Search

This article offers ethnographic insights into how reforms of artisanal mining have triggered conflicts regarding property rights and access to minerals (coltan),. 1 1In eastern DRC, coltan is an abbreviation of columbite-tantalite, a mixture of two mineral ores, namely niobium and tantalum, used for industrial applications in high-tech industries. For more details, see Nest M. (2011). Coltan. Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 3-30. in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The study was inspired by the literature on access control and elite capture. Based on fieldwork undertaken in 2013 and 2014 at the Kisengo and Kahendwa mining sites (Nyunzu territory, northern Katanga), the study found that, although ongoing reforms aimed to sever the supposed linkages between the mining business and violent conflicts, these reforms brought in new types of conflicts, labelled here as 'reform conflicts'. These conflicts result from the reconfiguring of power relations in the Katangese province where state authorities instrumentalize reform policy and redefine access to mining areas. Providing an in-depth understanding of the narratives, strategies and practices of the key players, this article argues that the widespread concern about 'conflict-free minerals' tends to obfuscate the nature and effects of 'reform conflicts'. Unless these conflicts are revealed, better understood and adequately addressed, mining reforms will fail to improve the living conditions of people living in artisanal mining areas.

Theory of change (ToC) is currently the approach for the evaluation and planning of international development programs. This approach is considered especially suitable for complex interventions. We question this assumption and argue that ToC’s focus on cause–effect logic and intended outcomes does not do justice to the recursive nature of complex interventions such as advocacy. Supported by our work as evaluators, and specifically our case study of an advocacy program on child rights, we illustrate how advocacy evolves through recursive interactions, with outcomes that are emergent rather than predictable. We propose putting “practices of change” at the center by emphasizing human interactions, using the analytical lenses of strategies as practice and recursiveness. This provides room for emergent outcomes and implies a different use of ToC. In this article, we make a clear distinction between theoretical reality models and the real world of practices.

International development organizations increasingly use advocacy as a strategy to pursue effectiveness. However, establishing the effectiveness of advocacy is problematic and dependent on the interpretations of the stakeholders involved, as well as the interactions between them. This article challenges the idea of objective and rational evaluation, showing that advocacy evaluation is an inherently political process in which space for interactions around methods, processes and results defines how effectiveness is interpreted, measured and presented. In addition, this article demonstrates how this space for interaction contributes to the quality and accuracy of evaluating advocacy effectiveness by providing room to explore and address the multiplicities of meaning around identifying, measuring and presenting outcomes.

Global studies of women’s experiences in the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) process have explored its implications for women in the post-war period. Scholars have also already pointed out that ex-combatants in Nepal are facing difficulties in the reintegration period. This paper examines in particular the consequences of the DDR process for so-called Maoist ‘verified’ women ex-combatants, those who were formally acknowledged as former Maoist combatants and have experienced the entire DDR process. The paper asks how they experienced this process and how it shaped their post-conflict options. The paper first problematises the idea of a ‘return to normalcy’ and, second, shows how female ex-combatants suffered multiple forms of marginalisation as they sought to give new shape to their lives. I argue that this is in part due to the lack of a gender-inclusive framework in the DDR policy in Nepal and the failure to take into account the voices of women ex-combatants.

Nepal suffered from the civil conflict from 1996 to 2006 as the Communist party of Nepal (so-called Maoist) sought to end the monarchical system that had been in place for 240 years and establish a People’s Republic. The Maoist-party ideology was highly focused upon the structural transformation of the country and had a strong message about women’s empowerment. The conflict brought a dramatic shift in the social, economic, and the political situation of Nepal. In November 2006, the peace agreement was signed, the country then started the post-conflict reconstruction process, such as writing a new constitution, constitution assembly election, state restructuring, and the policy formation. The Maoist conflict produced multiple gendered effects upon women’s everyday lives. One category of women joined as Maoist combatants in search of equality and empowerment and performed roles equal to men in the war. Another category of women stayed behind when the men fled from the war to the cities or neighbouring countries, and their husbands, fathers or sons were killed, or became rebels or disappeared in the war. Women non-combatants experienced a situation where men’s work shifted onto their shoulders and they performed dual roles; at home and outside. After the earthquake happened on 25 April 2015 in Nepal, women were impacted in a different way. When men were killed or became disabled, were away, or lost income in the earthquake, women took over men’s roles and responsibilities, such as rescued their family members, searched for the food, accommodation, financial support, jobs, health care, including took care of the children and elderly people. At the same time, women were also involved in a multiple role during post-earthquake settings. The conflict/post-conflict/disaster period produces gendered effects; thus, gender analysis becomes fundamental during this time to understand how women and men deal with the rapid gender role change in the context of crisis and its aftermath, when there is a certain return to the normal situation. This thesis is about women and changing gender roles in Nepal. The study traces the gendered effects of the Maoist war and the earthquake on women’s everyday lives. It examines how women experience the impact of the Maoist war and the post-conflict era in relation to shifting gender roles, responsibilities, challenges, and new openings. The thesis then asks similar questions about women affected by the earthquake, that happened while the country was still struggling with post-conflict issues. Chapter 1 presents the introduction, which offers an overview of the main concern of the thesis and the theoretical perspectives (the sexual division of labour and power, ideology of gender, structural factors, and the role of the policy) that inform it. Chapter 2 outlines the methodology (in-depth interview, focuses group discussion, participant observation, and key informant interview) applied to conduct this study. Chapter 3 examined how the Maoist conflict in Nepal affected women ex-combatants and non-combatants, looking at changes in gender roles during and after the conflict particularly from the standpoint of livelihood challenges in the post-war period. Major findings indicate that changing gender roles largely depend upon everyday practice of sexual division of labour and power as it evolved during and after the conflict. It also shows that the conflict produced different and contradictory effects on both categories of women who experienced shifts in gender roles. In post-war settings, these changes were partly reversed, and especially ex-combatant women faced severe livelihood challenges and returned to traditional gender roles. Chapter 4 investigated how the Maoist armed conflict in Nepal was a struggle for the emancipation of women and it particularly looked at how women ex-combatants were engaged with ideas of gender equality and women’s empowerment during the Maoist war and afterwards. It further explores what happens to women’s ideological drive as gender roles ‘shift back’ after the war. The results demonstrate that in the Maoist war women ex-combatants were strongly committed to the Maoist gender ideology and experienced empowerment through this process, as they adopted non-traditional roles and crossed gender as well as caste lines. However, in the post-war, they felt ambivalent empowerment because there was a lack of commitment from the Maoist party to issues of gender equality and at the same time the patriarchal structures continued intact and, in some ways, even strengthened, and women faced multiple exclusions. Chapter 5 looked at how women ex-combatants experienced the reintegration process in the aftermath of war. The study found that the reintegration programming of Nepal lack gender framework due to which woman encountered a range of challenges in the post-war period. Mainly, the challenges were two-fold: At the societal level; they struggled to gain recognition, and at the family level they negotiated/renegotiated to rebuild relationships and safety-nets. Chapter 6 investigated what challenges women faced in the wake of the earthquake and how these were related to their gender position. It asks how gender roles changed in relation to the earthquake in Nepal. Findings illustrate that different categories of women faced the effects of earthquake differently, especially with regards to the intersectionality of gender and migration and family composition. The earthquake provided women a window of opportunity to change gender roles. On the other hand, women encountered great difficulties in addressing their everyday needs and experienced gender-based exclusion. Chapter 7 synthesises the outcomes of the four substantive chapters, discusses the findings, and offers four recommendations for policy implications.

