Search

Recent research has highlighted the impacts of colonialism and racism in global health, yet few studies have presented concrete steps toward addressing the problems. We conducted a narrative review to identify published evidence that documented guiding frameworks for enhancing equity and inclusion in global health research and practice (GHRP). Based on this narrative review, we developed a questionnaire with a series of reflection questions related on commonly reported challenges related to diversity, inclusion, equity, and power imbalances. To reach consensus on a set of priority questions relevant to each theme, the questionnaire was sent to a sample of 18 global health experts virtually and two rounds of iterations were conducted. Results identified eight thematic areas and 19 reflective questions that can assist global health researchers and practitioners striving to implement socially just global health reforms. Key elements identified for improving GHRP include: (1) aiming to understand the historical context and power dynamics within the areas touched by the program; (2) promoting and mobilizing local stakeholders and leadership and ensuring measures for their participation in decision-making; (3) ensuring that knowledge products are co-produced and more equitably accessible; (4) establishing a more holistic feedback and accountability system to understand needed reforms based on local perspectives; and (5) applying systems thinking to addressing challenges and encouraging approaches that can be sustained long-term. GHRP professionals should reflect more deeply on how their goals align with those of their in-country collaborators. The consistent application of reflective processes has the potential to shift GHRP towards increased equity.

This article uses a survey of Development Studies (DS) professors and students in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom to answer three questions about academic DS. DS is defined in part by a commitment to improve the world, and the first questions ask if the respondents believe that DS lives up to this defining criteria. The second group of questions asks about the ethical commitments of DS academics and how these commitments inform our research and teaching. Finally, I explore cross-national variation in how we practice DS. I ask about the methods, training, and disciplinary norms of DS academics across the three countries. In asking about beliefs, values, and practices and in exploring cross-national variation in our answers, I seek to both build self-knowledge about DS academics as a cross-national epistemic community and also to encourage self-reflection about how we can harmonise our empirical beliefs, ethical commitments, and professional practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the dynamics of public support for international development policies in the United States and South Korea, focusing on the distinctions between normative and substantial support. Normative support is based on agreement with the policy's importance due to shared values or beliefs, while substantial support involves a willingness to allocate resources for implementation. Utilizing surveys and logit analysis, the research highlights the complex interplay between universal factors like political ideology and self-interest and specific factors such as global citizenship. The study finds that a higher sense of global community significantly boosts normative and substantial support. This nuanced analysis offers valuable insights for enhancing public support for international policies, providing critical implications for policy-making and future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Media representations of African underdevelopment are central to the communicative potential and reach of international development in the mainstream public sphere, but they are not without sustained critique and confrontation. By conceptualising the humanitarian-themed campaign – #TheAfricaTheMediaNeverShowsYou on Twitter, as an Afrodiasporic Subaltern Counterpublic, this article considers how UK African diasporic communities have utilised this digitalised environment to oppose the popular but problematic 'face of development'. Applying Nancy Fraser's counterpublics theorisation and drawing on social media ethnography and multiple participant interviews, it shows how oppositional counter-discourses among these online diasporic communities challenge problematic African representation within 'white media'. This is realised in three distinct but interrelated discursive practices: (1) Afrodiasporic solidaristic orientations; (2) Diasporic solidarism as an assemblage(d) response to development's institutionalised whiteness; and (3) Countering Africa(n) misrepresentations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do substate actors engage in foreign affairs even if endowed with limited formal powers? How are these activities institutionalised and legitimised? This article addresses these questions by examining a critical case: the rise of Scotland's international development cooperation. The spotlight is put on the domestic sources of foreign policy formation. Our core argument is that the politics of nation-building underpins both the ambition and the increased distinctiveness of the Scottish approach to development. This nation-building effort is mainly reflected in the emergence of an assertive narrative: 'Scotland as a good global citizen'. Another core insight is the strong articulation between domestic and international representations. The external projections of the Scottish Government mirror the domestic agenda. Our article places the striking Scottish case in analytical and comparative perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study delves into the operations of a Chinese volunteer tourism organization in Mathare, Kenya, a south-south context that has not been commonly explored in development practice. The first-hand data were collected during two fieldwork trips in 2018 and 2019, employing qualitative research methods such as participant observations and in-depth interviews. By adapting the 'powercube' theoretical framework, the research uncovers the presence of control and manipulation beneath the outward claims of empowerment made by the organization. The analysis reveals that the lack of organizational formality, with power being floated in many situations, has paved the way for both deliberate and unintentional forms of dominance in the realm of voluntary work. As a result, conflicts and disparities have arisen within the community. Recognizing it as a mode of development practice helps us to see new ways that power is articulated and shapes development interventions in African communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Traffic-related crashes are a leading cause of premature death and disability. The safe systems approach is an evidence-informed set of innovations to reduce traffic-related injuries and deaths. First developed in Sweden, global health actors are adapting the model to improve road safety in low- and middle-income countries via technical assistance (TA) programs; however, there is little evidence on road safety TA across contexts. This study investigated how, why, and under what conditions technical assistance influenced evidence-informed road safety in Accra (Ghana), Bogotá (Colombia), and Mumbai (India), using a case study of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS). Methods We conducted a realist evaluation with a multiple case study design to construct a program theory. Key informant interviews were conducted with 68 government officials, program staff, and other stakeholders. Documents were utilized to trace the evolution of the program. We used a retroductive analysis approach, drawing on the diffusion of innovation theory and guided by the context-mechanism-outcome approach to realist evaluation. Results TA can improve road safety capabilities and increase the uptake of evidence-informed interventions. Hands-on capacity building tailored to specific implementation needs improved implementers’ understanding of new approaches. BIGRS generated novel, city-specific analytics that shifted the focus toward vulnerable road users. BIGRS and city officials launched pilots that brought evidence-informed approaches. This built confidence by demonstrating successful implementation and allowing government officials to gauge public perception. But pilots had to scale within existing city and national contexts. City champions, governance structures, existing political prioritization, and socio-cultural norms influenced scale-up. Conclusion The program theory emphasizes the interaction of trust, credibility, champions and their authority, governance structures, political prioritization, and the implement-ability of international evidence in creating the conditions for road safety change. BIGRS continues to be a vehicle for improving road safety at scale and developing coalitions that assist governments in fulfilling their role as stewards of population well-being. Our findings improve understanding of the complex role of TA in translating evidence-informed interventions to country-level implementation and emphasize the importance of context-sensitive TA to increase impact.

