At the cutting edge


Review of DFID's Gender Equality Action Plan

SDDirect's team of gender specialists, Francis Watkins and Alice Kerr Wilson, asked Fiona Coffey, an organisation development and change management expert, to work alongside them to evaluate DFID's progress in gender mainstreaming. Fiona Coffey reports.

Evaluation of UNIFEM's work in gender-responsive budgeting

An SDDirect team recently completed a major international evaluation of UNIFEM's efforts over five years to ensure that planning and budgeting processes take gender data and analysis into account. The evaluation was carried out over a period of eight months and involved evaluation visits to UNIFEM's work in Ecuador, Morocco, Mozambique and Senegal.

Urbanisation and poverty: a social development perspective

There is currently a compelling shift of attention towards urbanisation and poverty amongst the international development community. The UK Parliament's International Development Committee (IDC) submitted a report on DFID's work on urban issues in October 2009. The World Bank will soon be launching its new urban strategy and UN-Habitat is preparing for the fifth World Urban Forum to be held in Rio de Janeiro in March 2010

Stabilisation in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province

SDDirect's Adam Burke provided support to the UK government's Stabilisation Unit in efforts to forge a common plan for rebuilding Pakistan's Swat Valley and the neighbouring areas of Malakand. The unit combines the efforts of different UK government departments in conflict or post-conflict situations. On this occasion, they were able to respond very rapidly to a Pakistan government request for support.

Indicators of change: Measuring impact in voice and accountability

Support is growing for initiatives that raise the voice of people in developing countries so that they are able to talk with governments and hold officials to account. Jeremy Holland and Allyson Thirkell report on a paper they wrote in response to a demand from a range of advisers for tools to effectively measure the results of the UK Department for International Development's work in voice and accountability.

A single entity to promote gender equality and women's empowerment

SDDirect undertook research and analysis of the United Nations' delivery for women in Tajikistan and Ecuador to inform DFID's contribution to debates on the reform of the UN's gender entity. Findings and recommendations were presented to members of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) who met in Geneva in July.

Support to White Paper: Eliminating World Poverty: Building our Common Future

SDDirect provided facilitating support to DFID's Social Protection Team recently during consultations for DFID's eagerly awaited new White Paper, Eliminating World Poverty: Building our Common Future. The consultations brought together key DFID staff, academic and NGO partners to discuss social protection ideas at the cutting edge of the International Development Agenda.

The UK's International Development Agenda

SDDirect was one of the organisers of the 2009 Global Retreat for DFID's Social Development Advisers (SDAs). The retreat brought together both SDAs and DFID's statisticians to discuss themes at the cutting edge of the Government's International Development Agenda.

Women and religiosity in Muslim majority countries

It has hitherto been assumed, at least by western development practitioners, that women's rights are best attained through secularist liberal interpretations of equality, of the sort reflected in CEDAW type conventions. Yet what does increasing use of the veil and greater religious observances across the Islamic world signify in this context?