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Abstract: Relationships affect outcomes in the international development sector, yet there are few frameworks or indicators to measure trust as a foundation of relationships. This article describes an emergent framework for evaluating trust in cross-cultural relationships. It is based on a case study of Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand and its Indigenous partners. Perspectives on monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and measuring trust are explored from an Indigenous world view. Interviews with five people representing all parties suggest various types of behaviours that indicate trust. Through this exploration, culturally competent M&E and the centrality of relationships in expanding evaluation practice are revealed.

BACKGROUND In Aotearoa New Zealand, 90% of cases with notified leptospirosis (a zoonotic bacterial disease) have been men working in agricultural industries. However, since 2008, the epidemiology of notified cases has gradually changed i.e., more women are affected, there are more cases associated with occupations traditionally not considered high-risk in New Zealand, infecting serovars have changed and many patients suffer long after infection. We hypothesise that there is a shift in leptospirosis transmission patterns with a significant burden on affected patients and their families. OBJECTIVE To describe the protocols used to conduct: 1) a nationwide case-control study to update leptospirosis risk factors; and 2) follow-up studies to assess the burden and sources of leptospirosis in New Zealand. METHODS The study used a mixed methods approach, comprising a case-control study, and four sub-studies that involved cases only. Cases were recruited nationwide, and controls were frequency matched by sex and rurality. All participants were administered a case-control questionnaire (Study 1), with cases being interviewed again at least 6 months after the initial survey (Study 2). A subset of cases from high-risk occupations i.e., farmers and abattoir workers, were further engaged in a semi-structured interview (Study 3). Some cases with regular animal exposure had their in-contact animals (livestock for blood and urine and wildlife for kidney) and environment (soil, mud, and water) sampled (Study 4). Patients from selected health clinics suspected of leptospirosis also had blood and urine samples taken (Study 5). Study 4 and 5 blood samples were tested with the microscopic agglutination test (MAT) to test for antibody titres against Leptospira serovars Hardjo type bovis, Ballum, Tarassovi, Pomona and Copenhageni. All blood, urine and environmental samples were also tested with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis for the detection of pathogenic Leptospira DNA. RESULTS Participants were recruited between 22 July 2019 and 31 January 2022 and data collection for the study has concluded. Ninety-six cases (25 July 2019 to 13 April 2022) and 300 controls (19 October 2019 to 26 January 2022) were recruited and interviewed for the case control study, 92 cases participated in the follow-up interviews (9 July 2020 to 25 October 2022), 13 cases participated in the semi-structured interviews (26 January 2021 to 19 January 2022) and 4 cases had their in-contact animals and environment sampled (28 October 2020 and 29 July 2021). Data analysis for all studies has concluded, and the specific results of each study will be published as individual manuscripts. One manuscript each is being drafted for study 1 and study 2 and 2 manuscripts have been drafted for review for study 3. CONCLUSIONS The methods used in this study may provide a basis for future epidemiological studies for infectious disease.

This article explores power from the perspectives of children living in informal settlements in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It draws on empirical evidence gathered through visual, task-based methods with a ...

The benefits of subnational island jurisdiction (SNIJ) status are well detailed, but less attention has been given to the diffusion of economic, social and political benefits associated with these islands’ Islandian sovereignty among diverse island populations. The 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples indicated the international community’s formal recognition of Indigenous peoples’ rights to political self-determination and govern their own affairs through their own decision-making institutions, and requires states to consult with these organisations to obtain free, prior and informed consent. Yet, few SNIJs with Indigenous peoples have established or restored Indigenous bodies of authority distinct from local governments. In the context of Islandian sovereignty and the unique power relationships organised between metropoles and islands, we consider how Indigenous authorities negotiate independence and dependence, statehood and non-sovereignty, autonomy and control. This article offers a foundational typology for thinking about these multilateral relations between metropoles, SNIJs, and customary or Indigenous authorities.

