Trust is a vital but often overlooked element of international development. Whether in formal spaces such as state healthcare or informal projects like community campaigns, trust has the power to make or break development initiatives. If those involved in a project trust each other, the chances of its success and sustainability are vastly improved. Yet…
Trust flavors our life choices. It lays the foundations of our social and professional relationships. It colors the way we engage with organizations, services, and people. Globally, trust in public institutions appears to be decaying. The ‘fake news’ phenomenon has damaged perceptions of traditional media. The COVID-19 pandemic gave rise to widespread vaccine hesitancy, in some…
Trust is a familiar concept, yet one too often ignored in programme design. It isan essential ingredient of mutually beneficial human relationships. Internationaldevelopment projects, particularly those in the field of governance, rely on relationshipsto meet their objectives. Trust smooths collaboration between project staff, donors,local stakeholders, governments, and, ultimately, the people who benefit fromprogramming. Despite its…
“Research enables us to identify how best to address the challenges that impact society. The good thing is that governments are starting to acknowledge the potential for research to drive national development.” Joy is unequivocal, and her belief in her work is easy to see. “This is my passion: ensuring that evidence can impact policy…
Economic development does not happen in a vacuum. Each country has unique attributes and challenges that can affect program outcomes – from local identity politics to tensions over resources – and attitudes towards minorities. Promoting economic growth in fragile and conflict-affected areas adds an additional layer of complexity as programs run the risk of exacerbating…
Traditional interpretations of security that focus on ‘gates, guards, and guns’ can lead to the perception that project resources are being diverted from development to security objectives. Consequently, security within development projects is often seen as a zero-sum game. At times, security measures may feel unrealistic given the operating environment, time or budget constraints, and perceptions that…
Indigenous Peoples remain among the world’s most marginalized populations and often face systematic exclusion from their nation’s social, economic, and political systems. According to Mexico’s 2020 census, more than 7.3 million people aged three years and older speak one of the country’s 68 indigenous languages, representing six percent of the total population with 25 million…
Conflicts in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia are rarely confined within state borders. Instead, they extend through the transnational flows of people, weapons, and resources, creating intricate cross-border conflict systems that span the formal and informal, licit, and illicit. These systems empower armed actors, enmesh conflict in crime and violent extremism, and ensnare local…
Lebanon is passing through the toughest economic and financial crisis of its history, starting in October 2019 and still ongoing. The country’s GDP has shrunk from $52 billion in 2019 to $22 billion in 2021, due to the combined impacts of regional politics, high levels of public waste and corruption, COVID-19, and the 2020 Beirut…
From May 2017 to February 2022, LTI 3 sought to prevent further deterioration in political and security conditions in Libya while preserving as much space as possible for eventual political compromise, unified civilian leadership, reconciliation, and positive political transition. The program worked in strategic communities where stability is most fragile while seizing windows of opportunity…
Haiti needed a functional justice system for its citizens to emancipate economic development and lift Haiti out of extreme poverty To do so, JSSP used strategies with various stakeholders to adopt a modernized Haitian penal procedural code, replacing the outdated 1835 version. Legislations to accompany the code, such as the laws on prosecutors, and the…