where they work.

Pluralism and Marketisation in the Health Sector: Meeting Health Needs in Contexts of Social Change in Low and Middle Income Countries

This paper is part of a broader attempt to identify the key producers of social goods and how social policy interventions can support them.

Gerald Bloom

Hilary Standing

Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world currently facing both widespread chronic food insecurity and threats of famine. Why is this so and what can be done?

Stephen Devereux

Simon Maxwell

A Participatory Approach in Practice: Understanding Fieldworkers’ Use of Participatory Rural Appraisal in ActionAid The Gambia

Why do fieldworkers use participatory approaches as they do? This paper uses a case study of fieldworkers'use of Pariticipatory Rural Appraisal in ActionAid the Gambia to address this question.

Decentralisation and Poverty-Alleviation in Developing Countries: A Comparative Analysis or, is West Bengal Unique?

IDS Working Paper 130

Advocates of decentralisation in developing countries argue that bringing government closer to the people will make it more responsive and hence more likely to develop policies and outputs which meet the needs of ordinary citizens - the majority of whom are 'the poor'.

Richard Crook