How can university work experiences contribute to reframing International Development from expert saviourism rooted in colonial legacies into a project of social justice and global solidarity? In this article, I propose the design of work-experiential pedagogies that integrate practical work experiences with critical theoretical teaching and an emphasis on students' experiential knowledge. Such pedagogies call for an expansion of the forms of university work experiences, challenging students to reflect on their manifold personal and institutional locations, to explore the diverse spaces in which work experiences can take place and to experiment with multiple pathways for change. My proposal draws on teaching examples and student journeys at my home university in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite global efforts to improve surgical care access, many low- and middle-income countries, especially in neurosurgery, face significant shortages. The Gambia exemplifies this, with only 1 fully qualified neurosurgeon serving its population of 2.5 million people. This scarcity results in higher morbidity and mortality. We aim to document the history and current state of neurosurgery in the Gambia to raise awareness and promote neurosurgery development. The study reviews the Gambia's health care system, infrastructure, neurosurgical history, workforce, disease burden, and progress, with information derived from reference sources as well as author experience and interviews with key partners in Gambian health care. Neurosurgery in the Gambia began in the 1970s, facing constraints due to competing health care demands. Significant progress occurred much later in the early 2010s, marked by the initiation of Banjul Neuro Missions and the establishment of a dedicated neurosurgery unit. We report significant progress with neurosurgical interventions in the past few years showcasing the unit's dedication to advancing neurosurgical care in the Gambia. However, challenges persist, including a lack of trained neurosurgeons, equipment shortages such as ventilators and diagnostic imaging. Financial barriers for patients, particularly related to the costs of computer tomography scans, pose significant hurdles, impacting the timely diagnosis and intervention for neurological conditions. Neurosurgery in the Gambia is progressing, but challenges like equipment scarcity hinder further progress. We emphasize the need for addressing cost barriers, improving infrastructure, and fostering research. Engaging the government and international collaborations are vital for sustained development in Gambian neurosurgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of humanitarian donation apps promises to revolutionize aid by making it easier for people to give to humanitarian causes with just a few swipes on the smartphone in the palm of their hands. Yet, little is known about the implications of this for the politics and ethics of contemporary aid. This article explores the politics of humanitarian donation apps through an in-depth study of the World Food Programme's donation app ShareTheMeal. By analysing data from a detailed app walkthrough and documentation in a user journal of the experiences of a sample of app users, the article shows how ShareTheMeal is designed to afford specific forms of everyday humanitarianism, and how users adopt, appropriate or resist these affordances. Doing so we find that, while ShareTheMeal affords a convenient and gratifying donation experience, it also reinvigorates racial and paternalistic divisions between donors as benevolent saviours and recipients as voiceless victims, and integrates users into an extractivist data economy. Hence, rather than revolutionizing aid, ShareTheMeal instead sediments unequal relationships of agency and dependency in and through everyday acts of helping. Yet, because of apps' openness to user resistance and change, another politics of humanitarianism is nevertheless possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addressing the urgent global climate crisis demands a rapid and meaningful expansion of "climate mainstreaming," which refers to the integration of climate objectives in all aspects of development programs and policies. However, progress remains slow and uneven due to bottlenecks in policy and institutional change. Considering the parallel struggle recorded over decades to mainstream gender across the same policy arenas, a key question emerges: what can climate mainstreaming learn from gender mainstreaming? To answer this question, we review 57 policy, strategy, and guidance documents of United Nations agencies, all of which integrate these themes into food security and broader development programming. Our analysis identifies gaps in climate mainstreaming efforts and derives lessons from gender mainstreaming to bridge these gaps. It underscores the importance of adapting programmatic mainstreaming strategies in response to evolving contexts, for example, by simultaneously considering both mainstreaming and targeted interventions. Additionally, it highlights the need to adopt organizational climate mainstreaming and establish mechanisms for accountability. Finally, it emphasizes the urgency of embracing a climate justice lens; in practice, this involves prioritizing populations at greater risk of climate change impacts and actively engaging diverse perspectives in decision‐making, particularly communities facing multiple forms of discrimination. This article is categorized under:Integrated Assessment of Climate Change > Assessing Climate Change in the Context of Other IssuesClimate and Development > Sustainability and Human Well‐BeingPolicy and Governance > International Policy Framework [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global neurosurgery is a public health focus in neurosurgery that seeks to ensure safe, timely, and affordable neurosurgical care to all individuals worldwide. Although investigators have begun to explore the promise of artificial intelligence (AI) for neurosurgery, its applicability to global neurosurgery has been largely hypothetical. We characterize opportunities and considerations for the incorporation of AI into global neurosurgery by synthesizing key themes yielded from a series of generative pretrained transformers (GPTs), discuss important limitations of GPTs and cautions when using AI in neurosurgery, and develop a framework for the equitable incorporation of AI into global neurosurgery. ChatGPT, Bing Chat/Copilot, You, Perplexity.ai, and Google Bard were queried with the prompt "How can AI be incorporated into global neurosurgery?" A layered ChatGPT-based thematic analysis was performed. The authors synthesized the results into opportunities and considerations for the incorporation of AI in global neurosurgery. A Pareto analysis was conducted to determine common themes. Eight opportunities and 14 important considerations were synthesized. Six opportunities related to patient care, 1 to education, and another to public health planning. Four of the important considerations were deemed specific to global neurosurgery. The Pareto analysis included all 8 opportunities and 5 considerations. AI may be