Case Studies

Accountability Counts: Health in Iganga, Uganda

Allyson Thirkell reports on grants funded by the UK Department for International Development to raise the voice of the people and improve the accountability of healthcare officials in Uganda.

Excluded from school in Ethiopia: GEQIP assessment

SDDirect conducted a social assessment of the General Education Quality Improvement Programme in Ethiopia. Our aims were to understand the factors that exclude children from school, to review and understand the social context for the provision of education services, and to suggest how negative social impact could be reduced. Download full report.

Knowledge Module for UN Women documents Parivartan

SDDirect recently documented a programme called Parivartan (meaning change) that aims to prevent rape and domestic violence in New Delhi, India. This case study is part of a an online resource centre for UN Women. Shreya Mitra reports.

Participatory gender and rights audit of DanChurchAid

In the autumn of 2009, SDDirect's Alice Kerr-Wilson and Francis Watkins, with rights specialist, Clare Ferguson and communications specialist, Gayatri Persad, conducted a Participatory Gender and Rights Audit of DanChurchAid to examine the extent to which gender and rights had been considered and integrated into the organisation's internal systems and processes.

Non-medical maternal and newborn health initiative in Pakistan

The Maternal and Newborn Health Research and Advocacy Fund (RAF) was recently launched in Pakistan. A five-year project with a grant fund of £18.3 million, RAF will provide quality, non-clinical research and effective advocacy in support of policy and practice reform to improve the health of mothers and their newborn babies. The aim is to overcome current obstacles to successful service delivery through an understanding of the financial, cultural and physical barriers to increased demand and uptake of these services.

DFID - Africa Gender Equality Action Plan (2009)

SDDirect's Lucy Earle worked with independent consultant, Pat Holden, to provide support for the UK Department for International Development's (DFID) Africa Division to develop its Gender Equality Action Plan. A communications document outlining their commitments was published in September 2009 and is available for download from our site.

ESSPIN- Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria

It is estimated that there are between 7 to 9 million children in Nigeria who are out of school. Social Development Direct, as a core partner in the Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria (ESSPIN), is helping to change this through technical assistance provided directly to state and federal governments. ESSPIN is one of the UK government's largest international development programmes and will support quality basic education reform over a six-year period.

Having an identity and a future - Zimbabwe

SDDirect's Lesley Adams recently contributed to the annual review of Zimbabwe's multi-donor-funded Programme of Support (PoS) for the National Plan of Action for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC). DFID and a number of other donors have been supporting this programme since 2006.

The UNDP Sudan Strategic Partnership with UK-DFID, Dutch Development Cooperation

After over two decades of civil war between North and South Sudan there was some urgency on the part of the development partners to re-engage with the country and kick-start post-conflict recovery through a package of interventions designed to underpin the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

ADB Punjab Devolved Social Services Program

SDDirect worked with RebelGroup Advisory (Netherlands), to develop a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) strategy for the social sectors in Pakistan’s Punjab province. This work was funded by the Asian Development Bank, and formed part of their wider Punjab Devolved Social Services Programme (PDSSP).

Strengthening the Poverty Impact of the Paris Declaration

From May 2007, SDDirect worked with Oxford Policy Management (lead) and workingtogether ltd in an assignment identifying evidence of linkages between Paris Declaration dimensions of country ownership, alignment, harmonisation, managing for results and mutual accountability and the cross cutting social themes of human rights, gender and social exclusion.

Gender training for DFID Western Balkans

SDDirect designed and carried out a tailor-made training session on gender for DFID staff in the Western Balkans team.

Review of ADB-supported programme to protect female garment workers in Cambodia

The garment industry in Cambodia has been a vital source of income for Cambodia since 1997, accounting for almost 95% of the country’s exports. In 2004 the garment industry provided jobs to an estimated 280,000 workers, of which 85-90% were women.

Impact assessment of the Education Stipend Programme for Girls in Bangladesh

The Female Stipend Programme (FSP) is an innovative nationwide programme, covering all areas of rural Bangladesh. It was established over 20 years ago to enable and encourage girls to benefit from secondary education.

Western Balkans social exclusion review

In 2006, SDDirect undertook a set of social exclusion reviews in the Western Balkans, covering Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Serbia. The reviews had a number of objectives, but were primarily designed to highlight key social exclusion issues, identifying and analysing the linkages between social exclusion and poverty reduction.

Social exclusion and gender inequality in Nigeria

This assessment looked at the extent to which social exclusion and gender inequality affect development programmes in Nigeria.

Getting the story straight

Allyson Thirkell (Director at SDDirect) and Hope Kabuchu (a network member) have recently finished a review of DFID's Civil Society Support Programme which funds organisations working on voice and accountability work in Uganda. Here is one of the innovative methods used by one of the programme grantees, CEDOVIP.

DFID - Youth Exclusion, Violence, Conflict and Fragile States (2009)

In a report for DFID's Equity and Rights Team, Lyndsay McLean Hilker and Erika Fraser argue that the structural exclusion and lack of opportunities faced by young people in many developing countries can block or prolong their transition to adulthood and lead to frustration and disillusionment, which, under certain circumstances, can result in their engagement in violence.