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The World Health Organization (WHO) defines equity as the absence of preventable or remediable disparities among various groups of individuals, regardless of how these groups are delineated, whether by social, economic, demographic or geographic factors. The goal of equity is to eliminate the unfair and avoidable circumstances that deprive people of their rights. Therefore, inequities generally arise when certain population groups are unfairly deprived of basic resources that are made available to other groups. A disparity is ‘unfair’ or ‘unjust’ when its cause is due to the social context rather than biological factors. Equitable evaluation contends that conducting evaluation practi...
The role parliaments play in governance is fundamentally political, and as a result, the institutional side of parliamentary organisations is often overlooked. This volume, together with the theoretical volume African Parliaments: Evidence systems for governance and development, takes a practical look at African parliaments as institutions, and explores the ways in which their structures and processes influence the use of evidence for decision making. A comparative approach helps the reader get a practical view of how this governance interplay is enacted within portfolio committees, on chamber floors, and on the campaign trail. This volume looks at various models parliaments have used to institutionalise evidence use, and considers the implications this has for governance.
Monitoring systems are essential to Africa’s development effectiveness. Too often, however, monitoring is a time consuming exercise that is done exclusively for compliance. When developed with an understanding of the context within which they are implemented, monitoring systems have the potential to provide an evidence base from which progress can be evaluated and informed decisions made. The establishment, implementation, and institutionalisation of monitoring systems is a nuanced process, shaped by the unique characteristics and culture of each organisation. While ‘how to guides’ on the subject are abundant, their focus is often technical, and they do not sufficiently consider how mo...
Parliaments play a pivotal role in governance, and yet little is known about how evidence is used for decision-making in these complex, political environments. Together with its practice companion volume, African Parliaments: Systems of evidence in practice, this volume explores the multiple roles legislatures play in governance, the varied mandates and allegiances of elected representatives, and what this means for evidence use. Given the tensions in Africa around the relationships between democracy and development, government and citizen agency, this volume considers the theories around parliamentary evidence use, and interrogates what they mean in the context of African governance.
As the world continues to grapple with a range of practical development challenges that are directly linked to livelihood concerns about human well-being and declining living standards, often overlooked is the human right to development, which remains largely unfulfilled. In the face of successive global initiatives seeking to remedy these challenges, it has become urgent to ask what the universal recognition of the right to development implies if it cannot be translated into improved well-being for impoverished peoples around the world. The contributors in this timely volume argue that setbacks to development are deeply rooted in the failure to implement the right to development, which by nature guarantees equality of opportunities and equitable redistribution of the resources that contribute to better living standards. Assessing policy and practical measures (or the lack thereof), they offer practical suggestions for implementation that will make the right to development a reality for everyone.
This text addresses the phenomenon of urban agriculture in Zimbabwe. While it acknowledges that the activity is a significant source of food and income for the urban poor, the text draws attention to development conflicts raised by the activity. It attempts to place urban agriculture within the context of urban economy, the environment, institutional concerns, gender and urban poverty. Based on ongoing research the text demonstrates that there is a potential for urban agriculture as part of the urban economy, but that the urban poor are not beneficiaries of the activity.
This book explores the discourse on evaluation in Africa and answers these questions: What is the purpose of evaluation in the region, based on the evaluations currently being conducted? What is the professional background of evaluators in Africa? What methods are used in evaluations in the region? What is the status of evaluation capacity development in the region? How is the quality of evaluations being conducted in Africa? The book looks at the evaluation field in its entirety. It does not focus on practice, but includes considerations for the evaluation sector that apply to evaluation commissioners, programme beneficiaries, donors, capacity builders, and the entire constellation of stakeholders working on improving development practice. It hopes to promote a data?driven approach to the evaluation sector to help strengthen engagement and practice.
This blind peer reviewed book systematically records, analyses and assesses for the first time in a single volume the implications of the global development and management of professional evaluation for the African continent.The book deals with the most strategic contemporary evaluation themes. Each of these themes contains discussions of theoretical issues illustrated with one or more short case studies, while selected longer case studies and other relevant documentation are also taken up in annexures at the end of the book. The book therefore comprises a guide to best M&E practices for purposes of systematic policy, programme and project evaluations. It is suitable for both professional M&E institutionalisation and capacity-building projects as well as for evaluation information dissemination and education at different levels in the public, private and voluntary sectors in society, especially in a developmental context.
The World Bank and the IMF hosted a workshop in September 2001 to review the effectiveness of programmes for civil service reform and to propose ways to improve future joint efforts. Participants considered case studies of civil service administrations in 11 countries. The main conclusion reached was that both organisations should be involved in collaboration earlier in the reform process, helping national administrations to: develop a medium-term fiscal framework; foster politically feasible reforms; and strengthen data collection.