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Education Governance in Sub-Saharan Africa

February 1, 2019

This paper addresses the issue of education governance in SSA in an attempt to shed light on the status of and developments in this area with a focus on lessons learned from various efforts across the region and recommendations on how to strengthen governance of secondary education. The paper is intended to serve as a background paper on secondary education governance in SSA which will be used to contribute to a more comprehensive publication on secondary education in SSA and the future of work. The paper addresses two key topics under secondary education governance: 1) Accountability as an important aspect of education governance, and 2) the need for enhancing institutional capacity to collect and use educational statistics, and how effective use of data can support education governance. The authors identify several specific actionable recommendations to help policy makers in SSA countries, depending on the local context, implement improvements in the governance of their secondary education systems at central, provincial, and local levels

The Recipe for Success: How Policy-makers Can Integrate Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Into Actions to End Malnutrition

August 24, 2017

By analysing the approaches governments and donors are taking, we highlight ways in which progress is being made, and we call on decision-makers to shift mindsets, change ways of working, and invest now in effective integration to improve child health.Building on last year's The missing ingredients report, this report highlights why WASH is essential for nutrition, and how this integration could be strengthened. Through an analysis of nutrition and WASH plans and policies in ten countries, we identify gaps and ways of working. The report highlights where there has been effective integration at the policy level and how improvements can be made. It also includes an analysis of donor initiatives and to what extent WASH has been incorporated in nutrition investments.

Advancing Public Health through Strategic Litigation

June 1, 2016

The law has a critical role to play in advancing public health, particularly for marginalized communities. Yet many countries have laws that undermine public health, do not offer sufficient protection, or are not adequately enforced.Strategic litigation is a test of the rule of law and its proper implementation. It contributes to both the construction and consolidation of the rule of law. It is a key tool for organizations and individuals seeking to ensure better public health outcomes.Advancing Public Health through Strategic Litigation presents six case studies from different parts of the world focusing on various health rights issues and the concerns of affected communities. These studies reveal lessons for practitioners interested in pursuing this work and for funders concerned about justice and health.

Monitoring Climate Finance in Developing Countries: Challenges and Next Steps

April 10, 2014

At the 18th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the parties agreed to a standard format for developed countries to follow when reporting on the climate finance they provide to developing countries. Developed countries will use these formats for the first time when they submit their Biennial Reports to the UNFCCC in early 2014. Later in 2014, developing countries are expected to submit Biennial Update Reports showing the financial support that they have received. From initial attempts to measure and report climate finance by developed and developing countries, it is already apparent that information on finance provided is unlikely to match information on finance received.Aside from the reporting requirements of the UNFCCC, better financial data can help decision makers in developing countries identify gaps, improve coordination and management, and raise funds to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Better climate finance information can also enable countries to draw lessons from the use of different financial instruments and develop strategies and policies that aim to expand finance for climate change. Improved data will allow the information reported by developed countries to be cross-checked, thus promoting transparency, completeness, and accuracy. Finally, it can contribute to a more comprehensive picture of climate financial flows in relation to development assistance at the national and international levels. This working paper reports on three workshops in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, in which participants discussed some of the steps that developing countries and their international partners can take toward monitoring and tracking climate finance more effectively. More than 40 representatives from 20 developing countries, regional development banks, and national organizations attended the three workshops. Participants shared information on the limits of existing legislation and mandates, national planning and approval processes, financial management systems, efforts to coordinate among ministries and development partners, and many other unique challenges faced by the participating countries. WRI obtained additional information via a questionnaire, follow-up correspondence, and interviews with representatives of the countries.

A Risky Climate for Southern African Hydro

September 14, 2012

This in-depth study of the hydrological risks to hydropower dams on the Zambezi River gives an early warning about what Southern Africa could be facing as it contemplates plans for more large hydropower dams in a time of climate change.Currently, 13,000 megawatts of new large-dam hydro is proposed for the Zambezi and its tributaries. The report finds that existing and proposed hydropower dams are not being properly evaluated for the risks from natural hydrological variability (which is extremely high in the Zambezi), much less the risks posed by climate change.Overall, Africa's fourth-largest river will experience worse droughts and more extreme floods. Dams being proposed and built now will be negatively affected, yet energy planning in the basin is not taking serious steps to address these huge hydrological uncertainties. The result could be dams that are uneconomic, disruptive to the energy sector, and possibly even dangerous.The report recommends a series of steps to address the coming storm of hydrological changes, including changes to how dams are planned and operated.

Criminalizing Condoms: How Policing Practices Put Sex Workers and HIV Services at Risk in Kenya, Namibia, Russia, South Africa, the United States, and Zimbabwe