incorporated into global neurosurgery in a variety of capacities requiring numerous considerations. The framework presented in this manuscript may facilitate the incorporation of AI into global neurosurgery initiatives while balancing contextual factors and the reality of limited resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation: Close to a third of the world's population and more than 80% of people living in extreme poverty live in contexts of fragility. With agencies such as the OECD and UNDP conceiving of such places in terms of multiple and serious risks, the framing has come to be one of pathology: fragile contexts are defined by deficits with respect to idealized governance and sustainable development goals. In consequence, development options are locked into managing risks—confining opportunities to develop potential. Purpose: Can strategic foresight unlock the development potential of fragile societies? Approach and methods: Because there is still little documentation of foresight initiatives in contexts of fragility, the approach here is theoretical and conceptual. We draw on literature from the fields of fragility, foresight, and cognition, as well as insights from expert exchanges and roundtables. Findings: It is uncertainty, not risk, that lies at the heart of fragility—an insight that challenges standard decision‐making. With the latter being based on analogical reasoning, it cannot be logically applied under conditions of uncertainty. If, instead, we adopt an heuristic for decision‐making that acknowledges uncertainty to not only entail risk but also opportunity, strategic foresight is well‐placed to help revive development. Policy Implications: First, fragility has to be reframed to acknowledge the centrality of uncertainty, not risk, in approaching fragility. Whilst evidence from the past is important, scrutinizing past paradigms and envisioning different futures is crucial. Second, strategic foresight can help uncover fragile societies' capacities and potential. It can help shift from analyses dominated by a concern with lacks and deficits, to analyses which seek relative strengths and opportunities. Just as strong states are not strong in every respect, fragile states may have more to offer than meets the eye. Third, debates need to be more open, less ideologically laden. Dominant thinking on fragility is rife with seemingly imperturbable underpinnings: for example, the mantra that "without peace there can be no development, and without development there can be no peace." While such propositions contain some truth, treating them as absolute and universally applicable, limits both thinking and policy options. Strategic foresight is well placed to provide a fresh view on fragility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As donors channel more of their development assistance through private companies, a discussion is growing on what this shift means for international development. This paper focuses on four Central European donors, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, who have recently implemented new incentives to promote the greater engagement of the private sector in their international development programmes. The paper uses new survey data of project managers at organisations implementing aid projects funded by these four donors to explore how private actors differ in their approaches to aid implementation. The analysis reveals that the type of implementing organisation does not affect their focus on internal project goals (budget, schedule, and scope), but project managers at private firms consider long-term impact and economic sustainability of the project less important. These findings support claims that for-profit organisations exercise a short-term approach to satisfy funders, but lack a deeper focus on long-term development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, and as a team of researchers/practitioners spanning the globe, we reflect on the historical and ongoing legacies of (neo)colonialism and imperialism in education in emergencies (EiE) research and practice using collaborative auto-ethnography. Specifically, we explore how we've experienced hierarchies of power, positionality and privilege, and how we've benefited and/or been victims of this in the past. We then move to explore how we are striving to realise authentic and meaningful co-production in ACCESS (Accelerating Change for Childrens' and Youths' Education for Systems Strengthening), a 44-month research-practice partnership that aims to improve education provision for out-of-school children and youth. We identify both opportunities and challenges to doing this and highlight how decolonising EiE research/practice is an ongoing process rather than finite, singular actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some scholars have argued that every year, huge amount of financial and human resources are being deployed by international development agencies, and NGOs to improve the living conditions of millions of poor people living in most African countries, yet most of these interventions are not achieving the objectives expected. This study seeks to know the validity of this postulation by exploring the intersection of participatory communication, role-players engagement, and project proposal in achieving far-reaching impact and success of development interventions in Africa. A systematic literature review method was used. The findings showed that 25% of the 48 development interventions evaluated were failed projects, 64.58% projects came midway, and 10.42% projects were successful. The findings support the postulation of Farreach perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contribution of arts for development has recently received a great deal of attention from international donors ad organizations. The anthropology of art, however, has participated in a limited way in these debates. Borrowing theoretical tools from the socio-anthropology of development, this paper questions the politics of knowledge involved in the implementation of art projects in postcolonial context. Drawing on ethnographical research in Botswana on an art project opened by a NGO for the San people, it describes the ways areas of knowledge and non-knowledge have been attributed. It shows that the conceptions of knowledge at stake in the making of contemporary San art indirectly reproduce a Great Divide between modernity and tradition, which has direct impacts on the ways the practice is appropriated by local actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: An estimated two billion people do not have sufficient access to nutritious food, and nearly half are dependent on small‐scale and subsistence farming. Projections show that the global population is not on track to reach the Sustainable Development Goals. With this in mind, development actors are increasingly seeking to better integrate rural farmers into agricultural markets. This synthesis of the literature can help to inform policy decisions to improve outcomes for smallholder farmers in low‐ and middle‐income countries, and to enable the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals. This work is the most