Since its inception as a semi-autonomous state in 2005, the South Sudanese government procurement sector has been a booming business. Funded by oil income, the government procurement regimes have become instrumental institutional mechanisms for the allocation of rents within the political marketplace. This type of ‘rentier' politics is often considered to be anti-developmental in mainstream thinking about statebuilding in fragile states, while others argue that rentierism is not growth-retarding per se, but that its impact on development depends on how rents are utilized and reinvested. Taking the latter less-normative approach to rentierism as a starting point, this article begins by identifying patterns of rent allocation that characterized the government procurement sector during the 2005–2011 interim period. Following the political decision to shut down oil production in early 2012, the rent process that had sustained these clientelistic arrangements became suddenly unsustainable. In this context, another cadre of entrepreneurs comprised largely of diaspora returnees with higher technological capabilities and transnational linkages started to gain ground within the government procurement sector, signifying the emergence of a potentially ‘developmental' feature in the rent process. Notwithstanding, while the 2012–2013 austerity period arguably precipitated certain developmental features, it also uprooted the political settlement, which culminated in the December 2013 crisis, pushing the young country back to civil war.

In this doctoral dissertation I analyse how advocacy effectiveness is given meaning in the practices of advocacy for development, and how this is affected by the politics of results in its evaluation. With advocacy gaining ever more ground in the development world, the issue of (measuring) effectiveness becomes increasingly relevant. Especially when realising that the pursuit and achievement of effectiveness in terms of structural change and development are political processes that require strategies such as advocacy. There is an assumption among NGOs and donors that advocacy will result in structural changes, thus increasing development effectiveness. However, actually proving advocacy effectiveness is difficult because structural changes in international development often take a very long time to develop, and involve many diverse stakeholders operating at multiple levels and across borders. Besides, advocacy outcomes are often intangible. It is even more complicated to establish the effectiveness of efforts to reach these outcomes. Meanwhile, development organisations are under growing pressure to prove their effectiveness. Effectiveness often boils down to the question of whether the intervention or organisation has succeeded in achieving legitimacy and credibility in the eyes of other stakeholders. This process of defining outcomes and effectiveness is profoundly political. I refer to this political process as the politics of results. In this doctoral dissertation I demonstrate that advocacy effectiveness is given meaning in human interactions and strategic practices, affected by a multidimensional politics of results in evaluation as negotiations around pursuing, negotiating, understanding and identifying effectiveness shape the processes. Current evaluation methods do not do enough justice to or support and accommodate the dynamic processes of advocacy. Advocacy evaluation therefore demands an approach that focuses on the strategic practices and practitioners acting strategically. This calls for a shift in thinking about effectiveness, away from the comfort zone of tools, methods and approaches that seek control, prediction, measurability and visibility. A shift towards really focusing on the meaning of practices and processes including interactions, strategy making, decision making, organisational structures, roles, values, interests and considerations.

This thesis studies the experiences of alleged war crimes during the armed conflict in northern Uganda (Acholi and Lango sub-regions) and the multiple challenges these experiences present to youth attempting to recover in the post-conflict period. The thesis draws on primary quantitative and qualitative data collected in Acholi and Lango sub-regions in northern Uganda between January 2013 and December 2017. The findings show that youth who experienced or witnessed war crimes, especially those who suffered multiple war crimes, find it hard to regain lost education and experience more challenges maintaining good relations with their families and society in the post-conflict period. Similarly, strict gendered patriarchal norms and expectations render it challenging for conflict-affected youth to reintegrate into their families and society, particularly for women survivors of wartime sexual violence and their children born of war. The finding challenges the idea that ‘recovery’ is linear or that the end of conflict ‘normalises’ experiences of war crimes. Additionally, whereas war crimes suffered during conflict do impact livelihoods and recovery of young people, broader social, cultural, economic, and political processes also greatly matter. Lastly, while the conflict heightened individual vulnerability and complicated the recovery process, these factors do not entirely erase young people’s agency. Some young people were able to effectively and positively maneuver even withn the limitations of their circumstances.

One of the challenges of participatory development and reconstruction programs is how and where to engage with power holders. This paper analyses the dynamics of power relations within a community-driven reconstruction program in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It shows that, in some circumstances, elite control can be a way of ensuring the provision of pubic goods and that conflict between elites can benefit project outcomes. The paper concludes that in this and similar contexts, development programs should consider bringing elites into the equation of governance and invest in understanding better the working and accountability of existing institutions for development.

