Articles
704 in total1 - 30 shown
Sort by
From Science of Delivery to Doing Development Differently
The World Bank has a question; how can it improve its Science of Delivery? The Science of Delivery means "to learn better and adapt more quickly when things work well or when they don't work well and take some of the lessons of that learning and apply them elsewhere." And this comes with structural reforms as well as a change of culture. "We are quite excited about it", said Jeffrey Lewis, Chief Economist of the Global Practices at the World Bank.19 4 6 474
Solar Energy has Great Potential in Africa, but Has Yet to Take Off
Coordination between policy makers and private partners is key to developing solar energy in Africa, said photovoltaic expert Michael Franz as he presented impressions and conclusions of his extensive work on the development of a solar energy market in Kenya at a recent conference in Brussels.19 0 20 460
European Development Cooperation in Context: Director General Fernando Frutuoso de Melo
EuropeAid – or DG DEVCO – is responsible for designing EU development policies and delivering aid to reduce poverty in the world, while ensuring sustainable development and promoting democracy, peace and security. In November last year, EuropeAid welcomed new Director General, Fernando Frutuoso de Melo. Earlier this week, capacity4dev.eu took a camera to his office for an informal conversation on the context of European development cooperation in 2014.18 0 9 624
Here is the Evaluation Report... so now what do we do?
When we talk about evaluation, we often focus on its approaches and methods, how to undertake an evaluation, and the report. This is all very good and useful, but it is not the whole story. Evaluation is essentially part of a wider process of learning.15 6 5 428
Lessons learnt from the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus approach
In 2017, several European Union Delegations were asked to operationalise the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus to better navigate fragility, address roots of conflicts and adopt a new development approach. Three years later, Capacity4dev met with the Delegations in Nigeria and Myanmar to collect their experiences.16 0 3 741
Jane Goodall: “We have a window of time, but we need a radical change”
Best known for her breakthrough study on chimpanzees and her activist work around the world, today, Jane Goodall focuses her efforts as much on conserving the natural environment as helping the people who depend on it. She sat down with Capacity4dev to explain the link between the two.15 0 6 733
Cross-border collaboration in Middle East for Environmental Sustainability
The Middle East has faced political tension, military conflicts and other disputes for many years. It is, as a result, a region with one of the most enduring conflicts in the world. The EU has set out its policy on the Middle East in a series of high-level public statements including the Venice Declaration of 1980, the Berlin Declaration of 1999, the Seville Declaration and the Roadmap for Peace of 2002, as well as multiple Council conclusions . Against this backdrop, ongoing environmental challenges have severely affected local communities and showcased their transboundary repercussions on neighbouring regions and countries including Palestine, Israel and Jordan. Hence, in spite of regional conflicts, a new ground for cross-border collaboration has emerged with joint research providing supranational solutions to environmental issues.15 0 41 701
Budget Support: More Than Just a Blank Cheque
In 2014, experts working for the European Commission carried out a synthesis of budget support evaluations from seven different countries. “We have learned that the funds we provide don’t just go into a black hole,” said Jürgen Lovasz, Team Leader for Budget Support in the Evaluation unit at DEVCO. These funds have been used – as intended – to improve people’s livelihoods.11 0 3 790
Empowering rural women to achieve sustainable wildlife management
Women and girls are at the heart of rural communities worldwide. Their contribution to ending poverty and ensuring food security is fundamental. They also play a critical role in natural resource management and can influence how their communities hunt and fish, improve sanitation, protect habitats and comply with conservation laws.14 0 53 079
Evaluation Matters
Last summer, the European Union released an Evaluation policy for development cooperation. Entitled Evaluation Matters, it notably emphasizes the “Evaluation First principle” which means that good intervention and policy must always be based on robust evidence. Drafting this policy was “quite a learning experience as collectively we had to rethink how to work to ensure the purpose, objective and usefulness of evaluation can be better understood,” said Philippe Loop, Head of the Evaluation Unit for International Cooperation and Development (DEVCO) at the European Commission.14 2 4 811
Wildlife Conservation for Development
Africa’s wildlife is disappearing at an alarming rate, encroached on by a human population set to double by 2050. The latest European Commission report on conserving the continent’s biodiversity is entitled ‘Larger than Elephants’, reflecting that the species and landscapes at risk go far beyond Africa’s iconic mammal. The impact of species loss and environmental degradation will in turn be much ‘larger than wildlife’: it will affect local livelihoods, climate change, migration, peace and security.12 0 4 230
Answering Your Most Burning Questions on Decentralisation and Local Governance
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) plays an important role in development today. For Jorge Rodriguez, Quality Support Manager in the Civil Society, Local Authorities Unit at EuropeAid, online media provided the answer to communicating complex issues on decentralisation to colleagues working in the field.12 0 7 855
How to Fight Illegal Fishing
What illicit trade is worth up to $23 billion each year, threatens the environment, food security and the economies of developing countries, and is now the subject of a special taskforce at INTERPOL? The answer is illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU).10 2 5 868
Localise Global Problems, says Lamy
The Oxford Martin Commission for Future Generations, a unique, interdisciplinary research community chaired by former World Trade Organization head, Pascal Lamy, released their long anticipated “Now for the Long Term” report in October. It offers frank discussion on how to break gridlock on major global challenges. At the recent European DevDays, Lamy spoke with us about the report, offering a line of thought that may resonate in the upcoming debate on the post- Millennium Development Goals framework.10 0 5 224
What Population Growth Means for Development
Roger Martin, chairman of the UK charity Population Matters, says human beings’ impact on the environment depends on two factors: the average ecological footprint of each person, multiplied by the number of people. While the world focuses on how to reduce the former, Mr Martin believes scant attention is being paid to the latter.10 0 6 062
Mind, Society, Behaviour (and Development?)