East Africa is a hotspot for foodborne diseases, including infection by nontyphoidal Salmonella (NTS), a zoonotic pathogen that may originate from livestock. Urbanization and increased demand for animal protein drive intensification of livestock production and food processing, creating risks and opportunities for food safety. We built a probabilistic mathematical model, informed by prior beliefs and dedicated stakeholder interviews and microbiological research, to describe sources and prevalence of NTS along the beef supply chain in Moshi, Tanzania. The supply chain was conceptualized using a bow tie model, with terminal livestock markets as pinch point, and a forked pathway postmarket to compare traditional and emerging supply chains. NTS was detected in 36 (7.7%) of 467 samples throughout the supply chain. After combining prior belief and observational data, marginal estimates of true NTS prevalence were 4% in feces of cattle entering the beef supply and 20% in raw meat at butcheries. Based on our model and sensitivity analyses, true NTS prevalence was not significantly different between supply chains. Environmental contamination, associated with butchers and vendors, was estimated to be the most likely source of NTS in meat for human consumption. The model provides a framework for assessing the origin and propagation of NTS along meat supply chains. It can be used to inform decision making when economic factors cause changes in beef production and consumption, such as where to target interventions to reduce risks to consumers. Through sensitivity and value of information analyses, the model also helps to prioritize investment in additional research.

The ‘field’ is an integral part of international education at the tertiary level. Students are taken to the field in order to experience, first hand, the themes, processes and people that they learn about in the classroom. Despite the critical importance of the fieldtrip mode of teaching and the positive impact it has on learning, budget constraints mean that fieldtrips are becoming less common in tertiary curricula, especially when they involve learning about international topics. One potential way to counteract this is to identify how we might construct a ‘virtual’ field. This article reflects on this process in general and presents two case studies that attempt to bring the field to the classroom.

Background Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Typhimurium are major causes of bloodstream infection and diarrheal disease in East Africa. Sources of human infection, including the role of the meat pathway, are poorly understood. Methods We collected cattle, goat, and poultry meat pathway samples from December 2015 through August 2017 in Tanzania and isolated Salmonella using standard methods. Meat pathway isolates were compared with nontyphoidal serovars of Salmonella enterica (NTS) isolated from persons with bloodstream infections and diarrheal disease from 2007 through 2017 from Kenya by core genome multi-locus sequence typing (cgMLST). Isolates were characterized for antimicrobial resistance, virulence genes, and diversity. Results We isolated NTS from 164 meat pathway samples. Of 172 human NTS isolates, 90 (52.3%) from stool and 82 (47.7%) from blood, 53 (30.8%) were Salmonella Enteritidis sequence type (ST) 11 and 62 (36.0%) were Salmonella Typhimurium ST313. We identified cgMLST clusters within Salmonella Enteritidis ST11, Salmonella Heidelberg ST15, Salmonella Typhimurium ST19, and Salmonella II 42:r:- ST1208 that included both human and meat pathway isolates. Salmonella Typhimurium ST313 was isolated exclusively from human samples. Human and poultry isolates bore more antimicrobial resistance and virulence genes and were less diverse than isolates from other sources. Conclusions Our findings suggest that the meat pathway may be an important source of human infection with some clades of Salmonella Enteritidis ST11 in East Africa, but not of human infection by Salmonella Typhimurium ST313. Research is needed to systematically examine the contributions of other types of meat, animal products, produce, water, and the environment to nontyphoidal Salmonella disease in East Africa., The meat pathway may be an important source of human invasive Salmonella Enteritidis ST11 infections in East Africa, but not of Salmonella Typhimurium ST313. Improvements to meat safety are warranted while research on sources for other nontyphoidal Salmonella infections continues.

While the experiences of international doctoral students, especially those from Asian countries, have been well researched, fewer studies have explored the experiences of African students in Southern countries like Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. This article reports on doctoral writing and student and supervisor perspectives on English languages in a small study of supervisors and African students in New Zealand. It challenges deficit constructions of African students and illustrates how the growing internationalisation of higher education is adding to the complexities of doctoral writing, raising questions as to how students and supervisors recognise and navigate differences in Englishes and doctoral writing. It makes a number of recommendations about how supervisors might work effectively with African and other doctoral students.

