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DRG Learning Quarterly
July 2017
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Welcome to the July 2017 DRG Learning Quarterly, the newsletter that will keep you informed on new learning, evaluation, and research in the DRG sector.
This edition of the Learning Quarterly provides an update on recent literature reviews on anti-corruption and women's political participation, highlights findings from five completed impact evaluations, presents evidence reviews from the 2017 DRG Impact Evaluation Clinic, provides an update on ongoing impact evaluations, introduces an evidence gap map on state-society relations, and includes recommendations for summer reading.
We welcome your feedback on this newsletter and on our efforts to promote the accessibility, dissemination, and utilization of DRG research.
Please visit the DRG Center's
Learning Division page
for additional information.
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Combatting Corruption Among Civil Servants
A new DRG literature review assesses seven strategies for reducing corruption among civil servants, and presents broader considerations for USAID missions engaged in anti-corruption programming. Promising areas for assistance include anti-corruption audits, e-governance, and support for "islands of integrity" in model organizations.
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Five New DRG Evidence Reviews
As part of the 2017 DRG Impact Evaluation Clinic, academic partners prepared five evidence reviews related to countering violent extremism, accountability and participation, gender-based violence, and media. The reviews provide a summary of high quality evidence to inform programming in these areas.
- Review 1: Counteracting Violence through Narrative Media
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Review 2: Countering Violent Extremism
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Review 3: Democratic Accountability and Political Participation
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Review 4: Gender-based Violence in Conflict Areas
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Review 5: Media - Politics of Capture, Capacity, and Consumption
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Findings from Five Completed Impact Evaluations
Impact evaluations generate rigorous evidence about the effects of DRG interventions on development outcomes.
This infographic highlights findings from five impact evaluations completed in
Haiti, Mozambique, Uganda, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. The evaluations examined various aspects of DRG programming, including legal aid, text messaging platforms, and training.
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SMS for Better Service Provision in Uganda
This impact evaluation of the U-Bridge activity in Uganda's northwest Arua District contributes to a growing body of academic and policy research exploring whether mobile technology in low-income countries can be harnessed to improve governance outcomes.
See a two-page
brief and the impact evaluation endline
report for additional information.
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Strengthening Women's Civic and Political Participation
New literature reviews, conducted by graduate students and faculty at Wayne State University and the University of Virginia, find
that the use of social media by women and feminists has emerged as a promising, strategic way to enhance women's civic and political participation. This relatively new tool allows female candidates and politicians to bypass mainstream media and appeal directly to voters. However, as with conventional information and communication technologies, using social media also can increase the risk of online abuse of women, which can result in gender-specific electoral and political violence.
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What Will We Learn from Ongoing Impact Evaluations?
Ongoing impact evaluations in Ghana, West Bank, Malawi, and Cambodia will generate insights on local government accountability, local capacity building, women's political participation, countering trafficking in persons, and tax compliance.
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State-society Relations Evidence Gap Map
A new evidence gap map organizes evidence on activities to improve state-society relations in low- and middle-income countries. The map draws on studies published from 2000 to 2016 and includes 18 systematic reviews and 365 impact evaluations. The map was produced by the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) with funding from USAID.
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Recommended Reading:
Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) 2017 Annual Report:
V-
Dem's
2017 Annual Report highlights their new dataset, updated through 2016. The report covers five indices of democratic ideals, including
V-Dem's Liberal Democracy Index. V-Dem data will be updated annually going forward, which will make indices more timely for missions.
The report notes: "Is there evidence of a global democratic backslide? The answer is, unfortunately, yes. The average level of democracy in the world seems to have regressed back to, roughly speaking, where it was some 10 to 15 years ago. Even if this change falls within the confidence levels, the trend in the data is worrisome. At the same time, the decline is moderate and there is still much more democracy in the world today than before the end of the Cold War."
Evidence in Governance and Politics (EGAP) Policy Brief: A
id donors have embraced Community-Driven Reconstruction (CDR) projects that seek to rebuild trust through the collective provision of public services. In Liberia, a team of researchers conducted an experiment aimed at determining the impact of CDR projects on the capacity for collective action. The researchers found substantive, large effects of CDR on how much people donated, but found that these effects only existed for cooperation between mixed gender groups; women only groups cooperated at high rates whether or not they were exposed to CDR programming. Read the Policy Brief.
Learning Lab Update: In PPL's latest blog, "5 Things you Need to Know about Learning Agendas," they note that the use of learning agendas is growing within USAID and the Federal Government. Read the blog
here.
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