In many countries, government officials determine how municipal space is used, which means that citizens often do not get the chance to tell officials what matters to them before plans are approved for that space. For instance, without getting citizens’ input, officials might inadvertently start to plan a new community center in an area in…
In 2000, Colombia was besieged by what had been one of the most violent decades in the history of its armed internal conflict. The rise and consolidation of paramilitary groups throughout the country that had begun as a self-protection movement against the guerrillas were out of control, and Colombia saw some of the worst human…
Your program is working in Juarez, Monterrey, and Tijuana, and other areas selected in part because of their astronomical crime and violence rates. Juarez was once the “murder capital” of the world. What’s the key to preventing crime and violence these areas? We need reliable data and information and the willingness of officials at all…
How can the global development community improve governmental transparency and accountability? This week, civil society actors and partners are gathering in Bogota to consider this question, and specifically, the role of civil society in promoting positive change while spurring accountable practices and institutions. Chemonics’ projects often engage local actors in strengthening accountability. Through these efforts,…
Does international development take place inside a political vacuum, where the difference between success and failure hinges purely on getting the technical aspects of an intervention right? Or does development take place inside the unpredictable — and, at times, chaotic — world of politics, where the fate of even the most technically sound solution depends…
As Sharon van Pelt argued in her recent blog post, politics are an inescapable reality for any international development project and must be factored into project design and implementation. The “thinking and working politically” concept is catching on, and more development practitioners are using political economy analysis to understand national-level politics in the countries where…
USAID’s Changes for Justice Project (C4J) consisted of three components within Indonesia: 1) sustaining and broadening reforms in the Supreme Court; 2) sustaining and broadening reforms in the Attorney General’s Office; and 3) special initiatives, which entail the installation of public information desks, creation of Version 1 of a new case tracking system (CTS) in…
This post was originally published by the Alliance for Peacebuilding and is cross-posted with permission. Chemonics is honored to be an Alliance for Peacebuilding member organization. The escalation of violence in Côte d’Ivoire after the disputed 2010 presidential election led to the worst humanitarian crisis in the country’s history. Violence devastated families, with an estimated…
All changes and reforms are driven by interests and incentives. We generally understand this and, therefore, we try through our projects to foster positive incentives and collective interests that lead to the change we want to see. Sounds fairly straightforward, but clearly we know it is not, regardless of if we work in agriculture, climate…
This post was originally published by the Better Than Cash Alliance and is cross-posted with permission. Chemonics is a proud member of the alliance. Many Ivoirians were concerned that the 2015 presidential elections would lead to renewed conflict, particularly after the violence surrounding the elections of 2010. One successful peace-promoting initiative in the country used…
The timing, approach, and pace of land reform and collective farm restructuring throughout the former Soviet republics has varied dramatically – and in many places is still ongoing. Whether government chose to privatize land, guarantee land use rights, or keep the status quo of state ownership, land and access to it remains critical for millions…