“Reducing corruption stands at the heart of the recently established Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).” The World Bank made this statement in its November 2016 brief on anti-corruption, and the concept doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise. Corruption, inefficiency, and lack of transparency often hurt vulnerable groups the most, putting up barriers and distorting access to…
Chemonics is implementing public sector reform projects across all regions and in most sectors. Whether it is improving the effectiveness of institutions of accountability in Tanzania or working with the Ministry of Education in Zambia to improve learner performance, we use a participatory approach to engage counterparts charged with providing services of all shapes and…
Homicides in Mexico had been steadily falling since hitting their peak between 2010 and 2011, but sudden spikes in 2015 and 2016 are causing the international community to look around for answers. October 2016 was the most violent month in nearly four years, appearing to wipe out recent progress. The good news is that based…
What is cross-sectoral democracy, rights, and governance (DRG) programming and why is it important? Cross-sectoral DRG programming recognizes that development issues are not single-sector problems — they overlap with other sectors; exist in a political context; and are as much, and often more, about power and relationships as they are about technical solutions. Solving a…
At its end, BLCD was a four-year, $4 million project that strengthened the capacity of 20 CSOs and two CSO resource centers. BLCD was implemented by prime contractor Chemonics International Inc. and its international subcontractor, the International Center for Not-For-Profit Law. The BCLD in Azerbaijan worked with 20 CSOs and resource centers to strengthen their…
Why is social inclusion important for the development of Vietnam? Though Vietnam has made significant progress in achieving the key targets of the Millennium Development Goals and has confirmed its strong commitment to implement the Sustainable Development Goals framework, the challenges toward vulnerable groups such as the poor, women, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, and…
What makes personal identification documents so important? For most people, government-issued identification cards are not something we think about often. IDs and passports are simply items we carry to verify that we are who we say we are. But what if those documents are wrong? What if they don’t reflect how we identify ourselves? For…
Improving government accountability has been a goal of democracy programming in the development world for years. Practitioners of governance reform have tended to pursue increased accountability by focusing on two individual factors of the equation: transparency, by opening up government decision-making processes and increasing access to information; and participation, by increasing citizens’ voices through strengthened…
USAID’s Strengthening Educational Performance-Up (STEP-Up) Zambia Project was conceived to address the root causes of learner underperformance. The project worked through the education system to produce a shift in knowledge, attitudes, and practices that would contribute to improving learning outcomes, especially reading achievement at the primary education level. Rather than prescribing actions, STEP-Up supported education stakeholders…
Human traffickers prey on those who do not have access to viable economic opportunities or the means to pursue a better future. Exclusion from social opportunities and protections creates a cloak of invisibility for those who are forced into mining blood diamonds in Democratic Republic of the Congo, toiling in garment sweat shops in Bangladesh,…
Open government is critical to enhancing essential services, opening civic space, and making government more accountable to citizens. Sustainable Development Goal 16 asks the international community to aim toward building more effective, responsive, and inclusive institutions, which evidence shows lead to better development outcomes for citizens. Recently, at the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Global Summit…