2008: Volume 39
Volume 39 Number 4 September 2008
Edited by: Thomas Tanner and Tom Mitchell
Climate change gets attention across the world. IPCC findings call for radical limits to atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations responsible for human-induced climate change. Achieving an international agreement, particularly under the UNFCCC, on emissions targets, burden sharing, trading mechanisms and technological and financial assistance remains a high priority concern for the 'mitigation' of climate change.
Simultaneously, there is a growing acknowledgement of the need to enable human and natural systems to adjust to actual or expected climate stimuli or their effects, a process known as 'adaptation'. Adaptation is now a central strand of climate policy, thanks to the increasing engagement of the development community, particularly through emphasising the differentiated nature of impacts across the world and within societies. Adaptation is framed as an equity and rights issue. The central message of this IDS Bulletin is that adaptation will be ineffective and inequitable if it fails to learn from and build upon an understanding of the multi-dimensional and differentiated nature of poverty and vulnerability.
Volume 39 Number 3 July 2008
Edited by: Andrea Lynch, Hilary Standing and Andrea Cornwall
Abortion has become an ever more controversial issue, provoking strong reactions both 'for' and 'against'. Language used in disputes over whether or not women should have access to safe and legal abortion indicates just how polarised debates have become: pro-choice versus pro-life; pro-abortion versus anti-choice.
As the anti-abortion agenda has become coupled with other conservative agendas, such as pro-abstinence, pro-chastity and anti-contraception, an increasingly assertive movement has evolved. The extension of these conservative forces to parts of the world where thousands of women die every year because they were unable to access safe abortion and protect themselves from HIV infection, has turned this polarised dispute into an urgent development issue.
Articles in this IDS Bulletin are unequivocal on the issues at stake: access to safe abortion is a matter of human rights, democracy and public health, and the denial of such access is a major cause of death and impairment, with significant costs to development. All contributors share a commitment to a woman's right to have access to safe, affordable services for the termination of pregnancy for the widest range of reasons.
They bring perspectives from a range of contexts: countries where abortion is not guaranteed, or only under restrictive conditions, and countries where it is guaranteed but there are strong movements of counterattack. Profound inequities of access globally and nationally are highlighted, and the importance of movements to address this. Contributors focus on policy reform and lessons learned from struggles to obtain or retain access to safe abortion services. They reflect on strategies contributing to successful outcomes or more constructive dialogue in countries where abortion is being debated.
Volume 39 Number 2 March 2008
Edited by: Sarah Cook, James Heintz and Naila Kabeer
The working poor contribute to, and benefit from, economic growth through labour markets and paid work, but employment generation has not featured significantly in the macroeconomic agenda. It was assumed that opening up economies to global competition and flexible labour markets would generate labour-intensive growth trajectories and secure livelihoods, leaving public measures for social protection restricted to those unable to earn their own living, but these predictions have not been borne out in practice.
Poverty rates have declined, yet globalisation has brought new insecurity. Labour market flexibility has increased labour force participation but the informal nature of these jobs mean they are precarious and badly paid, trapping some in chronic poverty.
Thinking on social protection, concerned about possible distortions of the labour market, has done little to stem the spread of informal employment. Despite policy commitment to poverty reduction through labour-intensive growth, the gains for the poor have been ambiguous. These themes were explored in a 2007 workshop convened by IDS and WIEGO.
Bringing together researchers, practitioners and policymakers, their contributions now make up this IDS Bulletin. Articles cover the changing nature of the global economy, flexible labour market policies in different regions of the world, conceptualisation of labour markets, implications for macroeconomic policies, and the scope for social protection. The conclusion is the need for a better understanding of the way labour markets function in the 'real' world if we are to find policies that will better deliver on the outcomes they promise.
Volume 39 Number 1 January 2008
Edited by: Howard White
Aid effectiveness has long been disputed, after decades of inconclusive macroeconomic analysis. Now there is a growing body of evidence from detailed, field level, microeconomic impact evaluations.
The articles in this IDS Bulletin show how the design of these studies increasingly address the various sources of bias for which previous projects were criticised. These later evaluations provide a firm basis on which to draw conclusions on aid effectiveness. Generalisations – bearing in mind specific contexts in which interventions have or have not worked – will come from further evaluations. This volume presents examples of these studies from a number of agencies: AFD, ADB, IDB, JBIC, the Netherlands Ministry for Foreign Affairs, USAID and the World Bank.
Challenges – such as enlarging study scale and technical skill, and resistance to new techniques – remain. While the situation is changing, deliberate action is required, specifically greater understanding of the scope and limitations of quantitative impact evaluation. Greater use of well-designed, theory-based, rigorous impact evaluations will enhance the likelihood of achieving international poverty reduction targets.
Impact evaluation design should ensure policy relevance and be able to answer not only what works but why, or why not. Qualitative fieldwork can lead to further quantitative analysis, resulting in clear and focused policy conclusions. While impact evaluations can be perceived as more expensive, within tight budgets the money must be best spent to ensure most effective learning and accountability. Local stakeholder involvement is another ingredient for the desired aim of policy impact.
2007: Volume 38
Volume 38 Number 6 November 2007
Edited by: Peter Houtzager, Anuradha Joshi and Adrian Gurza Lavalle
This IDS Bulletin focuses on the role of civil society actors in the design of sectoral reforms and the possibilities of social accountability resulting from this role. In addition to large institutional reforms in social assistance and health, the articles cover education reform in India as well. They are compiled from the first year fieldwork findings of the study called 'Modes of Service Delivery, Collective Action and Social Accountability in Brazil, India, and Mexico'.
Begun in 2005, the study assesses whether sector-wide reforms of public services, involving forms of decentralisation, pluralisation of service providers, or user/citizen participation, could enable greater accountability from below. 'Critical cases' focus on the large urban centres of countries where reforms have been extensive and varied: São Paulo, Delhi and Mexico City. They have relatively more active civil societies, a substantial history of service delivery by public agencies, and are focal points for public policy. Here national reforms can be expected to lead to changes in the pattern of state-society interactions. Political processes can increase social accountability, and expand and improve coverage of public services for those in poverty, acknowledging the severe constraints that exist on the agency of poor individuals.
Potential tension between different governance roles defines an important research frontier as knowledge of social accountability advances. These contributions are a first at developing a more nuanced and empirically grounded understanding of the mutually reinforcing or exclusive nature of these civil society governance roles, and of the new governance institutions that attempt to combine these roles in innovative but possibly contradictory ways.
