A cluster randomised controlled trial to determine the effect of community mobilisation and advocacy on men’s use of violence in periurban South Africa: study protocol (BMJ Open 8(3), 2018)
This paper describes the design and methods of a cluster randomised controlled trial (C-RCT) to determine the effectiveness of a community mobilisation intervention that is designed to reduce the perpetration of violence against women (VAW). Methods and analysis: A C-RCT of nine intervention and nine control clusters is being carried out in a periurban, semiformal settlement near Johannesburg, South Africa, between 2016 and 2018. A community mobilisation and advocacy intervention, called Sonke CHANGE is being implemented over 18 months. It comprises local advocacy and group activities to engage community members to challenge harmful gender norms and reduce VAW. The intervention is hypothesised to improve equitable masculinities, reduce alcohol use and ultimately, to reduce VAW. Intervention effectiveness will be determined through an audio computer-assisted self-interview questionnaire with behavioural measures among 2600 men aged between 18 and 40 years at baseline, 12 months and 24 months. The primary trial outcome is men’s use of physical and/or sexual VAW. Secondary outcomes include harmful alcohol use, gender attitudes, controlling behaviours, transactional sex and social cohesion. Click here for full paper ...
“Voice of the voiceless”: Learning from SORADI’s project to strengthen accountability in Hargeisa (IAAAP Paper, 2018)
Citizens’ ability to seek accountability from Hargeisa Local Council is highly constrained, SORADI’s evidence-based, coalition-building model provides some clues as to what an effective approach might look like. Diverse, highly-networked, inclusive groups of citizens can work together to design and implement advocacy strategies, creating positive momentum for change. However, the development of capable, accountable and responsive authorities requires a step-change in the quality of the Councillors, who are responsible for leadership and oversight. The paper draws on 22 key informant interviews who have been involved in the project, including members from both accountability fora. Click here for full paper ...
The Modern Slavery Trap: Bonded Labour (IDS Briefing, 2018)
The IDS briefing entitled The Modern Slavery Trap: Bonded Labour highlights is based on research conducted with villagers in Nepal and India by IDS research fellows Pauline Oosterhoff and Danny Burns, supported by the Freedom Fund. Its key recommendations include prioritising support for local officials to enforce existing laws on bonded labour; and developing inclusive, community approaches to tackling bonded labour, as it derives from dynamics of whole families and communities - warning that focusing on individuals will have limited impact. Generations within marginalised communities most affected The briefing highlights that bonded labour disproportionately affects communities living in poverty that are historically socially and economically marginalised. Generations within families in bonded labour can find themselves trapped in a cycle of bonded labour. For example, if adults who are already in bonded labour require further loans, they will often have to offer their child’s labour to repay the additional debt – thus trapping the next generation into bonded labour. Family members can also become bonded labourers through inherited debt when original debtors within their family die. Participatory data provides critical insights into bonded labour Participatory research involving the gathering of ‘life stories’ from villagers, revealed key factors leading households in particular areas of Nepal into debt bondage and ...
Accountability for Health Equity: Galvanising a Movement for Universal Health Coverage (IDS Bulletin 49:2, 2018)
Since the publication of the 2004 World Development Report, a range of different attempts have been made to make the design, prioritisation and delivery of health services more accountable to different stakeholders. However, complex politics and power dynamics can limit or skew people’s abilities to access services or hold them to account, particularly for poor and marginalized people. In July 2017, the IDS hosted a workshop in collaboration with Future Health Systems, the Impact Initiative, the Open Society Foundations, Unequal Voices, and Health Systems Global, to develop new thinking and practical approaches to improving accountability relationships and processes in favour of greater health equity. This new issue of the IDS Bulletin focusses on three principal themes that emerged from this workshop as needing particular attention. First, the nature of accountability politics ‘in time’ and the importance of longitudinal approaches to change. Second, the contested politics of ‘naming’ and measuring accountability, and the intersecting dimensions of marginalisation and exclusion that are missing from current debates. Third, the shifting nature of power in global health and new configurations of health actors, social contracts, and the role of technology. Click here for full bulletin ...
People Centred Advocacy for a more Sustainable Food System (IIED Toolkit, 2018)
Fostering civic action and agency to ensure that citizens have voice and choice in relation to the food they eat is vital. However, food systems are complex and many actors help shape and influence them at local, national and international levels. By lobbying from the grassroots up, systemic changes to food systems can be made in order to address local and national challenges. This toolkit aims to provide essential guidance and ideas to advocacy professionals and civil society organisations wishing to mobilise and support low-income citizen groups to advocate for improved diets. It is ideal for civil society organisations that work with those most affected and neglected by food policy, low income consumers, producers, traders, processers and vendors - the people who form the backbone of informal food systems, but whose needs are rarely factored in by policy makers. Click here for full toolkit ...
Community-driven Data Collection in Informal Settlements (IIED Brief, 2017)
Around a billion urban dwellers in the global South live in informal settlements. Most of these lack basic infrastructure (including water piped to homes, good provision for sanitation, paved roads, paths and drains) and services (including schools, health care and household waste collection). In many cities in Africa and Asia, more than half of the population live in informal settlements. But there is little or no data on these settlements. Most have no street names and their residents have no addresses. Many national governments rely on national sample surveys for data on health and living conditions, and these have sample sizes too small to provide needed data for the residents of informal settlements. This brief finds that with community-driven data collection, grassroots organisations collect relevant data to help address their needs. This can be done in various ways, for instance through surveys, participatory mapping or enumerations. Click here for full brief ...