comprehensive and up‐to‐date review synthesizing evidence from 262 interventions. Objectives: The purpose of this systematic review is to appraise and synthesize evidence of the effects of five types of interventions facilitating farmers' access to output markets in low‐ and middle‐income countries. We examine how these effects vary across contexts and subgroups. We also identify evidence on program costs and evidence gaps in the literature. Search Methods: The search of included studies was based on nine major databases/search engines and 25 institutional websites, using a set of English search terms. We also conducted forward and backward citation tracking of literature, published a public call for papers, and contacted key experts. Selection Criteria: We included studies on the effects of five types of output market access interventions, focusing on participants residing in low‐ and middle‐income countries: (1) Farm‐to‐market transport infrastructure interventions; (2) Access to output market information interventions; (3) New marketplaces or alternative marketing opportunities interventions; (4) Contract farming interventions; (5) Improved storage infrastructure and technologies interventions. We included published and unpublished studies from 2000 onwards, with experimental and quasi‐experimental study designs focusing on relevant outcomes. Data Collection and Analysis: We screened 52,366 studies, identifying a total of 439 papers representing 289 unique studies on the effects of 262 interventions in 53 countries. Data extraction and risk of bias assessments were completed by two independent reviewers. Main Results: All five types of output market access interventions resulted in small‐to‐moderate positive effects on almost all measures of market participation, agricultural production, and welfare outcomes. These improvements occurred through a reduction in transaction costs, adoption of improved practices, greater farm investment, access to higher prices for farmers, greater volume sold, and increased farm income. Effects vary by intervention type. However, the body of evidence is comprised of a large share of included studies with a high risk of bias. Few studies have information on the cost of interventions, and there are gaps in the available evidence. Authors' Conclusions: Output market access interventions are effective in reducing transaction costs and addressing market failures, thereby leading to higher income levels. Evidence of effects on food security and nutrition is sparse and has not provided conclusive findings. We also found that multi‐component interventions are not necessarily more effective than single component interventions. The specific needs and dynamics of each context should inform the choice of the intervention and approach. Investments in additional research with low risk of selection bias and confounding effects will improve the evidence base, especially for outcomes that constitute gaps in the literature. For example, the effects on quality of agricultural products and group participation are under‐researched, and we did not find any included studies focusing on North Africa or the Middle East. Collecting and reporting information on interventions' cost‐effectiveness will help decision‐makers to prioritize limited resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review discusses the book Saving the Children: Humanitarianism, Internationalism, and Empire by Emily Baughan. In the book, Baughan documents and discusses the first 100 years of the Save the Children Fund, which was established in the United Kingdom in 1919. In this article, I review the book in the context of the Community Capitals Framework, paying particular attention to the importance of cultural capital. One of the major shortcomings of Save the Children was the willful ignorance of and, at times, the purposeful destruction and elimination of the cultural capital of the communities, families, and youth they were serving. I discuss the consequences of ignoring and damaging cultural capital and provide examples of how, rather than being only a historical problem of large and complex organizations such as Save the Children, some current scholars and practitioners continue to neglect and harm cultural capital in their own community development work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Traffic-related crashes are a leading cause of premature death and disability. The safe systems approach is an evidence-informed set of innovations to reduce traffic-related injuries and deaths. First developed in Sweden, global health actors are adapting the model to improve road safety in low- and middle-income countries via technical assistance (TA) programs; however, there is little evidence on road safety TA across contexts. This study investigated how, why, and under what conditions technical assistance influenced evidence-informed road safety in Accra (Ghana), Bogotá (Colombia), and Mumbai (India), using a case study of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS). Methods: We conducted a realist evaluation with a multiple case study design to construct a program theory. Key informant interviews were conducted with 68 government officials, program staff, and other stakeholders. Documents were utilized to trace the evolution of the program. We used a retroductive analysis approach, drawing on the diffusion of innovation theory and guided by the context-mechanism-outcome approach to realist evaluation. Results: TA can improve road safety capabilities and increase the uptake of evidence-informed interventions. Hands-on capacity building tailored to specific implementation needs improved implementers' understanding of new approaches. BIGRS generated novel, city-specific analytics that shifted the focus toward vulnerable road users. BIGRS and city officials launched pilots that brought evidence-informed approaches. This built confidence by demonstrating successful implementation and allowing government officials to gauge public perception. But pilots had to scale within existing city and national contexts. City champions, governance structures, existing political prioritization, and socio-cultural norms influenced scale-up. Conclusion: The program theory emphasizes the interaction of trust, credibility, champions and their authority, governance structures, political prioritization, and the implement-ability of international evidence in creating the conditions for road safety change. BIGRS continues to be a vehicle for improving road safety at scale and developing coalitions that assist governments in fulfilling their role as stewards of population well-being. Our findings improve understanding of the complex role of TA in translating evidence-informed interventions to country-level implementation and emphasize the importance of context-sensitive TA to increase impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aid localisation is a decades-old endeavour recently catalysed by the 2016 Grand Bargain agreement. However, localisation's unintended effects have yet to be assessed systematically. This study typologises five unintended effects in the context of Cordaid's partnerships within the Just Future