Inequality and conflict in Sri Lanka have frequently been analyzed along ethnic lines. However, many scholars have stressed the importance of other dimensions of identity, such as gender, caste and class, in studying social tension. This study uses intersectionality theory to examine how a combination of the social categories of gender, race, ethnicity and location creates structural inequality. This article draws upon in-depth research on Muslim, Tamil, Sinhalese and indigenous/Veder women who catch and market fish in the conflict-affected eastern district of Trincomalee, Sri Lanka. The focus was on intra-group differences among these women and the different sources of power they use to subvert existing power structures. Although multiple inequalities affected the respondents’ daily lives and participation in activities, they were not passive victims; they used their own agency to negotiate for their livelihoods. Nevertheless, the women who comprise the focus of this study appeared to be completely invisible to government fisheries management bodies. The lack of institutional representation has disadvantaged them in their negotiations for space to engage in livelihood activities. Registration of these women by the government department of fisheries among those who make a living from fishing would provide them with a first measure of recognition and empowerment, strengthening their chances of negotiating access to the fishery livelihood resources.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the mining sector has the potential to play a pivotal role in post-conflict reconstruction (World Bank, 2008), and artisanal mining sustains the livelihoods of millions people in the country (PACT, 2010). However, in the last 15 years, minerals from this artisanal mining have been ill-reputed. Eastern DRC has often been characterised by chronic instability and violent conflicts (Autesserre, 2010; Stearns, 2011) because it is widely believed that minerals in this region have attracted the greed of national and foreign armed groups, who benefit from the mining business. Although this ‘greed hypothesis’ has been criticised for its inconsistent performance in explaining resource-related conflicts (Le Billon, 2010; Ross, 2006), various national and international reform initiatives have gained momentum (Verbruggen et al., 2011). These initiatives aim to make the Congolese artisanal mining sector more transparent and to prevent ‘conflict minerals’ from entering the international market. In 2014, 13 reform initiatives—10 focusing on 3T (tantalum, tin and tungsten) and three on gold—were operational in eastern DRC (Cuvelier et al. 2014: 5). The implicit assumptions are that mining reforms will fully ‘clean’ artisanal mining of violence and corruption and that this will contribute to sustaining people’s livelihoods (Garrett and Mitchell, 2009: 12). This study investigated initiatives intended to ‘formalise’ artisanal mining in DRC—in other words, they aimed to bring mining under state control. The study especially focuses on the effects of one among these initiatives—the ITRI Tin Supply Chain Initiative (iTSCi)—on two groups of actors: miners (creuseurs) and middlemen (negociants). This thesis thus presents a fine-grained case study of the iTSCi. Designed by the International Tin Research Institute in 2009, iTSCi provides a means of determining the origin of 3T and documenting the trading chain for these minerals by ‘tagging and bagging’ the loads of 3T near miners’ shafts (at postes d’achat/selling points or buying stations), at counting offices (comptoirs) and in mineral depots, before the minerals are exported through the international market. This is a qualitative study undertaken at three coltan mining sites of northern Katanga: Kahendwa, Kisengo and Mai-Baridi. Coltan has been extracted at these sites since 2007. From March 2013 to September 2014, data were collected using participant observation of people’s practices (extraction/sale of coltan and various types of interactions between trading houses, cooperatives, mineworkers (creuseurs) and middlemen (negociants), as well as detailed in-depth interviews with creuseurs, negociants and their households. Data were also collected from the staff of mining cooperatives, trading houses, state authorities and civil servants—predominantly of the Service d’Assistance et d’Encadrement du Small-Scale Mining (SAESSCAM) and the Division des Mines. The last group of informants were a group of clandestine coltan negociants (known as hiboux—literally, ‘owls’), who were followed in the study. The purpose of this research is to study the micro-dynamics of changes after the reforms following the implementation of iTSCi. The study thus provides insights into how iTSCi is concretely implemented and how it has altered the organisation of mining and the trade of coltan. The study also aims to examine how this organisation affected creuseurs and negociants. The main research question of this study is as follows: How have initiatives to reform artisanal mining (iTSCi in particular) affected institutional change, how does this relate to changes in patterns of coltan production and trade, how were creuseurs and negociants affected by these changes, and how did these groups respond in the coltan mining areas of Kahendwa, Kisengo and Mai Baridi (northern Katanga) from 2009 to 2014? Analytically, the study adopted three main theoretical perspectives. First, an actor-oriented approach was taken, building on the premise that individual actors have the agency, knowledge and experience to reflect upon their situation and to respond to changes in their surrounding context (Giddens, 1984). Although the examined mining reforms consist predominantly of ‘ready-made’ techniques such as iTSCi’s ‘tagging and bagging’, analysing reforms with an actor orientation helps to highlight people’s reactions and responses. This includes how reform policies are applied in institutions (e.g. mining cooperatives), how they interact, how they are assigned meaning and how they are negotiated by social actors (Christoplos and Hilhorst, 2009). Second, the study builds on the sociology of economic life, which holds that economic action is a form of social action that is socially ‘embedded’, meaning that it is linked with or dependent on actions and institutions (such as social networks) that are noneconomic in content, goals and processes (Granovetter, 2005). This perspective facilitates the analysis of the livelihoods of negociants, including mechanisms of smuggling minerals into and beyond the mining areas where iTSCi is in force. Third, this thesis introduced the original concept of ‘enclaves of regulations’. These enclaves refer to the mining areas where iTSCi or other reforms are in force. This thesis has shown that, although these ‘enclaves’ appear to be ‘closed’ and insulated from the environment in terms of the locally applied rules for the mining and trading of minerals (e.g. ‘tagging and bagging’), in reality, such closure is not complete. This thesis has demonstrated that it would therefore be more appropriate to consider these ‘enclaves’ as semi-autonomous fields with porous boundaries. Apart from the introduction and the concluding chapters, this thesis is composed of five chapters. Chapter 2 explores the evolution of the mineral sector in the Katanga province. It analyses the history of mining, the initiation of artisanal mining and how the ongoing reforms have been informed by this history. In this chapter, it is shown that there is a long history of the organisation of mining in the Katangese province. The reforms therefore did not enter into a stage of anarchy, or an institutional void, but they added a layer to already existing forms of organisation. Chapter 3 focuses on mining cooperatives as newly introduced institutions aimed at governing the artisanal mining sites. Through a single case study, the chapter analyses how these cooperatives —especially the Cooperative des Artisanaux Miniers du Congo, CDMC—were introduced into the mining areas and how they interacted and blended with pre-existing miners’ organisations. This chapter demonstrates that cooperatives have been an emergent—rather than durable—solution in terms of representing the interests of artisanal miners. In Chapter 4, I provide a different perspective on ‘conflict minerals’. I thus introduce the notion of ‘reform conflicts’ to emphasise that, although ongoing reforms aim to sever the supposed linkages between the artisanal mining business and violent conflicts, these reforms have become a driving force behind the emergence of new conflicts over property rights and access to minerals. Chapter 5 is about livelihoods. It analyses how the reforms have influenced the livelihoods and socioeconomic position of negociants. This chapter also explores what kind of opportunities the reforms have offered to this group of mineral brokers often considered powerful in the mineral supply chain and explains what kind of constraints the negociants have confronted and why they have opted to diversify their livelihood portfolios. The chapter has shown that the reforms have affected this group of mineral brokers in different ways. Some negociants were well off, whereas others have been excluded from the mineral commodity chain. These findings contradict the widespread opinion that negociants are always abusive brokers in the mineral production and commodity chain. Chapter 6 analyses the responses of creuseurs and negociants to iTSCi. Although the mining sites where iTSCi is in force appear to be ‘enclaves of regulations’, I explore the strategies of creuseurs and negociants to bypass iTSCi and the reforms, especially around the coltan trade. This chapter demonstrates that coltan smuggling is a deeply rooted practice. Despite the reforms, smuggling continues in different forms. All of the elements highlighted above suggest that mining reforms have undergone a major shift, from addressing the initial problems associated with ‘conflict minerals’ to creating or reinforcing various types of problems, such as the influence of ‘big men’ in the mining business, coltan smuggling and the emergence of new conflicts over accessing minerals. This means that reform initiatives such as iTSCi should be based on knowledge about the actual situation. Thus, understanding and addressing these new types of problems calls for a comprehensive approach at both local and broader levels.

