"Citizens’ Voice and Accountability (CV&A) work has emerged as a priority in the international development agenda from the 1990s onwards. In their CV&A work, donors recognise the importance of context: it shapes relation to that context. However, context awareness has not proven sufficient to enab
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le donors to grapple with key challenges posed by the interaction between formal and informal institutions, the prevalence of the latter over the former in many instances, and underlying power relations and dynamics. Some examples of positive impact of CV&A interventions have emerged from the interventions analysed for this study. This is mostly at the level of positive citizen awareness, empowering certain marginalised groups, and encouraging state officials. However, within the sample analysed, such impact/effects have remained limited and isolated, and have so far proven difficult to scale up. A critical factor leading to the observed limited nature of results is related to the fact that donor expectations as to what such work can achieve are too high, and are based on misguided assumptions around the nature of voice and accountability, and the linkages between the two. There is a tension between the long-term processes of transforming state-society relations and donors’ needs/desires to produce quick results. Scaling up sustainability are also issues not currently sufficiently addressed within intervention design and implementation." (Executive summary, page v)
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"This paper reviews the public positioning of official development assistance (ODA) pr ograms of selected donor countries, as well as that of multilateral development institutions. It compares and contrasts their communications objectives, messages, strategies, practices and products. It also discus
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ses the organizational structures that governments and multilaterals have established to manage public information and communications on development aid. Based on this review and the Concept Paper for Russia's International Development Assistance, it suggests issues for discussion towards developing a communications strategy and plan for Russia's ODA program." (Purpose, page 1)
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"Although corruption has always been a quietly recognized aspect of development aid programs, the taboo against openly discussing it is only now being widely overcome. Georg Cremer systematically addresses the subject, exploring the nature and impact of corruption, the conditions under which it is m
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ost likely to take hold, and the strategies that can enable aid organizations, both NGO's and those in the state sector, to limit the risk. This is a systematic study of the nature and impact of corruption in development aid programs, the conditions under which it is most likely to take hold, and the strategies that can enable aid organizations to limit the risk." (Back cover)
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"Planning, monitoring and evaluation (PME) remains a challenge for many development organisations in spite of countless PME workshops, experts and manuals. Yet, we believe that effective PME is essential for organisational survival (and therefore for sustainable development) and that this can be nur
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tured through careful and sensitive PME training and facilitation. We do not propose here a PME manual: our aim in these pages is rather to share some of our real-life experiences as PME facilitators and to offer suggestions to support PME processes, with a focus on civil society organisations. As a group of facilitators who have worked on PME issues in different contexts, we realised that we confronted three common challenges: 1. First, a perception of PME as imposed, ‘technical’ and expensive [...] 2. Second, in terms of PME contents, there is a frequent focus on a particular project, or programme, rather than on the wider organisation, its reason for existence and the broader context in which it operates [...] 3. Third, we see PME support processes that emphasise training workshops which, however well delivered, seldom lead to successful PME application, let alone sustained use. This refl ects the limits of a one-shot method, as opposed to a more process-oriented approach, where PME is about day-to-day activities and attitudes, rather than ‘PME events’. So why this book? While we work in various countries, for different organisations and in different roles, we propose to share experiences that refl ect these common challenges and help to: 1. Embrace a ‘total organisation’ approach to PME, not only rooted in programmes, or projects, but with a wider perspective: that of the ‘total organisation’, with its financial dimension, its environment, its collaborators and competitors, in a context informed by local and national cultures [...] 2. Enhance custom-made PME. We have found that PME support is rarely effective if it is not customised to a particular organisation and its stakeholders [...] 3. Bring PME into daily learning practice so that it becomes part of mental processes within a partner organisation, changing mindsets and attitudes, while refl ecting contexts and capacities." (Pages 3-5)