Since 1983, no non-self-governing island connected to a (neo-) colonial European or American metropole has acquired full Westphalian sovereignty and these islands continue to operate within constitutional frameworks that connect them to these metropoles. Large majorities in referendums on several of these islands have rejected full sovereignty. This paper opens with a review of the essential elements of the concept of sovereignty in a historical and global context, before studying how sovereignty is unfolding in new forms in non-self-governing islands in the Pacific and the Caribbean. As a case study, an analysis is presented of how pro-France (loyaliste) and pro-independence (independantiste) parties in New Caledonia are negotiating sovereignty with France. Evidence is given of how these New Caledonian parties are creatively using classic Westphalian signifiers of sovereignty normally reserved for sovereign states such as flags, diplomatic representations and international treaties, while still negotiating New Caledonia's sovereignty with France. This suggests that in contrast to Westphalian sovereignty, a unique ‘Islandian’ concept of sovereignty is emerging. Islands that are not sovereign in a Westphalian sense can creatively disassemble and reassemble signifiers of Westphalian sovereignty to strengthen their continuous negotiations with their metropoles and their neighbours.

This research was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Department for International Development, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Medical Research Council, the Natural Environment Research Council, and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, under the UK Zoonoses and Emerging Livestock Systems Initiative (BB/L017679/1 and BB/L018926/1). BACKGROUND: With increasing demand for red meat in Tanzania comes heightened potential for zoonotic infections in animals and humans that disproportionately affect poor communities. A range of frontline government employees work to protect public health, providing services for people engaged in animal-based livelihoods (livestock owners and butchers), and enforcing meat safety and food premises standards. In contrast to literature which emphasises the inadequacy of extension support and food safety policy implementation in low- and middle-income countries, this paper foregrounds the 'street-level diplomacy' deployed by frontline actors operating in challenging contexts. METHODS: This research is based on semi-structured interviews with 61 government employees, including livestock extension officers/meat inspectors and health officers, across 10 randomly-selected rural and urban wards. RESULTS: Frontline actors combined formal and informal strategies including the leveraging of formal policy texts and relationships with other state employees, remaining flexible and recognising that poverty constrained people's ability to comply with health regulations. They emphasised the need to work with livestock keepers and butchers to build their knowledge to self-regulate and to work collaboratively to ensure meat safety. Remaining adaptive and being hesitant to act punitively unless absolutely necessary cultivated trust and positive relations, making those engaged in animal-based livelihoods more open to learning from and cooperating with extension officers and inspectors. This may result in higher levels of meat safety than might be the case if frontline actors stringently enforced regulations. CONCLUSION: The current tendency to view frontline actors' partial enforcement of meat safety regulations as a failure obscures the creative and proactive ways in which they seek to ensure meat safety in a context of limited resources. Their application of 'street-level diplomacy' enables them to be sensitive to local socio-economic realities, to respect local social norms and expectations and to build support for health safety interventions when necessary. More explicitly acknowledging the role of trust and positive state-society relations and the diplomatic skills deployed by frontline actors as a formal part of their inspection duties offers new perspectives and enhanced understandings on the complicated nature of their work and what might be done to support them. Publisher PDF

Comparative analyses have found that non-self-governing islands tend to have much better development indicators than sovereign islands. Perhaps unsurprisingly, since 1983 no non-self-governing island has acquired political independence. This paper argues that rather than merely maintaining the status quo with their colonial metropoles, non-self-governing islands are actively creating a new form of sovereignty. This creation of an “Islandian” sovereignty takes place against the backdrop of debates on the relevance of classic Westphalian sovereignty and emerging practices of Indigenous sovereignty. This paper reviews global research on the sovereignty of islands and from this review, develops an analytical framework of five mechanisms that drive the emerging Islandian sovereignty. This framework is tested and illustrated with a case study of the negotiations about sovereignty between New Caledonia and its colonial metropole, France.