Community-driven reconstruction (CDR) has become a new paradigm in post-conflict development. It combines infrastructure restoration with introducing good governance at the local level. Recent evaluations show that governance objectives are not easily met and significant change cannot be demonstrated. This paper adds to this argument on the basis of ethnographic research on a CDR programme in eastern DRC. It seeks to find explanations for the lack of demonstrable governance impact in the content and implementation of training. It identifies room for improvement by better adjusting capacity building to locally prevailing accountability mechanisms and by coordinating capacity building with other development programmes. La reconstruction impulsée par la communauté (community-driven reconstruction – CDR) est devenue un nouveau paradigme dans le développement post-conflit. Elle conjugue la restauration des infrastructures et l'introduction d'une bonne gouvernance au niveau local. D'après des évaluations récentes, les objectifs en matière de gouvernance ne sont pas faciles à atteindre et il est impossible de démontrer des changements considérables. Cet article renforce cet argument sur la base de recherches ethnographiques sur un programme de CDR mené dans l'est de la RDC. Il cherche à trouver des explications au manque d'impact démontrable sur le plan de la gouvernance dans le contenu et la mise en œuvre de la formation. Il identifie des améliorations possibles en ajustant plus efficacement le renforcement des capacités aux mécanismes de redevabilité en vigueur au niveau local et en coordonnant le renforcement des capacités et d'autres programmes de développement. La reconstrucción impulsada por la comunidad (cdr por sus siglas en inglés) se ha convertido en un paradigma nuevo en el ámbito del desarrollo durante la etapa de posconflicto. A nivel local, la cpr integra la restauración de infraestructura y el fomento de la buena gobernanza. A pesar de ello, evaluaciones recientes revelan que no resulta fácil cumplir con los objetivos de buena gobernanza, no registrándose cambios significativos en este sentido. El presente artículo abona a estos argumentos basándose en investigaciones etnográficas realizadas en torno a un programa de cdr implementado en el oriente de la rdc. Así, intenta encontrar explicaciones que den cuenta de las fallas en la construcción de capacidades comprobable de parte del gobierno, tanto en lo que refiere al contenido como a la implementación de la capacitación. Además, sugiere las formas en que esto podría mejorarse, proponiendo la adaptación de la construcción de capacidades a los mecanismos de rendición de cuentas locales y la coordinación con otros programas de desarrollo vinculados a la construcción de capacidades.

The past two decades have witnessed growing concerns in policy circles about the role of natural resources in conflicts in the Global South. New frameworks of intervention have been designed with the aim of cutting the assumed links between armed groups and resources, and promoting transparent models of resource governance. This article argues that these interventions are often based on unwarranted assumptions about the relationship between resources, conflict and governance. It presents a critical analysis of a broad set of peer-reviewed publications and influential research reports about the different ways resource governance affects people in fragile and conflict-affected areas. The authors identify a number of gaps and weaknesses in the literature, pay particular attention to the quality of the empirical evidence base for certain theoretical claims, and suggest avenues for future research.

Recognising increased vulnerabilities because of ongoing urbanisation, the Philippine Red Cross has embarked on a five-year programme to strengthen the resilience of poor settlements in the National Capital city of Valenzuela. The programme expands the organisation’s traditional response orientation to also address underlying causes of structural vulnerability, and as such puts the organisation ahead of many other Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. While this engagement fits the organisation because of its mandate, strategies and reach, the traditional strengths of the organisation increasingly emerge as challenging factors. Applying a ‘resilience approach’, particularly in Manila’s urban humanitarian arena, also puts pressure on how the Philippine Red Cross is able to be guided by its Fundamental Principles, especially in relation to donor obligations, working with non-Red Cross organisations, engaging with communities and taking a more critical role towards the government. The approach requires a transformation in mind set and activities that requires time to achieve. Keywords: urbanisation; resilience; Red Cross; Manila; humanitarian arena; humanitarian principles

This article provides an ethnographic insight into how the daily realities of state performance along the South Sudanese most Southern border of Magwi County are an outcome of negotiations between traders and state officials. It is argued that the practical norms of taxation, meaning the actual rules that govern the actions of state officials, are largely framed by the way in which state officials and traders are embedded in different networks. The analysis distinguishes between regional trade networks of accumulation based on associative ties that appropriate elements of state performance and SPLM/A authority into their business practices, and local trade networks of survival based on communal ties that relate to state performance more through the informal institutions of kinship and subsistence security. It is demonstrated that the types of network ties and their embedded institutional content that connect traders and state officials yield very different practical norms with different implications for South Sudans state-building process from below.

Longstanding patterns of interaction exist between state and non-state actors seeking to improve public health in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). DRC is a weak state, and, in many cases, private actors have stepped in to fill the void created by the lack of state health care provision. However, the role of these interactions in creating a governance network in the health sector has been underexplored. Using data from 18 months of qualitative field research, this study aimed to explore governance networks in DRC's health sector, examining how multiple stakeholders work to manage the health system and how the resulting governance network has been relevant for the state-building process. The findings demonstrate that the health sector in South Kivu is emerging as an arena of networked governance based on active partnerships between state institutions and non-state actors. Interactions between state and non-state actors account for the persistence of the health sector in a setting characterized by state weakness. However, networked governance does not function optimally, because, although non-state interventions fill the void where the state falls short, the DRC state has faced the challenge of interacting with partners with fragmented and horizontally competing agendas. Although weak, the shadow of state authority is present in the arena of stakeholders' interactions, as the state plays a determining role by providing a regulatory framework. Overall, the findings show that the interactive engagement of non-state actors contributes to improving institutional capacity through these actors' engagement with state institutions for health system management and institutional development. However, although networked health sector governance does contribute to state capacity, it is difficult to assess the real influence of these interactions on the state-building process in a context of critical fragility, where coordination and alignment have been problematic.

