By Vishal Gadhavi and Lavinia Tyrrel The UK Government has a short window of opportunity to make the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and Department for International Development (DFID) merger work. But this means learning from one key mistake made by its antipodean cousin (Australia): operational integration does not automatically lead to strategic integration. A …
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Covid has put Governance at the heart of debates on Development, but how has it changed the questions we ask?
The aim of this blog is to suggest ways in which the ‘governance discourse’ (what a grand term!) is changing – indeed has already changed - as a result of Covid-19. I know that blogs are supposed to be discursive and informal. Recently our office was privileged to have a session with that master-blogger, Duncan …
Applying political economy analysis to health and education programming: four lessons
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 …
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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COVID-19: Three ways to support women, girls and vulnerable groups in humanitarian settings
This is part three in a three-part gender and COVID-19 blog series. By Leisa Gibson and Leda Tyrrel The COVID-19 pandemic is now reaching parts of the world already experiencing significant humanitarian emergencies. People in camp settings, temporary shelter and urban environments may be particularly vulnerable as poverty, population density and displacement can make social …
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 …
Gender and COVID-19: Could coronavirus undo progress on Australia’s gains in ending violence against women and girls?
This is part one in a three-part gender and COVID-19 blog series. In recent weeks and months, we have watched the coronavirus pandemic sweep the globe and now reach the Pacific. While both women and men are susceptible to this virus, isolation and community lock downs create gender-specific challenges, particularly a heightened risk of domestic …