program: competition, administration, value, civic space, and climate effects. Through literature reviews and 15 key informant interviews, it finds most frequently and impactfully that localisation risks perpetuating hierarchies, as international NGOs favour partnerships with larger local NGOs that manage to meet donor requirements at the expense of community-based organisations (competition effect). In addition, it risks disproportionately increasing local administrative burdens due to donors' low risk appetite and mistrustful perceptions of local capacities (administration effect). Localisation furthermore risks diverging from certain values, such as gender-related and LGBTQ+ rights, which are a priority for many international NGOs (value effect). Recommendations focus on adaptive management and providing technical assistance to smaller local NGOs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organisation-centric approaches in development communication and public relations that privilege the organisation can restrict communication to organisational mandates and goals. Organisation-centric approaches can reflect a modernist view of development or communication and have been critiqued for favouring technocratic development rather than serving marginalised groups. Currently, scholars in development communication and public relations place greater emphasis on publics or community participation and the processual nature of communication to overcome adverse organisational influence and propose better solutions. This article recognises theoretical advances in development communication and public relations and adopts the Collaborative Communication Approach, integrating current concepts from these two fields. The Collaborative Communication Approach facilitates an examination of communication in development in relation to five elements of power, context, participation, agency, and profession. This article shows how the five elements prove useful in addressing communication challenges in development through primary research and offers eight distinct categories to advance practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China shows a growing commitment to peacemaking and peacekeeping overseas. Yet Chinese peace efforts have met considerable challenges across multiple conflict settings. This article seeks to understand the difficulties facing Chinese peacemaking and peacekeeping and asks how these experiences influence the future behaviour of Chinese actors towards peace and conflict issues. Previous scholarship has largely taken a state-centric perspective to explain China's engagement in peacemaking and peacekeeping. In contrast, this article harnesses an assemblage approach to reveal the diversity of Chinese actors and the significant role local actors and normative forms of power play in influencing China's broader peace efforts. In South Sudan, it finds that the political ideas advanced by warring factions and the legitimacy they placed on United Nations peacekeeping intervention, both undermined Chinese peacemaking and peacekeeping and held far-reaching effects for Chinese actors beyond the conflict. Consequently, these challenges in South Sudan pushed China's national oil company to adopt new risk management policies throughout its investments in conflict settings. The South Sudan experience also influenced China's foreign ministry by tempering its proactive approach to conflict resolution in other conflict-affected countries and to promote peacekeeper safety and support peacekeeping intelligence at the United Nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why and how do African states become peacekeepers? Through a single-case study, this article accounts for a transformation in peace and security: how Ethiopia became the world's prime source of blue helmets in the early twenty-first century, having largely shunned peacekeeping in preceding decades. We propose that peacekeeping came to serve as an unexpectedly useful technology to pursue state-building agendas. Historically, regional proxy wars undermined state-building efforts in Ethiopia and mismanagement of ethno-linguistic diversity rendered it vulnerable to externally supported rebellions. In the 2000s, an evolving approach to peacekeeping dovetailed with the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front's (EPRDF) vision for recalibrating political order domestically and in the Horn of Africa. EPRDF became convinced that changing Ethiopia required changing its surrounding region. Regional intervention as peacekeeping was supported by global powers and helped bind neighbouring states to Ethiopia in new ways. This entailed the crafting of deep political ties in Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan that mitigated historical fears of Ethiopian hegemony and shielded EPRDF state-building from outside destabilization. Moreover, as Ethiopia's increasingly prominent role in United Nations and African Union missions improved the external environment for the EPRDF developmental state, it also expanded Ethiopian National Defence Force's role in the political economy, buttressing the party-state's hegemony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When designing evidence-based policies and programs, decision-makers must distill key information from a vast and rapidly growing literature base. Identifying relevant literature from raw search results is time and resource intensive, and is often done by manual screening. In this study, we develop an artificial intelligence (AI) agent based on a bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT) model and incorporate it into a human team designing an evidence synthesis product for global development. We explore the effectiveness of the human-AI hybrid team in accelerating the evidence synthesis process. To further improve team efficiency, we enhance the human-AI hybrid team through active learning (AL). Specifically, we explore different sampling strategies, including random sampling, least confidence (LC) sampling, and highest priority (HP) sampling, to study their influence on the collaborative screening process. Results show that incorporating the BERT-based AI agent into the human team can reduce the human screening effort, i.e., the number of documents that humans need to screen, by 68.5% compared to the case of no AI assistance and by 16.8% compared to the industry-standard case of using a frequency-based language model and support vector machine-based classifier for identifying 80% of all relevant documents. When we apply the HP sampling strategy, the human screening effort can be reduced even more: by 78.3% for identifying 80% of all relevant documents compared to no AI assistance. We apply the AL-enhanced human-AI hybrid teaming workflow in the design process of three evidence gap maps for U.S. Agency for International Development and find it to be highly effective. These findings demonstrate how AI can accelerate the development of evidence synthesis products and promote timely evidence-based decision-making in global development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, authors present and contextualise findings from a research project