Located within the nexus between identity and livelihoods, this thesis explores how the economic activities of fisher livelihoods are shaped by socio-cultural, political and identity dynamics, and how fisher livelihoods, in turn, shape and reproduce these dynamics in post-war Sri Lanka’s coastal district of Trincomalee. The analysis focuses on the economic sociology of fisheries, the inequalities and marginalities in livelihood spaces that are created through intersecting identities such as gender and ethnicity, and the way fisheries are governed—both formally and informally—in politically volatile contexts. This thesis argues that ethnic identity is mediated by other social identity categories, such as gender, location and type of livelihood activity, in the creation of unequal access to livelihood spaces. However, men and women often attempt to subvert structural discriminatory patterns, with differing degrees of success. Since the country became independent in 1948, Sri Lanka’s history has been dominated by conflict centred on competing ethno-political interests, particularly in terms of access to state power. The perceived privileging of the ethnic minority Tamils by the British colonial powers led to a series of political moves by successive governments in post-independence Sri Lanka. This included making Sinhalese the official language of the country and awarding special status to Buddhism in the constitution. Subsequently, unfavourable perceptions about the privileging of the majority ethnic group and their cultural, social and political symbols led to the formation of Tamil militant groups including the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Most discourses on conflict in Sri Lanka have strong ethnic dimensions. However, arguably, ethnic lines are used mainly for mobilising the masses for conflict. The killing of 13 Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) Army soldiers in 1983 in an ambush by the LTTE resulted in widespread anti-Tamil riots in the capital city of Colombo. This event is commonly identified as the trigger point for the protracted war between the Tamil militants and the GoSL. The war continued for three decades, with fluctuating degrees of intensity, until the LTTE faced a military defeat at the hands of the GoSL in 2009. However, the ending of the war does not translate linearly into a post-war condition in Sri Lanka, given the continued presence of the military in the directly war-affected North and East and the social and economic inequalities and tensions that create divisions within the country, undermining meaningful and sustained rebuilding efforts in Sri Lanka. The thesis begins with an introductory first chapter that presents the aims of the study, locates the research within the context of post-war Sri Lanka, describes the study areas and presents an overview of the methodological approach and theoretical frameworks used. Located in fish landing sites, markets and religious places, Chapter 2 focuses mostly on the livelihoods aspect of the thesis. It analyses how economic activities, such as fishing livelihoods, are deeply and intricately embedded in the cultural and social fabric of the daily lives of individuals, families, communities and institutions. This chapter provides a detailed analysis of how fishing livelihoods are more than an income-generating activity for men and women, considering the different inter- and intra-group value systems that apply to fisher-folk in their day-to-day practices. At the individual level, given the high risk involved in braving the seas every day, religion takes a central place in a fisher’s life, irrespective of their specific faith. This phenomenon is heightened by war-related insecurities and threats. However, individual and communal struggles over contradictory economic and religious values are an ever-present aspect of the fishermen’s religiosity. We found this process to be marked by rationalising and meaning making, embodied through the daily experiences of these fishermen and women. The findings show that people take advantage of the malleable nature of religious doctrine to mix, match and choose from different religions to suit the current need and the occasion. Religious beliefs and ideologies also create and sustain socio-political differences, which are further constructed by macro-level political discourses. At the community level, although there are complex, historical tensions between all of the religious groups in Trincomalee, with heightened tension and violence during the war years, Hindus and Buddhists share considerable religious complementarity. Muslims are increasingly marked as separate—in spaces of religious ritual, such as the Hindu temples, and also in terms of types of fishing livelihoods. Most Muslims also see themselves as separate. Through an analysis of how discourses on religious identity play out in everyday life, Chapter 2 argues that economic rivalries over fishing resources may spill over into—or be reinforced by—religious and ethnic tensions in the post-war context. Chapter 3 focuses more on the identity aspect of the thesis, with research based in the lagoons and shallow seas of Trincomalee. Using intersectionality theory, this chapter examines how the intersection of the social categories of gender, race, ethnicity and location creates structural inequality. Drawing upon narratives of Muslim, Tamil, Sinhalese and indigenous/Veder women catching and marketing fish in coastal Trincomalee, this chapter analyses how historical factors, such as population movements and war, have shaped the current realities and positions of women. Further, the chapter illustrates that, although a clear case can be made that certain groups of women are particularly disadvantaged at the intersection of ethnicity, caste and livelihood location, similarities in cultural gender norms across ethnic lines mean that the inequalities facing women may overshadow other identities. Although multiple inequalities affect these women’s daily lives and participation in activities, they are not passive victims; they use their own agency to negotiate for access to livelihoods. Nevertheless, the women engaged in various fishing-related activities who participated in this study appear to be completely invisible to the government fisheries management bodies. The resulting lack of institutional representation disadvantages these women in negotiations for space to engage in their livelihood activities. Registration of these women in coastal livelihoods would provide them with a first measure of recognition and empowerment, strengthening their chances of negotiating access to livelihood resources. With the ending of the three-decade-long civil war, changes have taken place in the main wholesale fish market in the conflict-affected coastal district of Trincomalee. These changes are reflected in the market structure and governance, as well as in the number and kinds of people inside the market. A marketplace that was formerly multi-ethnic and mixed gender has become dominated by male traders from the Sinhalese Buddhist ethnic majority group, excluding women and ethnic minority men. By focusing on the multiple masculinities of male wholesale dealers and their interactions with fishermen suppliers, Chapter 4 a) provides a nuanced analysis of the historical and contextual factors that shaped the political and economic hegemonising processes of the wholesale fish market; b) attempts to understand how, within this hegemonising process, the dealers embody and negotiate between overlapping ethno-nationalist, enterprising and patron–provider masculinities; and c) analyses how these diverse masculinities ultimately may contribute to the collapse of the gendered ethnic dominance at the market. This chapter adds nuance to the ethnicised discourse on war and livelihoods in Sri Lanka and globally. Further, the chapter also brings a masculinities approach to the study of contemporary maritime anthropology. Chapter 4 thus continues the focus on identities and attempts to understand ethnicity as socially constructed and as mediated by other forms of identity, such as gender, or, more specifically, through masculinities. Focusing on masculinities and the different subject positionalities of men at the wholesale market—a dimension that has been largely missing in Sri Lankan discourses on post-war livelihoods and identity—this chapter provides a nuanced analysis of how a unidimensional focus on ethnicity or gender is insufficient to explain the post-war power dynamics. It analyses how the embodiment and practice of masculinities, such as risk-taking entrepreneurs and dare-devil border guards, show both complicity with and resistance to political and economic domination or hegemony at a given point, and how this changes over time. The findings indicate that hierarchies of social and political power are dynamic. More specifically, the understanding of masculinity as plural, dynamic and negotiated, combined with the display of agentive power by subordinated or marginalised groups, results in hegemonies or structures of dominance that are continually shaped and reshaped at the everyday level. There are masculinities, rather than one way of doing masculinity. These different ways of doing masculinity challenge the dominant power structures and hierarchies. Chapter 5 focuses on a particular illegal fishing practice (disco net fishing) and examines how governance processes mitigate or exacerbate social tensions. The chapter centres on the interaction between formal and informal fisheries stakeholders and fishers, arguing that perceptions about the legitimacy of formal state actors in regulating fisheries strongly influence compliance behaviour. This chapter demonstrates that the perceived lack of legitimacy of the state in fisheries regulation was profoundly influenced by context and timing. The active interest taken by the state, aided by the military, in tightening fisheries regulation and enforcement measures after the end of the war violence was seen by the disco net fishermen as a strongly negative factor in their daily lives and livelihoods. When shared war-related violence forms the backdrop for state, non-state and citizen interactions and normative frameworks, negotiations regarding access to resources and regulatory efforts become not just a livelihood and resource management effort, but a broader and more sensitive political issue. Faced with the perceived failure of the state as a legitimate actor to regulate fisheries, Chapter 5 found that the disco net fishermen turn towards other forms of everyday politics, power dynamics and local legitimacies. However, these local legitimacies vary in how they manifest and draw power. Therefore, the contestations reported in this chapter are not simply about forum shopping between the formal state and informal community institutions and norms; rather, they are also about navigating within the formal and the informal rules of the game. The case of illegal fishing in this chapter clearly illustrates the need to understand fisheries governance issues as a manifestation of a larger problem at the level of state–society interaction, specifically regarding the legitimacy of the actors involved in governing fisheries in Trincomalee. Therefore, this chapter concludes that there is a need to understand and address fisheries governance issues as ‘wicked problems’ and as processes that need to go beyond conventional planning approaches. The concluding chapter of the thesis highlights five specific conclusions based on the findings presented in the previous chapters. First, the embedded nature of economic activities, such as those in fisheries, means that they are dynamic, time- and space-bound, and mediated by how men and women chose to embody and disembody morality, religiosity and competing or complementary value systems. These dynamisms in morality contribute to the social re/construction of fisheries as work. Second, in contexts such as Sri Lanka, where society is violently divided along different identity lines, especially that of ethnicity, inclusive and sustainable post-war rebuilding and meaningful community cohesion will require understanding that a) ethnic identity is socially constructed and mediated by the enactment of other identity categories; b) men and women use agentive power in accessing livelihoods, shaping and reshaping identity discourses through their livelihood activities; and c) hierarchies of power are dynamic in nature. Third, local-level legitimacies are as important as the electorally won, constitutionally accorded legitimacy of the state in resource governance. Consequently, discourses on state-building in post-war contexts need to pay careful attention to these legitimising processes, to how local-level legitimacies are shaped and reshaped, and to the influence of local-level legitimacies in strengthening or weakening state legitimacy. Fourth, continued legacies of war shape the lives of men and women. Fifth, the findings of this thesis add a granularity to the ongoing debate within post-war Sri Lanka on the different ways that social identities of men and women are (re)shaped through their access to livelihood opportunities and resources. Expanding the argument that economic institutions reshape gender at the individual, interactional and institutional levels, this thesis shows that economic institutions and activities shape the intersecting identities of men and women in complex ways, both in terms of how they see themselves and in the way they organise their social and political lives in the wider society.

