DevDispatch Recommends: February 2022 Publications
The tail end of February hit us with a plot twist we didn’t anticipate and we are once again reminded to stay resilient. We hope this list of global development publications released in February gets you out of the news cycle for a little bit.
Enjoy browsing through our selection!
Strengthening Education and Learning Systems to Deliver a 4IR-Ready Workforce
By African Center for Economic transformation (ACET)
Building on findings from the Mastercard Foundation report Secondary Education in Africa: Preparing the Youth for the Future of Work, this synthesis report assesses the readiness of African secondary education systems for the fourth industrial revolution. The study covers levels including secondary education, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in six African countries: Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Niger, Rwanda, and Uganda.
In order to deliver a workforce prepared for the Fourth Industrial Revolution the report recommends priority actions that include expanding physical infrastructure in line with increased school enrollment, integrating twenty-first century skills into the content of TVET and secondary school curricula, ensuring that career guidance counselors are equipped with appropriate pedagogical skills and awareness of the most relevant labor market needs and establishing clear and comprehensive teacher education and training policies and strategies.
The 80 pager is recommended for curriculum advisors and education policy makers.
Frontiers 2022: Noise, Blazes and Mismatches: Emerging Issues of Environmental Concern
By United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
UNEP’s frontiers report explores areas of environmental concern in the world. This edition is divided into three focus areas including noise pollution in cities, the growing threat of wildfires and shifts in seasonal events such as flowering, migration and hibernation. On noise pollution in cities, the report acknowledges and commends developments including electrified transport and green spaces which play a role in reducing noise pollution. On rampant wildfires, it underscores the importance of building greater resilience and adaptive capacity to wildfires and protecting vulnerable communities from exposure to wildfire hazards. Lastly, on seasonal shifts, the report highlights that the quick acceleration of climate change is disrupting the functioning of ecosystems. Immediate interventions suggested in this regard include rehabilitating habitats and conserving biodiversity in productive landscapes.
This 59 page report is a recommended resource for environmentalists and city planners.
Social Protection in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons from South Africa
By Lena Gronbach, Jeremy Seekings, and Vayda Megannon
The paper reviews the social protection policies implemented in South Africa in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and gives an overview of some of the lessons gleaned from the South African experience.
South African social protection measures highlighted in the report include a cash-based system which saw provision of unemployment benefits for formal sector workers and cash transfers to vulnerable individuals, informal workers, beneficiaries of existing grants and top-up payments for existing grants and these were regarded to have been rolled out efficiently. It argues that the new Special Relief of Distress (SRD) grant posed challenges but ultimately succeeded in reaching over six million previously uncovered beneficiaries. Overall, over 30 million South Africans benefited from cash-based relief measures and the country incorporated the use of digital technologies in the application and verification process for the new SRD grant which proved to be a progresive step although this was countered by its reliance on manual disbursement of cash once applications were approved.
This paper which is 74 pages long is a must read for policy-makers working in the social protection program design and implementation space.
Against the Odds: New report on citizen action for accountability in challenging contexts
By Institute of Development Studies, Action for Empowerment and Accountability Research Programme
The 44 paged report offers new insights into how people experience governance relationships, mobilize to make claims of authorities, and strategize to demand greater accountability against a backdrop of fragile citizen-state relations.
It is a culmination of five years of research across 22 countries with a focus on Mozambique, Myanmar, Nigeria, and Pakistan, The reports’ findings are presented across five thematic areas:
- Space for citizen action: closing civic space and increasing authoritarianism combine with legacies of fear and self-censorship to limit opportunities for citizen voice
- Understanding governance from the margins: taking a ‘citizen-eye’ view from conflict-affected areas and marginalised communities highlights low expectations, the importance of non-state authorities and intermediaries, and active efforts to avoid the state.
- Women’s political participation and collective action: women’s political agency expresses itself in multiple ways, including leadership of social action, although it is also curtailed by gendered social norms at the household level and beyond.
- Citizen-led strategies for empowerment and accountability: despite the obstacles, a rich repertoire of under the radar and more overt citizen action can often be found in these contexts – including through cultural forms of resistance and often intense collective protest – but the strategies and tactics used, and their interactions, matter.
