Archive for December, 2010

Expert seminar with Dr MQ Patton ‘Developmental evaluation’

Monday, December 20th, 2010

Date: 29th March 2011 Venue: in the Netherlands NOW CANCELLED. Further information will be provided when available With pleasure we would like to announce an expert seminar with Dr. Michael Quinn Patton on 'Developmental evaluation - new kid on the evaluation block'. Developmental evaluation is based on insights from complex dynamic systems, uncertainty, nonlinearity, ...

What Accountability Pressures do MPs in Africa Face and How Do They Respond? Evidence from Ghana

Monday, December 6th, 2010

Source:  Lindberg, S., 2010,  Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 48, No. 1, pp. 117-142 VIA Governance and Social Development Resource Centre ] Summary: What is the role of clientelism in African politics? How are MPs held accountable in Ghana? This article examines the daily accountability pressures and ...

Monitoring and Evaluating Civil Service Performance

Monday, December 6th, 2010

[from the Research Helpdesk of the Governance and Social Development Resource Centre ] Request: Summarise recent research findings and intellectual debate on how to best monitor and evaluate civil service performance, including international best practice and issues around standardised indicators (along the lines of the PEFA framework). Key ...

Value for Money: How are other donors approaching ‘value for money’ in their aid programming?

Monday, December 6th, 2010

....A question posed to the Research Helpdesk of the Governance and Social Development Resource Centre "Key findings: DFID appears to have gone the furthest among aid agencies in developing the concept of ‘value for money’ (VFM). It is the only agency that explicitly uses the terminology frequently in its policies ...

Does Research Reduce Poverty? Assessing the welfare impact of policy-orientated research in agriculture

Friday, December 3rd, 2010

ALINe publication: Sumner, A., Masset, E. and Mulmi, R. (2010) IDS Practice Paper, under review. Available online EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In the current context of the global financial crisis and its aftermath, development resources are likely to be getting scarcer. Resources for development research are too. The set of circumstances generating the ...

Alain de Botton, on the ambivalence of “Success”

Friday, December 3rd, 2010



Review of Impact and Effectiveness of Transparency and Accountability Initiatives

Wednesday, December 1st, 2010

[from the IDS website] McGee,R. and Gaventa, J. - 23-Nov-10 Download this publication free of charge Transparency and accountability have emerged over the past decade as key ways to address both developmental failures and democratic deficits. In the development context, the argument is that through greater accountability, ‘leaky ...

House of Commons International Development Committee interviews DFID

Wednesday, December 1st, 2010

...specifically, Nemat (Minouche) Shafik, Permanent Secretary, Department for International Development, and her colleagues, on Tuesday 16 November at 10.30am, on the subject of DFID in 2009-10 and the Resource Accounts 2009-10. The proceedings can be viewed here on Parliament TV Some of the questions asked: You have a sharply rising ...

Conference: Making the Invisible Visible: An Emerging Community of Practice in Indicators, Sustainability and Values

Monday, October 18th, 2010

Date: December 16-18, 2010 Venue: University of Brighton, UK The University of Brighton will be hosting a groundbreaking, EU funded, international conference on the theme of Making the Invisible Visible: An Emerging Community of Practice in Indicators, Sustainability and Values, bringing together the leading thinkers, practitioners and organizations in these fields.  The ...