This chapter examines the effectiveness of the community-driven reconstruction (CDR) approach in terms of stimulating local communities' participation in public goods provision, with a particular focus on the mobilisation of voluntary manual labour for public works. It provides some background information on the context in which the Tushiriki programme was implemented. The chapter overviews the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), explains the main components of the Tushiriki programme, and then focuses on the logic behind it. It shows that the outcomes of the Tushiriki programme, which sought to contribute to socio-economic recovery in the fragile and conflict-affected setting of eastern DRC, were in many ways determined by the programme's political and social embeddedness. The chapter also focuses on a general lesson for the future of CDR projects in conflict-affected regions with a well-known history of forced labour recruitment. It focuses on one such programme called Tushiriki, a Swahili expression meaning 'let's all be involved together'.

This study explores the role of religious values at the individual and community levels in relation to the moral economy of fishing in Sri Lanka. Comparing daily interactions among Sinhala Buddhist, Tamil Hindu and Muslim fishers in the eastern coastal district of Trincomalee, this chapter explores how fishers choose and mix different value systems to justify various decisions and behaviours. Both religious and fishing motivations are examined. Our findings indicate that people take advantage of the malleable nature of seemingly static religious doctrine to mix, match and choose from different religions to suit the current need and the occasion. Religious beliefs and ideologies also create and sustain socio-political differences, which are further constructed by macro-level political discourses. This chapter also analyses how discourses on religious identity play out in everyday life and how economic rivalries over fishing resources spill over into—or are reinforced by—religious and ethnic tensions in the post-war context. In terms of fisheries governance, the analysis shows that managers need to recognise and understand the role of religion and value systems in shaping the moral economy of fishing, as well as the processes by which religious beliefs and ideology can create and sustain social cleavages.

Reforming artisanal mining has a pivotal role in breaking the linkages between mining and conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo. One specific measure has been the creation of mining cooperatives meant to represent mineworkers in their interaction with mining companies. This ethnographic study undertaken in 2013/2014 in northern Katanga examined how cooperatives function and interact with existing institutions and ‘big men’ involved in the mining business. We found that cooperatives were top-down creations that overlooked the influence of ‘big men’ in the process of institutional formation. The study suggests that new initiatives like the mining cooperatives should be based on knowledge of the actual situation and grounded in existing institutions.

