Throughout the 20th century, the debate on women's rights and their role in Afghan society has been closely interlinked with the national destiny. Women not only carry the burden of symbolizing the honor of the family, but often are seen as embodying the national honor as well. Gender has thus...

The Peace Accords of 1996 brought an end to 36 years of armed conflict in Guatemala, and signaled the beginning of a complex and challenging process of reconstruction and social reconciliation. A central plank of the consensus expressed in the Peace Accords was the overhauling of Guatemala's...

This publication addresses the question of whether political, fiscal, and administrative decentralization improves government effectiveness and the debate on whether it is a viable and desirable state-building strategy for post-conflict countries. The publication is a collection of eight papers...