Overseas Development Institute - Theme: Rights

One small step for democracy, one giant leap for Pakistan?

17 May 2013

'With these elections, Pakistan has taken an important step towards democracy, but to transform the country in more fundamental ways will require more than (recycled) electoral promises.'

Shaking up the aid game

27 March 2013

'In short, for developing countries, the new “age of choice” may offer a chance to cut the strings attached to traditional aid relationships and instead pursue their own visions for development.'

A question of culture? Tackling the barriers that prevent adolescent girls from accessing family planning

11 October 2012

'18 million girls under the age of 20 give birth each year...and nine in ten are married...How should we try and change cultural practices that perpetuate gender inequalities and restrict young women and girls' access to reproductive rights?'

Hierarchies, memberships, inclusion: institutions in an evolutionary perspective

11 June 2012

Dr Alice Sindzingre,Research Fellow at the French public agency for research (CNRS, Paris), presented her research on institutions, hierarchies and membership and the links with development in Africa and Asia.

The event sought to explore the following:

What the concept of‘institution’ exactly refers to, analysing the key features of institutions, including group memberships, hierarchies, and the capacity to regulate exchange.
What the consequences of different types of institutions are, arguing while ‘membership’ institutions inherently lead to inequality and exclusion, social interactions may also be regulated by altruistic norms.
How institutions change and evolve, explaining how institutions may get ‘trapped’ in a particular structure by self-reinforcement and may need an impersonal, autonomous, third party, for transformative change.

Development, fragility and human rights

01 June 2012

This report examines the interface between human rights, fragility and development.

Dealing with legacies of violence: transitional justice and governance transitions

28 May 2012

Transitional justice is firmly on the agenda in post-conflict and post-repression settings. This Background Note reviews the growing literature on transitional justice and sets out some key issues that international actors need to consider to engage strategically with these processes during governance transitions.

Will Kenya's 2010 Constitution work for women and children?

18 May 2012

This Project Briefing looks at what has been achieved in the first year of implementing Kenya's new Constitution, and what still needs to be done to realise constitutional commitments to the rights of children and women.

Climate change litigation: a rising tide?

04 May 2012

CDKN’s Mairi Dupar reports back from a roundtable exploring climate change litigation, policy and mobilisation in which participants debated the role of the courts in climate change.

Who are the ‘honourable’ - MPs or citizens?

17 April 2012

'What constitutes ‘good enough’ consultation and what form should it take if there is no opportunity for face-to-face meetings? '

How democracy came through in Malawi's succession

11 April 2012

'The problem was that no formal announcement of Mutharika's death had yet been made, and his body had been spirited away.'

How to lead billions: observations on leadership and transition in China

05 April 2012

'Leadership is increasingly recognised as important for development, but too often there is a tendency to conflate leadership with individual leaders...We must do better in our approach to politics, demanding more than charisma from our own leaders.'

Should donor nations give aid to countries with poor human rights records?

21 March 2012

'In most circumstances it’s better to recognize that almost all countries engage in some sort of human rights abuse, including the so-called ‘developed’ countries, and that engagement rather than grandstanding is the best way forward.'

Giving a voice to urban children

02 March 2012

'we have a shamefully long way to go to ensure the human rights of every child worldwide. It is in this spirit that UNICEF quite rightly turns its gaze to focus on inequalities between urban-dwelling children in this year’s State of the World’s Children report.'

Tricky transitions to democracy

02 February 2012

Reflecting on our event with Lord Paddy Ashdown, which discussed Libya's transition from an authoritarian to democratic regime, this ODI Podcast discusses issues raised and explores: the nature of Libya's political uprising; what a successful democracy might look like and how it might be achieved; what lessons and experience we can draw upon from previous democratic transitions and provides some top tips for donors supporting countries in the midst of such change.

More than just ‘demand’: Malawi’s public-service community scorecard

10 January 2012

This Project Briefing seeks to contribute to evidence regarding community-based monitoring instruments, such as scorecards, through political economy analysis of a community scorecard initiative in Malawi.

Citizens and service delivery: assessing the use of social accountability approaches in the human development sectors

09 December 2011

This event will explore the World Bank Report on 'Citizens and service delivery: assessing the use of social accountability approaches in the human development sectors.'

Some social accountability tools aim to inform citizens and communities about their rights, the standards of service delivery they should expect, and the actual performance of their providers. Others seek to facilitate access to formal redress mechanisms to address service delivery failures.

What do we know about how these approaches actually work in practice?
Can giving people information and opportunities to use this information actually improve service delivery?
And what are the implications for development agencies such as the World Bank?

Situation analysis of children and poverty in Uganda: voices of children

01 September 2011

This report researches the lives of Ugandan children who are living in a situation of poverty, specifically addressing their experiences of poverty.

Building citizenship through social policy in the Eastern Caribbean: the role of social guarantees

01 July 2011

This volume demonstrates how the social guarantees approach can be applied to social policy design, delivery and monitoring at the country level, especially in the island states of the Eastern Caribbean.

Nordic Trust Fund: Desk study on development, fragility and human rights

22 May 2011

This study will present an overview of human rights related challenges, risks, experiences, benefits, and lessons learned in relation to development in fragile and conflict-affected situations, to be used in a World Bank training resource center on human rights and possibly for the development of an associated e-learning module for Bank staff.

Value chain development for green jobs: Volume II - Operational Manual

08 March 2011

This project developed an Operational Manual (Volume II) based on the analytical framework developed in the Guide on Value Chain Development for Green Jobs (Volume I). The Manual outlined the practical steps necessary to implement the methodology.

Expanding frontiers in gender and development

07 March 2011

March 8 2011 marks the centenary of International Women’s Day, a day that celebrates the economic, political and social achievements of women, and also serves as a reminder of the inequities still to be addressed. This event will aim to identify new frontiers in important areas of gender and development including gender-based violence, climate change, economic and social empowerment, and governance, with the possibility for highlighting promising new initiatives and the potential to go to scale.

Spatial poverty traps: an overview

08 December 2010

This paper provides introduces a joint ODI and CPRC Working Paper Series, ‘Spatial Poverty Traps – What Are They and What Can Be Done About Them?’ The series seeks to progress thinking and debate on the spatial dimensions of development, with a specific focus on poverty.

Rethinking social protection using a gender lens

23 October 2010

This paper synthesises findings from a multi-country research project examining the extent to which existing social protection programming approaches are reinforcing women’s traditional roles and responsibilities, or harnessing the potential for social protection to transform gender relations in economic and social spheres.

Tackling child vulnerabilities through social protection: lessons from West and Central Africa

21 July 2010

This Background Note synthesises learning on child-sensitive social protection in West and Central Africa, drawing on country case studies in Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Republic of Congo (Congo) and Senegal.

Opportunities and challenges in promoting policy- and practice-relevant knowledge on child rights

19 July 2010

This paper analyses the linkages between knowledge and policy in child rights issues, and presents frameworks and lessons through which to promote the appropriate design of rights strategies.