By Matilda Nash, Lavinia Tyrrel and Graham Teskey Over the past two years, Abt’s Governance and Development Practice (GDP) have worked with local partners in over 13 countries across the Pacific, Asia and Africa to apply Political Economy Analysis (PEA) approaches to sector programming (see briefing note for further detail). The aim? To help us …
Author: Governance Practice
Women’s economic empowerment at a time of crisis: can COVID-19 be different?
by Cecilia Reategui and Andrew Rowell COVID-19 is a health crisis with far-reaching social and economic consequences, both immediate and stretching into an unpredictable future. Investing in Women recently commissioned a rapid literature review to examine the impacts of COVID-19 and previous pandemics and recessions on the economic position of women. The study, conducted by Professor Marian Baird and Associate Professor …
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Gender equality at work: Southeast Asia’s other hurdle
By Aya Silva and Georgia Davis Equality in Asia: Across the ASEAN region, countries and companies have been engaging in the equality debate for several years. For some, a looming skills gap and the costs of not retaining good female staff have prompted their investment in policies and initiatives that promote more open and equal …
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Online panel discussion
AFTER COVID-19: A ‘NEW NORMAL’ FOR MONITORING, EVALUATION, RESEARCH AND LEARNING? The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly shifted the context in which aid and development is being delivered. This presents an opportunity for aid actors to promote more locally-led, politically-informed and adaptive forms of Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) which can help make sense of …
Blog submission Guidelines
We welcome submissions from external authors. Please see below for our blog guidelines and pdf version. Blog submission guidelines pdfDownload General guidelines. Blogs should be no longer than 1000 words, and must be accompanied by images (see ‘image guidelines’ below for details) All sources must be cited as hyperlinks, and not footnotes or end-notes. Author …
COVID-19 makes the case for getting development in fragile states right
by Nelly Mecklenburg and Jessica Mackenzie What does the COVID-19 response and commitments for more effective development in fragile states have in common? More than you might think. Governments all over the world are suddenly faced with responding to a pandemic causing suffering and anxiety in every community and sector. In response to both the …
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Coronavirus: The end of sexist economics?
By Tara Davda and Priya Chattier Gender-responsive coronavirus policies are not only smart economics, but provide opportunities to do the right thing. As coronavirus spreads, government spending, and lots of it, has been the order of the day. Most of the analysis has focused on the economic impact of these responses, with scant attention paid to …
Five messages for the new Australian aid performance framework: a collective view from MERL wonks
By Lavinia Tyrrel, Lucy Moore, David Green, Damien Sweeney, Linda Kelly and Chris Roche At the recent 2020 Australasian AID Conference (AAC), we (the Abt Governance & Development Practice, Praxis, LTU and Clear Horizon) spent 90 blissful minutes locked away in a room full of practitioners and policy makers debating the strengths and weaknesses of …
Education in a pandemic: five messages that Australia’s aid program could consider now
By Reiko Take After much debate in the media about whether it is safe for the community, teachers and children themselves to continue going to school,[1] the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria in Australia are going ahead with student-free schooling. Whilst the symptoms and deaths of children from COVID-19 have been lower in comparison to …
In search of a strategic aid program: five messages for the new Australian aid policy
by Jacqui de Lacy and Lavinia Tyrrel The new international development framework presents a strategic choice for Australia: will it use its development program to ‘gain influence’, to counter the growing power of China? Or will it tackle deeper but more intractable drivers of regional conflict, economic stagnation and inequality? The decision about where Australia comes down on …
Is there a role for donors in helping to change restrictive gender norms?
by Gillian Brown Reducing gender gaps and removing barriers to gender equality are good for economic and social development of countries, communities and families – the evidence is irrefutable: see, for example, here and here. Governments across the Southeast Asia region have made commitments to this effect, and donors have adopted different strategies and approaches to support them in …
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Man bites dog: the art of blogging
Featuring Oxfam's Duncan Green Ever wanted to write a blog, but not sure where to start and how? Well, occasionally we at the Abt Governance Practice feel the same way. The work we do is fascinating, important and often affords us a unique perspective, and while we believe there is value in capturing and sharing …