- Enabling citizen action: it is possible to enable greater citizen engagement in governance in conflict-affected contexts. Such efforts, often supported by international donors, can contribute to long-run gains in empowerment, but the strategies and tactics used, and their interactions, matter.
This is highly recommended for activists campaigning for women’s political participation and actors within the civic space.
Transit Oriented Development in practice.
A powerful example of impact on the ground in the area of Housing by our Brazil Cities team – and a story of how interventions in one city led to an approach that was scaled up and adopted as part of a Brazilian national law that set the standards for better quality social housing.
Three Challenges to Safe and Affordable Urban Housing
The blog raises three critical challenges: (i) importance of core services in informal settlements and slums, (ii) need to support housing rental markets, and (iii) making better use of underutilized land in city centers.
Can Housing Be Affordable Without Being Efficient?
The blog highlights the importance of giving due attention to building efficiency in affordable housing projects, both location efficiency and on-site energy and water efficiency. The key message: over their lifetimes, efficient homes are more affordable, healthier and provide better opportunities for residents than conventional buildings.
Survey Report: The Impact of COVID-19 on Africa's Higher education System
By Mawazo Institute
For quick reads, check out these blog posts
The Mawazo institute conducted a survey to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on higher education systems in Africa and the report breaks down the findings based on responses from the 311 respondents who participated in the survey. These include the pandemic’s effects on classroom learning, barriers faced in the adoption of e-learning, the impact of pandemic restrictions on the work of researchers, and impacts on productivity on work-life balance.
The report is a quick read at 42 pages and provides key information for tertiary institutions, researchers and and education ministries.
Transit Oriented Development in practice.
A powerful example of impact on the ground in the area of Housing by our Brazil Cities team – and a story of how interventions in one city led to an approach that was scaled up and adopted as part of a Brazilian national law that set the standards for better quality social housing.
Three Challenges to Safe and Affordable Urban Housing
The blog raises three critical challenges: (i) importance of core services in informal settlements and slums, (ii) need to support housing rental markets, and (iii) making better use of underutilized land in city centers.
Can Housing Be Affordable Without Being Efficient?
The blog highlights the importance of giving due attention to building efficiency in affordable housing projects, both location efficiency and on-site energy and water efficiency. The key message: over their lifetimes, efficient homes are more affordable, healthier and provide better opportunities for residents than conventional buildings.
Malawi Economic Monitor, December 2020 : Doing More with Less - Improving Service Delivery in Energy and Water
By the World Bank
The pandemic has induced a sharp recession in many countries across the globe. Malawi’s economy has been heavily affected, with growth projected at 1.0 percent in 2020, down from earlier projections of 4.8 percent. With population growth around 3.0 percent, this represents a 2.0 percent contraction in per capita GDP. Political stability has returned following the June 2020 Presidential elections, which should support investment. However, global and domestic factors emanating from the pandemic are affecting Malawi’s economy, including: 1) disruption in global value chains and trade and logistics; 2) decrease in tourism; and 3) decrease in remittances. This has combined with social distancing policies and behavior to also reduce domestic demand. The Malawi Economic Monitor (MEM) provides an analysis of economic and structural development issues in Malawi. The publication intends to foster better-informed policy analysis and debate regarding the key challenges that Malawi faces in its endeavor to achieve high rates of inclusive and sustainable economic growth.
World Development Report 2022 : Finance for an Equitable Recovery
By World Bank
The World Development Report examines the ripple effects of relief measures and policies implemented by countries to mitigate the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on their citizens’ livelihoods in the face of lost incomes, and one of these is increased public and private debt burdens that need to be addressed soon to ensure an equitable economic recovery.
The goal of economists as the pandemic prolongs is to strike a balance between providing enough support to mitigate the human costs of the pandemic, while limiting the longer-term financial and macroeconomic risks that could emerge from higher debt levels resulting from the crisis. The report charts pathways toward a robust and equitable recovery. where all adults, including vulnerable groups such as poor adults, women, and small businesses, are able to recover from losses of jobs, incomes, human capital, and assets.
The report is a lengthy resource with 282 pages and is recommended for finance ministries, economists and financiers.
Global SDG Accountability Report
By the Transparency, Accountability and Participation (TAP) Network.