July 2, 2012

How Policing Practices Put Sex Workers and HIV Services at Risk in Kenya, Namibia, Russia, South Africa, the United States, and ZimbabweIn countries around the world, police are actively engaged in stopping and searching sex workers and confiscating or destroying condoms found in their possession. In many cases, possession of condoms has been used by prosecutors as evidence of prostitution. This treatment of condoms as contraband forces sex workers to make a choice between safeguarding their health and staying safe from police harassment or arrest. Criminalizing Condoms documents these practices in six countries and identifies their consequences on sex workers' lives, including their vulnerability to HIV.Among the report's key findings are:In South Africa, 80 percent of sex workers said they had been intimidated or harassed by police for being a sex worker or doing sex work.In Zimbabwe, 85 percent of sex workers said they had been extorted by police.In Russia, 80 percent of sex workers said police had taken their condoms.In Namibia, 50 percent of sex workers said police destroyed their condoms and 75 percent of those who then did sex work had unprotected sex.In Russia, 60 percent of sex workers said police had used condoms as evidence against them.In the United States, 52 percent of sex workers said there had been times when they opted not to carry condoms because they were afraid it would mean problems with the police.In Kenya, 50 percent of outreach workers said that police had harassed them during the course of their outreach work.Officially sanctioned and unsanctioned police practices work in concert to compromise sex workers' health and safety. The criminalization of sex work and use of condoms as evidence make sex workers particularly vulnerable to police abuse. This report documents that police in all six countries harass and physically and sexually abuse sex workers who carry condoms and use the threat of arrest on the grounds of condom possession to extort and exploit them.Criminalizing Condoms offers several recommendations for national and local government agencies, as well as public health and HIV/AIDS researchers and agencies.

Criminalizing Condoms: How Policing Practices Put Sex Workers and HIV Services at Risk in Kenya, Namibia, Russia, South Africa, the United States, and Zimbabwe - Spanish

July 1, 2012

How Policing Practices Put Sex Workers and HIV Services at Risk in Kenya, Namibia, Russia, South Africa, the United States, and ZimbabweIn countries around the world, police are actively engaged in stopping and searching sex workers and confiscating or destroying condoms found in their possession. In many cases, possession of condoms has been used by prosecutors as evidence of prostitution. This treatment of condoms as contraband forces sex workers to make a choice between safeguarding their health and staying safe from police harassment or arrest. Criminalizing Condoms documents these practices in six countries and identifies their consequences on sex workers' lives, including their vulnerability to HIV.Among the report's key findings are:In South Africa, 80 percent of sex workers said they had been intimidated or harassed by police for being a sex worker or doing sex work.In Zimbabwe, 85 percent of sex workers said they had been extorted by police.In Russia, 80 percent of sex workers said police had taken their condoms.In Namibia, 50 percent of sex workers said police destroyed their condoms and 75 percent of those who then did sex work had unprotected sex.In Russia, 60 percent of sex workers said police had used condoms as evidence against them.In the United States, 52 percent of sex workers said there had been times when they opted not to carry condoms because they were afraid it would mean problems with the police.In Kenya, 50 percent of outreach workers said that police had harassed them during the course of their outreach work.Officially sanctioned and unsanctioned police practices work in concert to compromise sex workers' health and safety. The criminalization of sex work and use of condoms as evidence make sex workers particularly vulnerable to police abuse. This report documents that police in all six countries harass and physically and sexually abuse sex workers who carry condoms and use the threat of arrest on the grounds of condom possession to extort and exploit them.Criminalizing Condoms offers several recommendations for national and local government agencies, as well as public health and HIV/AIDS researchers and agencies.

Corporate Social Responsibility in Sub-Saharan Africa: Built in or Bolted On? a Survey on Promoting and Hindering Factors

June 1, 2009

The objective of the report presented in this publications was to identify and gain deeper insight into factors that promote or hinder success in CSR project management and delivery, and on the basis thereof to arrive at conclusions and recommendations about enabling instruments that will benefit, strengthen and expand CSR impact in the region. In this survey it was found that CSR concepts were for example enhanced through collaboration with Global Compact local networks, but that CSR in sub-Saharan Africa is still in its infancy. Social and environmental activities of individual companies remain scattered.

Poor Philanthropist III: A Practice Relevant Guide to Community Philanthropy

January 1, 2009

This guide has its origins in a research study carried out between 2003 and 2005, the purpose of which was to explore the local ethos of caring and sharing in poor African communities. Focus groups carried out by national research teams in Namibia, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe generated rich narrative text revealing what the term 'help' means to the poor, who helps and is helped in poor communities, the forms help takes and, finally, why people help each other. This knowledge informed the first systematic understanding of 'indigenous philanthropy' in southern Africa. To emphasise the local ethos of caring and sharing and make it more visible to development organisations, it was named. The term 'horizontal philanthropy' or 'philanthropy of community' (PoC) was coined and the research findings documented in a 2005 monograph entitled, The Poor Philanthropist: How and Why the Poor Help Each Other (Wilkinson-Maposa, Fowler, Oliver-Evans & Mulenga 2005). The findings published in 2005 sparked the interest of the development community.

Poor Philanthropist II: New approaches to sustainable development

January 1, 2009

The second title in the Poor Philanthropist Series, this monograph represents the culmination of a six-year journey; a journey characterised in the first three years by in-depth qualitative research which resulted in an understanding of philanthropic traditions among people who are poor in southern Africa and gave rise to new and innovative concepts which formed the focus of the research monograph The Poor Philanthropist: How and Why the Poor Help Each Other, published by the Southern Africa-United States Centre for Leadership and Public Values in 2005.

Rights Not Rescue: A Report on Female, Trans, and Male Sex Workers' Human Rights in Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa

November 30, 2008

Based on interviews, documents violence against and abuses of sex workers, their efforts to protect their rights by organizing, and the limitations of rehabilitation-based approaches to sex work. Recommends rights-based approaches and policy reforms.

Uranium Mining in Namibia: The Mystery Behind 'Low Level Radiation'

October 1, 2008

This report is the result of a project on uranium mining in Namibia commissioned by the Centre for Research on Multi-national Corporations (SOMO). The findings are based on secondary literature drawn mainly from the writings of Earthlife Namibia and empirical data collected by LaRRI during July and August 2007.