For more than two decades, the exploitation and trade of minerals has fuelled armed conflict and fostered a climate of insecurity that has led to the deaths of thousands of people in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) (Katanga, Ituri, Maniema, North and South Kivu). This has been seen as a consequence of prolonged socioeconomic and political instability since the late 1980s and 1990s, when a civil war led to the collapse of the Zairian state and there were civil wars in neighbouring countries. As a result of this situation, many armed groups prospered in this region. Mineral exploitation, especially of tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold, formed an incentive for these groups to stay in the strategic areas of the territory (e.g. mining areas and those on the main transport routes) and to continue the fighting. The diggers and the local populations were the first victims of conflict over the control of the natural resources that directly or indirectly support the war. These people have been subjected to permanent violence and illegal taxation. Massacres, kidnappings, looting, forced labour and insecurity have been part of their everyday lives. Violence was primarily directed at those involved in the supply chain—from extraction to trading minerals outside the mining sites. In the eastern provinces of DRC, transporters, traders and diggers, as well as women and children attached to auxiliary work, such as crushing or washing the minerals, were taxed and ransomed under threats and subjected to the use of violence. Faced with this critical situation in DRC, the international community did not remain silent. A growing movement for greater accountability of multinational companies regarding human rights and greater transparency of supply chains of minerals exploited in DRC has emerged and become a reality in the global market. From simple voluntary initiatives to international norms, these approaches are based on the same principle: due diligence applied to ‘conflict minerals’. When conflict in DRC is discussed, two things seem to stand out systematically. First, there is the ‘resource curse’, referring to the impoverishment of local populations living in mining zones, corruption and poor governance. Second is the discussion of ‘sexual violence as a weapon of war’ against women. Little is said about the women who work at artisanal mining sites, except to draw a simplistic portrait of passive victims. The truth is that the mining community is far more complex than what has been pictured, and the high-risk mining sector is sometimes considered a source of opportunity for certain women. Indeed, in DRC, it is estimated that the artisanal mining sector accounts for 90% of the national production and directly or indirectly furnishes the livelihoods of almost 20% of the population, including many women. Traditionally, in several local cultures in DRC, women are not allowed to enter the mines. Instead, they are assigned to secondary tasks in the processing phase of mineral exploitation: transporting, crushing, washing and reprocessing. Some women sell alcoholic beverages or other goods, and others are engaged in prostitution. This thesis focuses on women and mining. Instead of viewing women at the mining sites as victims, the study took an actor-oriented perspective. This starts from the idea that all women at the mining sites have agency and are creating room for manoeuvre to overcome the difficult situations they face in the world of mining. However, there are large disparities in the room for manoeuvre available to different women; some women have very few options, whereas others can diversify and expand their opportunities. Taking this approach, the study sought to answer the main research question: How do differentially positioned women navigate and negotiate the transformations of artisanal mining in the context of mining reforms in eastern DRC? The research took place from 2013 to 2014, partly in the province of South Kivu (Nyabibwe and Kamituga) and partly in North Katanga, in the current province of Tanganyika (Kisengo and Manono). Two mining sites were chosen in each area, either because they were pilot sites for implementation of the reform initiatives (Nyabibwe and Kisengo) or because of large numbers of women working as miners (Kamituga and Manono). This research is part of the ‘Down to earth: Governance dynamics and social change in artisanal and small-scale mining in DRC’ research programme. This programme aims to understand the negotiated outcomes of the implementation of conflict mineral policy in the eastern Congolese artisanal mining sector on three important topics: gender, livelihoods and governance. This thesis project addressed the first aspect in particular and aimed to contribute to the debate on mining reforms from a gender perspective. Chapter 1 starts with a general introduction to the research objectives, questions and methods. It describes the process through which the studied mining sites were selected based on either the presence of iTSCi initiatives or a great number of women working in the mineral supply chain. This research has essentially relied on qualitative methods, such as interviews, focus groups, life histories and observation. This chapter also describes some of the personal experiences during the fieldwork period. Chapter 2, which was jointly written with J. Cuvelier, D. Hilhorst and G. Van der Haar, introduces the debate around the conflict-related discourse on women’s integration in the mining sector. We examined the rise in international-level attention from international NGOs regarding international norms and the ban of ‘conflict minerals’ exploited in DRC. The resulting reforms, which were intended to improve women’s lives, were observed to also ultimately have negative side effects. The prohibition of pregnant women from the mines was generalised to all women, and access to the mining economy become a matter of negotiation for women. In the same vein, taking the particular case of Nyabibwe, women working as intermediaries between traders and diggers, although their work was an illegal practice in the government’s view (especially because of traceability issues), managed to negotiate recognition for their activities by creating their own organisation and forming political alliances. The thesis sheds light on the consequence of protectionist measures on women in mining and lays the groundwork for the following chapters, which further explore the research problem. Chapter 3, jointly written with G. Van der Haar, introduces the world of women in the mining areas by presenting reasons that lead women to move to and install themselves in mining centres. The analysis examines push and pull factors and also considers the concept of social navigation. The findings demonstrate that there are multiple, interrelated reasons to migrate to and to install oneself in the mining areas. Push and pull factors have merged over time and resulted in complex motives. This chapter adds to the understanding of how women create new sources of revenue and seek, with varying levels of success, to mitigate situations of vulnerability. In Chapter 4, I analyse the activities that women perform in the mining areas in more depth and describe what differentiates these women. The chapter begins with a descriptive analysis of the activities directly and indirectly related to mineral exploitation, together with a description of prostitution in the mining areas. The study identified social capital, financial assets and credit, and livelihood diversification among the factors that may differentiate these women. The findings also show that the reform process itself is a factor of differentiation, because it creates unbalanced power relations between those who are able to afford an identification card (a requirement of the formalisation process) and those who are not. The chapter concludes that, although many scholars have argued that women are working in the dire situation of perilous, exploitative and marginalised conditions, some women gain power positions and manage to save money and invest in other activities. Through their social networks, some women are able to gain access to the mining economy and improve their situation. In Chapter 5, jointly written with J. Cuvelier, we explore how, as is the case for men, there are also elites among women. These elites can be considered ‘big women’. Their power is based on either customary or official authority. With the implementation of the reform initiatives, the importance of official authority increases, to the detriment of customary authority. Based on the case of Kisengo and, in particular, on two female elites—one based on customary and the other on official power—we analyse how elite women negotiate and maintain power. Especially interesting for this study was how both ‘big women’ took advantage of their privileged access to the public authorities to negotiate informal arrangements for a group of women working in the coltan supply chain, allowing their clients (followers) to circumvent certain restrictive regulations concerning women’s access to mining activities. These elite women managed to control access to labour opportunities for women in the local mining economy. Chapter 6, jointly written with D. Hilhorst, explains that, following the developments of the reform initiatives, there was no longer only one discourse (conflict-related) to be taken into account when analysing the problem of women’s access to the mining economy. At international level, there is also a more inclusive discourse (gender mainstreaming). This coexists with the local ideology based on culture, in which women are marginalised and discriminated against. The civil servants who must implement the law regarding the integration of women in mining activities must face the coexistence of these different ideologies, which are sometimes contradictory. This has direct consequences for women’s access to the mining economy, although some women do create room for manoeuvre by forming alliances with civil servants. Concluding this thesis, Chapter 7 responds to the concerns raised in the introduction. Starting from the concept of agency, and taking an actor-oriented approach, the thesis concludes with three key points about how the reform initiatives affect the positions of woman: 1) The research has demonstrated that the socio political situation in the DRC has given rise to different types of gender discourses at international level which in addition to local culture and believe have impacted on the access of women to the mineral exploitation. 2) The research discovered that women in mining have different needs and different ways of dealing with their situations: they are agents who make decisions based on either strategic opportunity or survival.3). Finally, the research demonstrated that the reform process is likely to increase particular forms of marginalisation in the mining labour regimes. They may also allow for the creation of power dynamics based on new social networks that discriminate against those who were already vulnerable. Nevertheless, the research witnesses cases of women, who have benefited from the presence of the reform initiatives to improve their conditions and create more opportunities.

An estimated 2 billion people live in countries affected by fragility, conflict and violence. Extreme poverty is increasingly concentrated in these areas, and governments and international agencies seek avenues to enable socio-economic recovery and to support people as they try to rebuild their lives and livelihoods. People, Aid and Institutions in Socio-economic Recovery: Facing Fragilities provides an in-depth understanding of people's strategies in the face of conflict and disaster-related fragility and examines how policies and aid interventions enable their socio-economic recovery - or fail to do so. Through field-based research, the book captures the complex and unfolding realities on the ground, exploring the interfaces between economic, social and institutional change. This provides a rich and unique vantage point from which to reflect on the impact of recovery policies. The book provides a set of cross-cutting findings that aim to inform policy and practice. The detailed case studies of the book lay bare key dynamics of recovery. Set against the findings from two chapters that review the literature, the cases provide evidence-based lessons for socio-economic recovery. The chapters combine qualitative and quantitative methodologies and form a valuable resource to researchers and postgraduate students of disaster management, conflict, humanitarian aid and social reconstruction, and development management.