examining the experience and impact of participation in an international music therapy student placement for nine Australian music therapists. Research participants reflect on the impact both at the time of the student placement, and subsequently on their professional lives as music therapists. Researchers used qualitative thematic analysis to analyse nine open-ended interviews with the research participants. Themes were articulated over three iterations of analysis and were developed into a series of narratives that reflected various perspectives on key emerging themes. Researchers interpreted five broad areas of learning from the data: Placement structure; challenges and supporting factors on placement; learning opportunities identified within the placement; future impact on individuals; and broader insights for the international development music therapy literature. Learning from across these five areas is considered in relation to the context of international development as an emerging practice area in music therapy. Researchers suggest how key data points may inform future approaches to music therapy practice. A critical lens is used to consider some ethical considerations related to this area of work, and to propose ways that research learning may inform future music therapy practice in international development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Safe drinking water availability is a concern in Haiti. Public systems have limited coverage and reliability. Private wells and local water sources are often of unknown or poor quality. Public health events, such as the 2010 cholera outbreak, demonstrate vulnerability to water contamination. To address these concerns, a drinking water laboratory was established at the Campus Henri Christophe in Limonade, a branch of the State University of Haiti, to meet water testing demands from local clients such as for-profit kiosks, institutions, industries, and municipal water systems. This study assessed the financial viability of a university-based drinking water laboratory in Haiti by calculating Internal Rate of Return and Net Present Value. Sensitivity analysis was used to identify the range of conditions under which laboratory revenues would cover operating costs. To achieve an acceptable profitability level, the laboratory must perform microbiological testing for routine monitoring samples and test an average of five samples per day. Price-based incentives for new clients have relatively small impacts on profitability. Finally, international and Haitian inflation cause some variation in profitability. These economic factors will be among the key drivers of laboratory operation costs. The results underscore the main factors that must be considered to make the laboratory successful and the importance of strategic marketing for laboratory managers to encourage clients to regularly test drinking water and emphasize microbiological testing.

International development and in particular the concept of sustainable development have mid to long term time frames. Traditional international development studies have historically focused on macro level economic growth with an emphasis on infrastructure and grand scale public policy formation. It should be noted that the discipline has evolved and notions such as participatory development have entered the theoretical mainstream to complement macro level public policy concerns. Nevertheless, the time frame continues to be mid to long term. A youth perspective helps us explore the poignancy of immediacy for this important demographic group. Development for youth has a much shorter time frame than it does at the public policy level. The present paper explores how the concept of human security, and a youth perspective can help bridge the disconnect between mainstream international development studies, public policy discourse on sustainable development, and short term needs and realities of millions of people all over the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employing insights provided by the theory of monopolistic markets in economics and Great Power behaviour in the discipline of international relations, this paper aims to provide an alternative understanding of India's refusal to join the BRI beyond the immediate bilateral security, domestic politics, and economic considerations in Sino-Indian relations. We argue that BRI is an effort by China to position itself as the leading firm in the market for international development – a space for long dominated by Western development providers. The paper argues that India's efforts to contest the BRI can be seen as a natural outcome of other rising powers resisting China's efforts to monopolize the development market. In doing so, it provides a template of why rising powers compete with each other in providing developmental aid even when cooperation may create mutual benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Question (1669-6581) is the property of Universidad Nacional de La Plata and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper unpacks our efforts as external evaluators to work toward decolonizing our evaluation practice. Undertaking this writing exercise as a form of reflective practice demonstrated that decolonization is much more complex than simply translating materials, organizing locals to collect data, and building participants' capacity around Western modalities. While this complexity is clear in the decolonization literature, practice-based examples that depict barriers and thought processes are rarely presented. Through this paper, we deconstruct our deeply held beliefs around what constitutes good evaluation to assess the effectiveness of our decolonizing approach. Through sharing our critical consciousness-raising dialoguing, this paper reports our progress thus far and provides information and provocations to support others attempting to decolonize their practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International development and humanitarian organisations are increasingly focused on transitioning from top-down models of practice to 'locally-led approaches' that recognise local epistemologies, capabilities and visions of change. Despite this focus, there remains limited practical guidance to support organisations making this transition. In this article, we aim to suggest ways in which Self-Determination Theory, a well-known theoretical framework in psychology and education, could be applied in the context of development and humanitarian organisations to facilitate transitions to locally-led partnerships and ways of working. We provide an overview of Self-Determination Theory and where it has been used in the development and humanitarian contexts. We propose its feasibility as a framework for transition to locally-led partnerships and approaches in these contexts and suggest specific strategies under a Self-Determination Theory framework that organisations could employ to support both international and local staff members in organisational transitions to locally-led practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While innovation is known to catalyse solutions to global sustainable development challenges, lack