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"An informal network composed of representatives from a number of UK organisations concerned about the impact of research on the reality of poverty convened a workshop on 5-6 September 2006. The objectives of the workshop were to mobilise a wider group of organisations working in the field of resear
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ch communication to explore and analyse the different models for monitoring and evaluating research communication." (Page 1)
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"This study critically evaluates international democratization assistance in postconflict societies to discern what has worked, what has not, and how aid programs can be designed to have a more positive impact. The authors offer a unique recipient perspective as they explore three dimensions of demo
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cracy promotion: elections, free media, and human rights. Drawing on the experiences of Afghanistan, Cambodia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Uganda, they suggest concrete ways in which the international community can better foster democratization in the wake of conflict." (Publisher description)
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"Dieses Glossar zu Themen und Institutionen der EU Entwicklungspolitik bietet kurze und prägnante Einstiegsinformationen zu aktuellen und wichtigen entwicklungspolitischen Abkürzungen und Schlagworten, mit denen sich EU-Institutionen sowie NROs derzeit befassen. Für alle, die sich weitergehend in
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formieren wollen, sind Links ins World Wide Web enthalten." (Seite 3)
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"The purpose of the final evaluation was to provide the Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) and the U.S. Agency for International Development with an assessment of the relevance, effectiveness, and lessons learned from OTI’s mega-program in Afghanistan. Since evaluations of the media program ha
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d been undertaken and a study of management issues was planned, this evaluation addressed the following fundamental questions: 1. Was OTI strategic? 2. Did OTI promote government legitimacy? 3. Did OTI’s use of participatory democratic processes increase citizen’s connections to each other and to local authorities?" (Executive summary, page 6)
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"Highlights the major accomplishments and setbacks of electoral, human rights and media assistance to eight post-conflict countries: Cambodia, Ethipoia, Rwanda, Uganda, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, El Salvador and Guatemala. International assistance has been instrumental in encouraging democratic initi
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atives in post-Conflict societies. However, democracy assistance has not been as effective as it could have been for a number of reasons." (commbox)
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"Das BMZ hat bereits zu Beginn der von den Vereinten Nationen ausgerufenen indigenen Dekade (1994 – 2004) ein Konzept zur Zusammenarbeit mit indianischen Bevölkerungsgruppen erarbeitet, das für die GTZ und KFW Entwicklungsbank verbindlichen und für NROs orientierenden Charakter hat. Dieses Konz
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ept ist die Richtschnur für die Zusammenarbeit mit indigenen Völkern und ihre adäquate Berücksichtigung in den Vorhaben der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit (EZ). Damit lag relativ früh ein Grundlagenpapier vor. Davon ausgehend beleuchtet der vorliegende Reader die indigene Thematik im Kontext der deutschen EZ aus verschiedenen Perspektiven. Die Beiträge der Autoren und Autorinnen und die in ihnen genannten Beispiele konzentrieren sich auf Erfahrungen in der deutschen Technischen Zusammenarbeit, greifen aber auch solche aus anderen Institutionen der internationalen Zusammenarbeit auf. Ein Beitrag der KFW Entwicklungsbank ergänzt die Palette um die Erfahrungen der Finanziellen Zusammenarbeit mit indigenen Völkern und den Sozialinvestitionsfonds. Das vorliegende Buch möchte Mitarbeitern und Mitarbeiterinnen der EZ und anderen Interessierten eine Einführung und einen Überblick zur Thematik geben." (Vorwort)
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"Since the end of the Cold War, a virtual army of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) from the United States, Britain, Germany, and elsewhere in Europe have flocked to Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia. These NGOs are working on such diverse tasks as helping to establish competitive political
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parties, elections, and independent media, as well as trying to reduce ethnic conflict. This important book is among the few efforts to assess the impact of these international efforts to build democratic institutions. The case studies presented here provide a portrait of the mechanisms by which ideas commonly associated with democratic states have evolved in formerly communist states, revealing conditions that help as well as hurt the process." (Publisher description)
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