Collaboration between international development NGOs and Africa’s national knowledge institutes, particularly universities, is receiving increasing support from global policy-makers and donor agencies. In spite of this, little is reported about the practice of such collaboration. This paper helps fill this lack of knowledge. It shares findings from a research project by a consortium of four international NGOs exploring the potential for collaboration with knowledge institutes in Burundi, DR Congo, Liberia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda. The findings are based on analysis of interviews with NGO managers in these countries and on subsequent interviews by these NGO managers of staff in national knowledge institutes. The views of the NGO managers regarding collaboration lean towards scepticism, in keeping with the limited literature on the matter. However, after interviewing staff in the knowledge institutes, the NGO managers did find potential for collaboration based on personal relations and meeting both parties’ more immediate interests.

Theory of Change (ToC) is an emerging methodology in the practice of development programmes, often contrasted with the dominant logical framework. This article reviews current debates around ToC before identifying five aspects that are appreciated in practice. It appears that these aspects mostly cover areas where the logical framework is not – or is no longer – meeting the needs of practitioners. Subsequently, the article analyses experiences in ToC training for NGO staff and concludes that ToC can address shortcomings of the logical framework – if only by going back to some of the roots of the logical framework.

Simulation games have a long history in education and are well suited to learning about negotiation, power, relationships and uncertain outcomes. This paper reflects on the experience of using a semester-long simulation game to introduce postgraduate students to development policy. It focuses on three issues identified in the literature—realism, the role of staff and assessment—and maintains that the risks and uncertainties associated with simulation games are beneficial in ensuring effective learning about policy.

Decentralisation policies in Africa increasingly place responsibilities and resources for the provision of public services in the hands of public bodies at the lowest level, for example in School Management Committees (SMCs). This paper questions whether elite capture, which is considered a major reason for the ineffectiveness of the management of public services at a national level, also characterises SMCs. On the basis of field research in Uganda, it is argued that elite capture does not trickle down to the lowest levels in the management of public services. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This article describes Learning Platforms, a structured effort by the Dutch-based agency SNV to encourage its expert advisers to engage in reading and analysing academic research related to the context in which they work, and to undertake research of their own. Although the practitioners' ability to apply their research to their daily practice, and the organisation's ability to absorb the findings of the research as part of its ways of working, have been partial or limited, the approach has the potential to bring academic and practice-based endeavour together in ways that are mutually beneficial.

Participatory methods are increasingly being used in development work at grassroots level in Africa. Western liberal concepts like 'one person one vote' underlie these methods. However, such concepts may not be easily compatible with a grassroots reality in which ethnicity (i.e. superior and subordinate ethnic identities) is an important factor shaping the social order. This article provides insights into the socio-political realities of ethnicity at village level in Botswana. The tension between participatory methods and the ethnically structured village reality are illustrated with examples from a project that tested the relevance of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) in Botswana. The authors identify problems and opportunities of participatory methods in addressing the inequalities in ethnically divided communities.

Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) is a family of methods that enables communities to share and enhance their experience, and to plan and act together with external service-providers to enrich their lives. The methodology remains unknown outside development work circles, to the detriment of other professionals concerned with community empowerment. This article introduces PRA, and outlines some of its advantages compared with conventional community planning approaches.

Since the early 2000s, international development cooperation principles emphasise recipient countries’ ownership of policies, donors’ alignment with the recipients’ administrative processes, and harmonisation of donor processes. Overall, this should enhance the development policy sovereignty in the Pacific Island countries and polities. Since 2011 researchers from Victoria University, Massey University, the University of the South Pacific, and the University of New Caledonia investigate the impact of changing aid modalities on development policy sovereignty in the Pacific. The research includes a range of polities: independent states, semi-autonomous territories, as well as dependent territories. First findings suggest aid policies in the Pacific unfold in unique ways and ‘aid’ is just one of the flows of resources between Pacific Islands and post-colonial powers. Moreover, the relationship between aid and sovereignty is more than one of donor and recipient; it also contains elements of, and space for, agency by Pacific peoples.