of engagement from stakeholders during conceptualisation and development may influence the degree of success of implementation. This paper presents a complete and novel engagement methodology, developed from value led business modelling approaches, for working with multi-sector stakeholders. The methodology can be used to determine barriers and facilitators to clinical practice innovations or translational research, within a country-specific context. The approach has then been applied in the Cambodian prosthetics and orthotics sector to provide a practice-based exemplar application of the framework. This approach seeks to ensure the suitability and sustainability of clinical practice and research programmes being implemented within a complex ecosystem. A theoretical basis, drawn from academic and business innovation sectors, has been consolidated and adapted for practical application to design, direct, and inform initiatives in low resource settings. The methods presented provide a way to both develop and articulate the mission, vision, and goals of any proposed change, and to effectively communicate these with stakeholders in a way that engages the personal and professional values that exist in their ecosystem. It provides a structured process through which meaningful conversations can happen, and a basis for relationship management with key stakeholders; intrinsic to enable a sustained legacy from research and development. The engagement from stakeholders during conceptualisation and throughout development can determine the success, or not, of any implementation and scale of innovation. This paper presents a conceptual stakeholder-led engagement methodology, developed from value led business modelling approaches, for determining barriers and facilitators to translational global healthcare research in a country-specific context, in this case the Cambodian prosthetics and orthotics sector. Subsequent research and development work in this area needs to carefully manage and negotiate influencing factors identified through the application of the described methodology, to ensure initiatives (whether research or wider national development work) are sustainable and successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 30 years, mixed methods research has become an increasingly popular tool in the social sciences. Mixed methods research can capture a diverse range of perspectives and levels of complexities not always possible with the use of a single methodological approach. It has been effectively implemented in a range of contexts to explore program outcomes and investigate research questions. This paper explores the application of a mixed methods approach in the evaluation of large-scale, long running international development scholarship programs. The particular focus is on a project implemented to consolidate evidence relating to the long-term outcomes of alumni who completed higher education in Australia as part of an Australian development scholarship. In reflecting on five years of implementation, the paper describes the benefits, complexities and challenges of this approach, with the aim of informing others embarking on large-scale, long-term program evaluations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization has created a need and opportunity for social work education to prepare practitioners for social work in cross-cultural settings. Semester long international practicum and study abroad opportunities are a response to this need. This qualitative study explores the lived experiences of social workers who studied abroad in order to understand how these past experiences have impacted their current social work practice. Findings suggest that international practicums can be valuable preparation for social work practice in diverse cross-cultural settings. This study revealed the following outcomes: 1) a focus on relationship building over theoretical applications, 2) a more subjective view of culture, 3) development of cultural humility, 4) new understandings of privilege, power and oppression, and 5) the application of anti-oppressive practice perspectives. The learning that takes place through international practicum experiences goes beyond the practicum and is part of the overall experience of living, learning and practicing abroad and is supported by good supervision and support to allow participants to process their learning experiences and apply them to social work practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropological debates about development are often framed by a moral contrast between pure and instrumental knowledge. But the good of anthropology is situationally produced, as we can demonstrate by reflecting on the discipline's institutional conditions. Institutional contexts sustain our professional identities and research practices, including the claimed differences between them. These contexts are in turn produced by political economies of development expertise and academic knowledge production. Indeed, social anthropology's core research practices were shaped by its configuration within political economies of colonial governance, and they were perpetuated through the expansion of university systems. We should, then, stop sustaining the fictions that our work is situated outside political economies of interest or that we write purely in pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Rather, we need to be more transparent about the economies that determine the kinds of knowledge we produce and the political implications of what we authorize as knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As NGOs have emerged as arguably the most prominent actors within the global development enterprise, their international activities and presence have grown to represent a key area of inquiry for development scholars. Existing literature on the geographic distribution of development NGOs leans heavily on quantitative analysis, which lends little insight into the deeper motivations behind the location-based decisions that these organizations make; this study uses a qualitative lens to fill this gap, shedding light on the question "Why do NGOs work where they do"? After interviewing representatives from 22 Canadian development NGOs, the research team determined several key catalysts, which shape the geography of these entities. These factors include existing relationships, personal visits, local requests, logistical ease, funder restrictions, documented need, and humanitarian crises. Furthermore, the decision-making framework related to project locations appears to evolve as organizations grow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article carries out a psychoanalytic and political critique of recent attempts at fighting racism, focusing on antiracist "unconscious bias training" at universities and in international development. It claims that these regimes of institutional training depend on knowledge- and awareness-based education of university staff and international cooperants, thereby not only negating the significant psychoanalytic dimensions of racism, but also disavowing any meaningful or collective engagement precisely with the unconscious. The political consequence is the treatment of racism as both symptom and individualized responsibility, thereby depoliticizing the struggle against global/structural racism. The article concludes by considering what a psychoanalytic antiracist politics might look like. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background An estimated two billion people do not have sufficient access to nutritious food, and nearly half are dependent on small‐scale and subsistence farming. Projections show that the global population is not on track to reach the Sustainable Development Goals. With this in mind, development actors are increasingly seeking to better integrate rural farmers into agricultural markets. This synthesis of the literature can help to inform policy decisions to improve outcomes for smallholder farmers in low‐ and middle‐income countries, and to enable the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals. This work is the most comprehensive and up‐to‐date review synthesizing evidence from 262 interventions. Objectives The purpose of this systematic review is to appraise and synthesize evidence of the effects of five types of interventions facilitating farmers' access to output markets in low‐ and middle‐income countries. We examine how these effects vary across contexts and subgroups. We also identify evidence on program costs and evidence gaps in the literature. Search Methods The search of included studies was based on nine major databases/search engines and 25 institutional websites, using a set of English search terms. We also conducted forward and backward citation tracking of literature, published a public call for papers, and contacted key experts. Selection Criteria We included studies on the effects of five types of output market access interventions, focusing on participants residing in low‐ and middle‐income countries: (1) Farm‐to‐market transport infrastructure interventions; (2) Access to output market information interventions; (3) New marketplaces or alternative marketing opportunities interventions; (4) Contract farming interventions; (5) Improved storage infrastructure and technologies interventions. We included published and unpublished studies from 2000 onwards, with experimental and quasi‐experimental study designs focusing on relevant outcomes. Data Collection and Analysis We screened 52,366 studies, identifying a total of 439 papers representing 289 unique studies on the effects of 262 interventions in 53 countries. Data extraction and risk of bias assessments were completed by two independent reviewers. Main Results All five types of output market access interventions resulted in small‐to‐moderate positive effects on almost all measures of market participation, agricultural production, and welfare outcomes. These improvements occurred through a reduction in transaction costs, adoption of improved practices, greater farm investment, access to higher prices for farmers, greater volume sold, and increased farm income. Effects vary by intervention type. However, the body of evidence is comprised of a large share of included studies with a high risk of bias. Few studies have information on the cost of interventions, and there are gaps in the available evidence. Authors' Conclusions Output market access interventions are effective in reducing transaction costs and addressing market failures, thereby leading to higher income levels. Evidence of effects on food security and nutrition is sparse and has not provided conclusive findings. We also found that multi‐component interventions are not necessarily more effective than single component interventions. The specific needs and dynamics of each context should inform the choice of the intervention and approach. Investments in additional research with low risk of selection bias and confounding effects will improve the evidence base, especially for outcomes that constitute gaps in the literature. For example, the effects on quality of agricultural products and group participation are under‐researched, and we did not find any included studies focusing on North Africa or the Middle East. Collecting and reporting information on interventions' cost‐effectiveness will help decision‐makers to prioritize limited resources.

Art group Another Kind of Girl Collective offers a case study of what teaching practical film-making outside formal education settings can look like, by offering film-making and photography workshops to young women around the world, including to young Syrian women living as refugees in Jordan. Another Kind of Girl Collective’s approach prioritises flexibility, mentorship and building trust between students and tutors. Rather than focus exclusively on the technical skills of film-making, the collective’s workshops are as much about mentorship and developing self-expression as they are about imparting the technical expertise required to operate a camera; this dual focus allows the technical to become a vehicle for the socioemotional. This article analyses Another Kind of Girl Collective’s approach to informal practical film-making education, contextualising it in how it differs from more formal, institution-based approaches, as well as how this approach compares to similar international development-focused programmes that prioritise product over process. Another Kind of Girl Collective presents a model of practical film education that not only educates a new generation of innovative film-makers, but also speaks to the socioemotional needs of students living as refugees.

Many authors argue that we live in a post-secular world where religion persists, and where, in public affairs, religious views should have an equal voice with secularity. This article examines participation in international development through that post-secular lens: To what extent do the differing worldviews of the partners affect their relationships when designing and implementing development projects? Fieldwork for the research was conducted mainly through interviews with global donor and practitioner organisations working from New Zealand and with recipients on one project in Bangladesh. We used a typology of three different parties: recipients; secular donor and practitioner organisations; and faith-based donor and practitioner organisations (FBOs). In that triangle of relationships we found the three parties’ beliefs are intensely important to them. But we also found participation tends to be transactional in that the topic of religion is generally avoided, leading to unexplored assumptions and adverse consequences to development of trust between the parties. However, we observed that FBOs and recipients can, through religion, and regardless of what that religion is, have a natural rapport. This is important as less-developed countries are generally profoundly religious. Further, in an extension to some concepts of post-secularity, our research indicated there is value in not just listening but also in debating views in-depth as a pathway to creating common ground. This may be challenging for secular organisations, but facilitators who are accepted by the three parties as understanding and respecting their views could help achieve productive relationships.