Construcción de paz en Colombia : una mirada desde los jóvenes (Search for Common Ground, 2018)
El presente estudio recoge los resultados cuantitativos y cualitativos del Mapeo de Jóvenes por Jóvenes, investigación liderada por 41 jóvenes entre los 18 y 29 años en 21 de los 24 municipios donde opera el Programa de Alianzas para la Reconciliación de la Agencia de Estados Unidos para el Desarrollo Internacional (USAID), diseñada y supervisada por Search for Common Ground en Colombia. Los resultados del mapeo evidencian la importancia y el rol de la juventud en la construcción de paz en Colombia; proveen de lineamientos y recomendaciones a PAR y sus socios sobre cómo emprender y llevar a cabo un trabajo colaborativo con las organizaciones juveniles en el territorio; y sirven de punto de partida tanto para Search como para PAR y sus socios en el diseño de una estrategia de concientización y movilización de los jóvenes hacia la construcción de paz y la reconciliación en sus comunidades. Haga clic aquí para obtener un informe completo ...
Peacebuilding in Colombia: A Youth Perspective (Search for Common Ground Report, 2018)
This study gathers quantitative and qualitative results from the Jóvenes por Jóvenes Mapping. This research was led by 41 young people between 18 and 29 years of age in 21 of the 24 municipalities where the Program of Alliances for Reconciliation (PAR) from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) operates, designed and supervised by Search for Common Ground in Colombia. The youth mapping results highlight the importance and role of youth in peacebuilding in Colombia. They provide guidelines and recommendations to PAR and its partners on how to undertake collaborative work with youth-led organizations in the territory, and serve as a starting point for both Search and PAR in the design of an awareness and mobilization strategy of young people towards peacebuilding and reconciliation in their communities. Click here for full study ...
Somali women’s political participation and leadership-evidence and opportunities (DFID research paper, 2017)
This report synthesises findings from an 11 month qualitative research project (August 2016 - June 2017), carried out by Social Development Direct and Forcier Consulting, and funded by the Research and Evidence Division (RED) within the UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID). The research aims to provide evidence on the principal enabling and constraining factors for Somali women’s participation and leadership in government and political structures, and offers insight on the strategies and circumstances under which Somali women have, and have not, accessed and influenced within these spaces. Click here for full details ...
Politicians’ perspectives on voice and accountability: evidence from a survey of South African local councillors (Making All Voices Count Research Report, 2017)
A growing body of research exists on democratic accountability. Much of this research focuses on citizen strategies for expressing their views, and on efforts to hold politicians and government service providers accountable. Despite this research, little is known about how politicians in young democracies view these aspects of democratic governance. Given that accountability can be understood as a feedback ‘loop’ between citizens and elected representatives, it is necessary to gain a better understanding of the norms and values of politicians themselves, the pressures they face and the ways that they communicate with their constituents. This paper details findings from an original survey of approximately 1,000 South African councillors in 2016 and 2017 to explore what representation and accountability looks like from their perspective. How do they understand the various links in the accountability chain, including citizen input and deliberation, norms of good government and pressures from political parties, friends and family? The quality of democratic accountability, and the success of interventions to improve citizen representation, may depend on the norms and beliefs held by elected representatives. Click here for for further details and to download the report ...
We know our wounds: National and local organisations involved in humanitarian response in Lebanon (ALNAP Country Study 2016)
This research reflects the understanding, perceptions, motivation and experiences of 11 national and local organisations in Lebanon that are active and involved in humanitarian response. It is based on a desire to hear what they have to say in their own terms. Using and adapting Grounded Theory for data collection and analysis, ALNAP conducted intensive interviews with the organisations, without applying a preconceived hypothesis to validate or refute and without pre-established questionnaires and assumptions as to who these organisations are, how they work and what they should be achieving. The aim of the research was to pose one question to research participants and actively listen to their answers: What are your experiences, motivations, practices and engagement in humanitarian response in Lebanon? More than 300 pages of transcripts from interviews were analysed and coded line by line, to let the interviewees’ concepts, understandings and meanings emerge. This report does not claim to represent the wide diversity of Lebanese civil society. Rather, it delves into understanding how these organisations conceive and implement actions and processes to support individuals and population affected by conflict, inequality, exclusion, discrimination, displacement and violence in Lebanon,showing common patterns and trends that have resonance among the organisations interviewed. Additional country profiling and contextual interviews with national coordination bodies and local think-tanks informed and ...
The potential for political leadership in HIV/AIDS communication campaigns in Sub-Saharan Africa (Global Health Action article 10:1 2017)
Background: The HIV/AIDS epidemic has become a point of important political concern for governments especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Clinical and public health interventions to curb the epidemic can be greatly enhanced with the strategic support of political leaders. Objective: This paper analyzed the role of national political leadership in large-scale HIV/AIDS communications campaigns in 14 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: The paper primarily reviewed grey and white literature published from 2005–2014. It further triangulated data from in-person and phone interviews with key public health figures. Results: A number of themes emerged supporting political leaders’ efforts toward HIV/AIDS program improvement, including direct involvement of public officials in campaign spearheading, the acknowledgment of personal relationship to the HIV epidemic, and public testing and disclosure of HIV status. Areas for future improvement were also identified, including the need for more directed messaging, increased transparency both nationally and internationally and the reduction of stigmatizing messaging from leaders. Conclusions: The political system has a large role to play within the healthcare system, particularly for HIV/AIDS. This partnership between politics and the health must continue to strengthen and be leveraged to effect major change in behaviors and attitudes across Sub-Saharan Africa. Click here for full paper ...