Gender and Intersecting Inequalities in Local Government in South Asia

This paper is an evidence review of how intersecting forms of inequalities influence women’s political participation and representation at the local level in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. The review shows that while the quota system has increased women’s presence in local government, intersections of gender and caste or gender and class affect minority women’s ability to contest elections, participate in local government meetings, contest opinions, and represent the interests of their community and that of gender equality in different ways. These intersections also make women vulnerable to discriminatory practices within the government and also to violence. How effectively minority women are able to tackle discriminatory practices is influenced by the nature of patriarchy, the history of women’s engagement in local level institutions, women’s involvement in political mobilisations and engagement of women’s organisations on these issues. The paper also identifies research, policy and programme gaps on intersectional identities and women’ political participation.SDC-DDLG Networ

Abordagens para promover responsabilização social: revisão de algumas experiências

O Programa Cidadania e Participação (CEP) (2013-2018) apoia os cidadãos na monitoria da qualidade de prestação de serviços de saúde e de educação em quatro províncias de Moçambique, assim como a advogar para a melhoria da qualidade desses serviços nos níveis distrital, provincial e nacional. O CEP pretende contribuir para: uma maior disponibilidade de informação relevante de modo a que os cidadãos tenham um melhor acesso e benefício dos serviços prestados pelo sector público; melhorar as capacidades dos cidadãos de avaliar a prestação de serviços e de se envolverem com os provedores de serviços de modo a melhorar a qualidade dos serviços de saúde e educação aos níveis primário e secundário; apoiar as organizações da sociedade civil a impulsionarem essas constatações nos processos de tomada de decisões a níveis mais altos.Este programa facilitará o diálogo entre cidadãos e comunidade por um lado, e os provedores de serviços por outro lado, para melhorar a qualidade dos serviços. Esta análise constitui uma parte da contribuição do IDS para o Output 5 do CEP (Output 5: ‘Aprendizagem e metodologias compartilhadas e aplicadas por outros actores do desenvolvimento’). Esta fornece uma visão geral de algumas das mais inovadoras experiências de responsabilização social e práticas de envolvimento dos cidadãos de vários contextos africanos, bem como internacionais, como forma de ajudar a aumentar o nível geral de interesse e consciencialização sobre práticas inovadoras de envolvimento dos cidadãos em Moçambique.UKAIDIrish AidDANID

When do Institutions Work? A Comparison of Two Water Disputes over the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna River Basins

This article investigates the motives and incentives that drive countries' diplomatic efforts in water disputes. It aims to identify links between the formation of water management institutions (WMI) and the outcomes of such institutional cooperation. Three features have been identified as key to the effectiveness of WMIs: 1) the development of trust; 2) sanctions aimed at curbing cheating; and 3) the balancing of different countries’ interests over shared waters. This article conducts a comparative analysis of the formation of institutional arrangements among three riparian states by focusing on two cases: water interactions between China and India, and between India and Bangladesh. It argues that India, China and Bangladesh have exhibited different preferences in regard to their participation in WMIs. The two subcases illustrate how different WMIs are formed and also how, in proportion to variations in the level of competition over water quantity, diplomatic cooperation through environmental agreements can lead to different outcomes with varying degrees of success. This article concludes that in the context of the global South, where foreign relations are unstable and countries’ reliance on river basins varied, building trust and balancing interests over water management are especially important to the formation of effective institutional arrangements

The Politics of Reducing Malnutrition: Building Commitment and Accelerating Progress

In the past 5 years, political discourse about the challenge of undernutrition has increased substantially at national and international levels and has led to stated commitments from many national governments, international organisations, and donors. The Scaling Up Nutrition movement has both driven, and been driven by, this developing momentum. Harmonisation has increased among stakeholders, with regard to their understanding of the main causes of malnutrition and to the various options for addressing it. The main challenges are to enhance and expand the quality and coverage of nutrition-specific interventions, and to maximise the nutrition sensitivity of more distal interventions, such as agriculture, social protection, and water and sanitation. But a crucial third level of action exists, which relates to the environments and processes that underpin and shape political and policy processes. We focus on this neglected level. We address several fundamental questions: how can enabling environments and processes be cultivated, sustained, and ultimately translated into results on the ground? How has high-level political momentum been generated? What needs to happen to turn this momentum into results? How can we ensure that high-quality, well-resourced interventions for nutrition are available to those who need them, and that agriculture, social protection, and water and sanitation systems and programmes are proactively reoriented to support nutrition goals? We use a six-cell framework to discuss the ways in which three domains (knowledge and evidence, politics and governance, and capacity and resources) are pivotal to create and sustain political momentum, and to translate momentum into results in high-burden countries

Understanding The Diffusion Modes Of Grassroots Innovations In India: A Study Of Honey Bee Network Supported Innovators

In this paper we examine the outcomes and connections of preferences of the non-formal innovators identified by the Honey Bee Network (HBN) in India. The chosen mode of diffusion of each innovation has been correlated to socio-economic backgrounds, origins of knowledge of the innovators, their motivations, the fields and domains of knowledge application, and product designs characteristics. Evidence indicates that an overwhelming majority of innovations did not seem to require significant financial or technical investments and were of the kind that would be diffused through open sharing far more easily. Further, while some innovators had chosen to be innovator entrepreneurs, the scope of their business remains local and confined to the same village, town, or nearby areas in most cases. Only a handful of innovator entrepreneurs chose to expand their business outside their own locality. The authors conclude that policy makers should try to incorporate in their incubation strategies the principles of cooperation and collective participation among the grassroots innovators in their own respective places to accelerate the impact of grassroots innovations on the economy and society

An analysis of the trade regime in Kenya

Certain developments in international trade have made it inevitable for LDCs to commence import-substituting industrialization. The measures used to intervene in trade for this purpose have resulted in certain factor and commodity price distortions in the domestic economies of LDCs, giving rise to resource allocational and income distribution effects which are not often appreciated. Tariffs quantitative restrictions, import duty drawbacks on inputs as well as administrative controls are shown to have been widely used in Kenya to promote industrialization and exports. Different combinations of these policies have different effects on income distributions resource allocation and profits. The effects are further complicated by imperfections in import-substituting industries. Certain measures are proposed for more efficient combinations of the policies in the face of imperfections