"Some programme indicators are designed to be collected at programme level. Others are designed to capture, summarise or aggregate information collected at project or partner level. It is important to clarify how information on indicators is transmitted between different levels of a programme." (Int
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roduction)
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"Chapters are extended works of papers presented at Communication/Culture and The Sustainable Development Goals (CCSDG): Challenges for a New Generation, an international conference held in Chiang Mai University in December 2015. The chapters address assessments of Millennium Development Goals in se
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veral Asian countries and the region as a whole. The book also identifies and discusses the changes and potential improvements in the transition from Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015) to Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030). Areas that are covered in the book, which are illustrated with case studies, include Corporate Social Accountability, Information and Communications Technologies, and Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs)." (Publisher description)
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"Why has the US so dramatically failed in Afghanistan since 2001? Dominant explanations have ignored the bureaucratic divisions and personality conflicts inside the US state. This book rectifies this weakness in commentary on Afghanistan by exploring the significant role of these divisions in the US
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’s difficulties in the country that meant the battle was virtually lost before it even began. The main objective of the book is to deepen readers’ understanding of the impact of bureaucratic politics on nation-building in Afghanistan, focusing primarily on the Bush administration. It rejects the ‘rational actor’ model, according to which the US functions as a coherent, monolithic agent. Instead, internal divisions within the foreign policy bureaucracy are explored, to build up a picture of the internal tensions and contradictions that bedevilled US nation-building efforts. The book also contributes to the vexed issue of whether or not the US should engage in nation-building at all, and if so under what conditions." (Publisher description)
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"Many resource-strapped developing country governments seek international aid, but when that assistance is channeled through domestic civil society, it can threaten their political control. As a result, in the last two decades, 39 of the world’s 153 low- and middle-income countries have adopted la
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ws restricting the inflow of foreign aid to domestically operating nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Governments recognize that such laws harm their international reputations for supporting democracy and may invite donor punishment in terms of aid reductions. Yet, they perceive foreign aid to NGOs as supporting political opponents and threatening their grip on power. In the aftermath of competitive electoral victories, governments often take new legal steps to limit these groups’ funding. We test this argument on an original dataset of laws detailing the regulation of foreign aid inflows to domestically operating NGOs in 153 low- and middle-income countries for the period 1993–2012. Using an event history approach, we find that foreign aid flows are associated with an increased risk of restrictive law adoption; a log unit increase in foreign aid raises the probability of adoption by 6.7%. This risk is exacerbated after the holding of competitive elections: the interaction of foreign aid and competitive elections increases the probability of adoption by 11%." (Abstract)
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"A comprehensive, practical guide to the on-the-ground tasks of evaluating and monitoring democracy assistance programs, from planning and implementation to preparing and presenting evaluation reports." (Publisher description)
"This article concerns a study whose questions, methods and analytical conclusions were the work of a group of Karimojong in Uganda. Its report included text and photographs, plain language, direct voices and faces, and little theorising. When it was disseminated it appealed to local people and to a
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development consultant concerned with inclusion, but was dismissed as useless by a donor concerned with influencing government policy. This article looks beyond social discrimination and power in understanding these reactions, and explores the communicative encounter itself, asking what makes work relevant, meaningful and influential? This research doesn’t influence policy, but it does influence local action and the work of reflective intermediaries which, after all, is important." (Abstract)
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"A review of case studies from a global, ten-year research project coordinated by the Institute of Development Studies suggests that previous efforts to understand the value of research for promoting social change has underappreciated the contribution of researchers as social actors. Researchers inh
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abit a complex web of relations, they hold many identities, and they act politically to bring about social change in ways large and small that go beyond what they write in journals or in policy briefs. Through interviews and self-reflection, we explored some of these ways – formal and informal, direct and indirect – that researchers communicate their knowledge. To capture some of the diversity, this article presents a typology of different ‘roles’ that researchers play as communicators. We hope this typology might help to clarify our understanding of research utilisation, and might also provide insight into how to approach research communication in more strategic and creative ways." (Abstract)
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"Research has potential to improve the lives of the world’s vulnerable people – if it is appropriately referred to in decision-making processes. While there is a significant industry of activity each year to communicate research findings, little systematic research has tested or compared the eff
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ectiveness of such efforts. One popular research communication tool is the policy brief. In this article we draw on findings from a recent study on how a policy brief works; concluding that a policy brief does not have a linear effect on its readers. Instead, a reader can take a number of alternative routes from belief to action, some of which could subvert the intended outcome of the policy brief in question. We reflect also on the question of what makes for an effective policy brief; concluding that policy briefs that give personality and form to the researcher behind the written word may invoke a deeper relationship between the reader and the author, and affect a greater inclination in the reader to share the message with someone else – that is, they pass the hot potato. The study itself was a first of its kind and contributes to our understanding about the effectiveness of research communication, as well as how to evaluate research communication effectiveness." (Abstract)
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