This report serves to ascertain the level of accountability for the Sustainable Development Goals at a subnational, national and international level. Information gathered from the SDG Accountability Survey serves as the basis of this report by collecting reflections and inputs from stakeholders around the world.
Split into four sections the report looks at:
1. The foundations of the 2030 Agenda – which explains and contextualises the SDGs;
2. A snapshot of SDG accountability – which outlines the challenges being faced by stakeholders in implementing the SDGs especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic
3. Building a Global Multistakeholder Movement for SDG Accountability – which focuses on case studies of different stakeholders and their role in accountability and how they can improve accountability
4. Recommendations to Advance Accountability for the SDGs & the 2030 Agenda – which summarises the findings of the report and provides recommendations for specific stakeholders.
This report is an asset for the media, parliamentarians and national human rights institutions. It’s 101 pages but is organised such that it can be read in sections relevant to the information you are looking for.
The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Education, Livelihoods & Food Security Status: Policy Implications For Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)
By P. Tamasiga, A.T. Guta, H. Onyeaka, H. Nkoutchou and M.S. Kalane.
Sub-Saharan countries were particularly vulnerable to the impacts of the COVID-19 as they were already experiencing weak health care systems, low financing for testing and very few resources for response measures. This data-driven report outlines the key trends of the COVID-19 pandemic by region, highlighting case trajectories, lockdown and containment measures, economic impacts, education impacts and health impacts. South Africa still accounts for the highest number of cases and deaths followed by Ethiopia and Nigeria.
Along with containing COVID-19, Central Africa is still facing the additional challenges of pre-existing health concerns, especially malaria.
The policy implications are focussed on supply chains, trade and market access, food and agricultural production, misinformation and the media, health, education and strategic communication. Sub-Saharan Africa has already been deemed to be the most at risk for food insecurity and this is expected to increase 2.5 fold.
Global progress report on HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections, 2021
By WHO
This report looks into how effective the strategies planned for 2016-2021 have been in the fight against HIV, viral hepatitis and STIs. Progress has indeed been made despite the disruption of the global pandemic but in the same breath, there are still many targets that have not been reached. The number of new HIV infections has fallen by 23% to its lowest rate since 2010 with 1.7 million new infections in 2019 however this is far from the target of only 500 000 new infections.
Stigma and lack of resources to implement people-centred policies and services still remain the largest hindrance. COVID-19 severely affected the ability for people to get tested easily. This report analyses the success and shortfalls of each WHO region. The report recommends that the only way to try and get back on track is for governments to collaborate their efforts into universal health care systems beneficial for the most vulnerable.
This report is targeted at anyone who works with marginalised communities of people infected by HIV, hepatitis or any STIs and is also a good read for health care workers and policy makers. It is moderately long at 108 pages.
Mainstreaming gender in urban public transport
By Stockholm Environment Institute
Africa is the fastest urbanizing continent, yet walking still remains the most affordable mode of transport in urban areas. This is due to a lack of service provision. There is also a large gender inequality problem when it comes to transport both in operation and in use. This report seeks to shed light on the under researched matter of women’s participation in transport decision making and their use of public transport systems.
The report uses the case studies of Nairobi, Dar es Salaam and Kampala by interviewing all members of society from taxi drivers to policy makers in the ministries of transport and transport planners. The report identifies accessibility and safety of public transport systems, sexual assault and harassment, lack of integrated and gender sensitive urban planning and underrepresentation as larger barriers towards gene=der mainstreaming in transport.
This report is the perfect short read for city and transport planners at only 40 pages.
Terrorism in the Sahel Facts and Figures
By NATO Strategic Direction- South, ACSRT
The fight against terrorism in the Sahel is still a major issue that deserves attention as the number of terrorist attacks has increased by 18.5% in 2020. This report analyses current and past data to show a conclusive analysis on the rate of terrorism. The largest threats come from the following terrorist groups Boko Haram, ISGS, JNIM and ISWAP and the most affected countries are Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Chad.
This analysis is taken in the form of quantitative analysis with a lot of informative graphs and infographics as well as qualitatively by looking at the types of attacks. The report concludes that 2020 has been the most intense year in terms of terrorism in the Sahel.
This report is target to all members defence ministries and counter-terrorism organisations. It is a very brief read with only 37 pages.