The mayor of Bogotá takes a shower on television to promote saving water, and water consumption drops; HIV patients in Kenya get text messages to remind them to take their medication and adherence rates rise by 13 percentage points; and a simple rewrite of letters from the UK tax office nets the government £200 million… These are among the successes attributed to ‘behavioural interventions’, which consider how psychological and social forces affect the implementation of public policy.9 0 3 527
Evaluation Critical of EU’s Gender Equality Efforts
As the European Union prepares its latest plan to support gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) around the world, a timely evaluation of its efforts so far has found much room for improvement.11 3 4 706
Open Data in Humanitarian Aid
Q&A with Rupert Simons, Chief Executive Officer of Publish What You Fund. Publish What You Fund is a non-profit organisation that campaigns for aid transparency. “We believe that information is power and we campaign to make that information available to everyone who needs it,” said Simons. With readily available data on aid, governments and donors, citizens can ensure that initiatives are being carried out effectively. Simons (RS) spoke to Capacity4Dev (C4D) about the importance of including data collection and analysis in crisis response, as well as the next steps for making open data a standard component of development and humanitarian aid efforts.10 0 3 293
An Integrated Environmental Approach to the SDGs
The Sustainable Development Goals, adopted unanimously by UN member states in September 2015, have given the international community and national governments a number of targets and principles – chief among them, to advance an “integrated approach”. But what does this mean in terms of projects, monitoring and stakeholders? Two senior officials from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) share their vision of an approach to the SDGs with the environment at its heart.9 0 13 379
Tackling adolescent pregnancy in Panama
Adolescent pregnancy is a complex issue, often with severe consequences. Latin America has the second-highest teen fertility rate globally -well above Asia, North America, and Europe. For 15 years, the European Union's flagship programme for social cohesion in Latin America EUROsociAL+ has been providing technical support to policy reforms at the national and territorial level, with a strong emphasis on gender equality and women empowerment. On International Youth Skills Day, it is an opportunity to tackle this hugely important public health issue.10 0 760
Football has its Rules: Brazil has its Rights
Since the opening match on 12 June 2014, the world’s eyes have been glued to Brazil as nations follow their teams’ progress through the World Cup. But behind the football lies a middle income country battling many problems including poverty and human rights.9 0 3 268
Threats to the Congo Basin
A major report on the Congo Basin has found the world’s “second lung” is struggling to maintain its rich biodiversity amid deforestation, poaching and the worsening effects of climate change.10 0 20 460
Experts Discuss How to Achieve ‘Education for All’
Education is the “pillar” for all other development goals though each country is different and quantity does not guarantee quality. These were among the lessons shared by experts at the High-level discussion on education in the post-2015 development agenda hosted last month in Brussels by the Norwegian Mission to the European Union.9 0 10 941
Erasmus+ and Erasmus Mundus: Opening up Universities to the World
“Education is one of the foundations for development and Erasmus Mundus addressed the needs of developing countries in higher education. We tend to focus on basic education in our development programmes but this is not enough. We need to invest in a continuum of education and Erasmus Mundus provided this opportunity for students and for institutions to increase their capacity,” said Veronique Lorenzo, Head of Unit for Education at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development.8 0 6 009
What is the Territorial Approach to Local Development?
Decentralisation as a political process has existed for decades, though with mixed results in improving people’s lives. Many reforms failed to promote local development because they were not designed to do so.8 0 14 010
Main Lessons from Evaluating Budget Support to Tanzania
A Joint Evaluation of Budget Support to Tanzania from 2005/06 to 2011/12 was completed earlier this year, with the results discussed this month in Brussels. While the general consensus is that its use has been positive, showing good results, some important lessons arose during its implementation, and can be applied to other Budget Support situations.9 0 7 981
Empowering health workers in Zimbabwe to advance universal health coverage during COVID-19
The EU has been supporting the global fight against COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and it is committed to making national health systems more resilient. Partner countries have faced many challenges including the distribution of emergency supplies to strengthen local health systems, the launch of national vaccination campaigns and the boosting of economic recovery. The EU has supported its partners across the world wherever necessary and whenever possible, including in Zimbabwe.10 0 1 962
Evaluating the EU Cooperation with Palestine: is the Two-State Solution Still Viable?
The European Union (EU) is the largest and most reliable donor to Palestine. Yet many people lack a deep understanding of the context in which the EU’s cooperation with Palestine operates and of the cooperation itself. As the situation in Gaza recently deteriorated, this is becoming of growing relevance.10 0 5 623
Pastoralism and Conflict
Pastoralists can get a bad name. These semi-nomadic communities are sometimes portrayed as living an outmoded way of life, feuding and degrading the environment with their herd before moving to a new area. The reality is different. The European Commission supports pastoralism as one of the most efficient and ecologically friendly ways to draw value from arid and semi-arid land.7 0 7 722
Debating New Approaches to Learning for Development
Development institutions are learning new ways to share knowledge. The traditional hierarchical model of training, in which information is passed down from teacher to student, or donor to recipient, is not always the most effective. Instead, partnerships are emerging through which experiences can be shared.8 0 2 842