This chapter examines the effectiveness of the community-driven reconstruction (CDR) approach in terms of stimulating local communities' participation in public goods provision, with a particular focus on the mobilisation of voluntary manual labour for public works. It provides some background information on the context in which the Tushiriki programme was implemented. The chapter overviews the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), explains the main components of the Tushiriki programme, and then focuses on the logic behind it. It shows that the outcomes of the Tushiriki programme, which sought to contribute to socio-economic recovery in the fragile and conflict-affected setting of eastern DRC, were in many ways determined by the programme's political and social embeddedness. The chapter also focuses on a general lesson for the future of CDR projects in conflict-affected regions with a well-known history of forced labour recruitment. It focuses on one such programme called Tushiriki, a Swahili expression meaning 'let's all be involved together'.

Reforming artisanal mining has a pivotal role in breaking the linkages between mining and conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo. One specific measure has been the creation of mining cooperatives meant to represent mineworkers in their interaction with mining companies. This ethnographic study undertaken in 2013/2014 in northern Katanga examined how cooperatives function and interact with existing institutions and ‘big men’ involved in the mining business. We found that cooperatives were top-down creations that overlooked the influence of ‘big men’ in the process of institutional formation. The study suggests that new initiatives like the mining cooperatives should be based on knowledge of the actual situation and grounded in existing institutions.

An estimated 2 billion people live in countries affected by fragility, conflict and violence. Extreme poverty is increasingly concentrated in these areas, and governments and international agencies seek avenues to enable socio-economic recovery and to support people as they try to rebuild their lives and livelihoods. People, Aid and Institutions in Socio-economic Recovery: Facing Fragilities provides an in-depth understanding of people's strategies in the face of conflict and disaster-related fragility and examines how policies and aid interventions enable their socio-economic recovery - or fail to do so. Through field-based research, the book captures the complex and unfolding realities on the ground, exploring the interfaces between economic, social and institutional change. This provides a rich and unique vantage point from which to reflect on the impact of recovery policies. The book provides a set of cross-cutting findings that aim to inform policy and practice. The detailed case studies of the book lay bare key dynamics of recovery. Set against the findings from two chapters that review the literature, the cases provide evidence-based lessons for socio-economic recovery. The chapters combine qualitative and quantitative methodologies and form a valuable resource to researchers and postgraduate students of disaster management, conflict, humanitarian aid and social reconstruction, and development management.

In international development, shared ownership is assumed to be a condition for effectiveness. Academic studies question this relation, claiming shared ownership can instead lead to ineffectiveness. This study analysed the interplay between ownership and effectiveness in a transnational advocacy network for conflict prevention observed 2012–2015. Building on recent discussions about balancing unity and diversity in networks, this article unpacks the ownership/effectiveness relationship into three dimensions: collective identity, accountability processes and a shared advocacy message. We find that the question is not about more or less effectiveness, but about the processes shaping the meaning of effectiveness in particular institutional constellations.

This chapter deals with civil-military cooperation during stability operations and reconstruction. The title of the section already suggests that civil-military cooperation in these conditions is or at least ought to be different from those in situations of open conflict or situations of emergencies caused by natural disasters in peace time.

South Sudan is in a unique combination of (post)-conflict reconstruction and the birth of a new state in which old policies are re-activated and new policies introduced. By looking at three case-studies of taxation and private sector regulation reforms, the paper will show how the overlapping and often contradictory regulatory frameworks of the state provide the setting for bricolage strategies by different actors. These actors, and particularly state officials, rely on a variety of institutional resources to implement, resist or remake certain regulatory measures. Although the breadth of regulatory measures has increased exponentially, the institutional corridor – the space in which bricolage is performed and on which various actors can rely – remains narrow. This space is contingent on wartime authority structures, and more particularly pre-existing Sudan's People Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) power structures, as well as a deep-rooted resistance to centralised control. Importantly, these regulatory practices are not fixed: intense periods of rearrangement of the social order or ‘open moments’ may provide a window of opportunity for regulatory reform.

La violence sexuelle liée au conflit a affecté la vie d’un très grand nombre de victimes dans La République Démocratique du Congo (RDC). Cette étude compare les conséquences et l’efficacité de la réponse à la violence sexuelle des programmes de 2011 et 2014. La proposition centrale de ce rapport est que malgré certains gains obtenus, notamment, le soutien axé sur la victime s’est transformé en grande partie en une assistance axée sur les réponses communautaires; plus d’attention pour les autres formes de violence basées sur le genre ainsi que plus de reconnaissance des autres besoins médicaux, il reste cependant un grand écart entre la rhétorique internationale et les réalités sur le terrain, avec des représentations internationales qui se concentrent toujours sur les viols liés au conflit. Cela pose un problème éthique et se fait aux dépens de la transparence, et il est difficile de contrôler l’efficacité des programmes. De plus, les accusations de violences sexuelles sont souvent utilisées pour se venger ou extorquer. Le désengagement citoyen vis-à-vis de la question de violences sexuelles s’est renforcé en conséquence. Pour un changement, six recommandations sont émises.

The report is the result of a research among women's organisations in the civil society of South-Kivu.

This paper critically evaluates the transition from crisis to development in northern Uganda from the perspective of agricultural service provision. It contributes to debates on how efforts to link relief to rehabilitation and development may bypass the underlying challenges in linking humanitarian aid to prevailing national development policies and structures. This paper is based on research into agricultural services undertaken in Pader district, northern Uganda, between 2010 and 2012. It studied the interplay between humanitarian interventions and the parallel development of the government’s agricultural departments and services in northern Uganda. The article brings out how Ugandan agricultural policies do not suit the post-conflict realities of northern Uganda. The evolving policies affect power relations and processes of inclusion and exclusion in northern Uganda. As a result, at the time that the government is ready to integrate northern Uganda into the mainstream development of agricultural policy, the gap between addressing humanitarian needs and development has become larger.

Monitoring and evaluation of advocacy for development is an emerging field. Many CSOs, donors and evaluators are now involved with advocacy. Questions of how to understand and assess programmes are urgent. This e-book seeks to contribute to practical capacity on this front on the basis of lessons learned during the largest evaluation of advocacy for development in history.

The report is the result of a research among women's organisations in the civil society of South-Kivu.

Monitoring and evaluation of advocacy for development is an emerging field. Many CSOs, donors and evaluators are now involved with advocacy. Questions of how to understand and assess programmes are urgent. This e-book seeks to contribute to practical capacity on this front on the basis of lessons learned during the largest evaluation of advocacy for development in history.