Africa has come a long way since the economic turmoil of the 1980s, the decade of "structural adjustment". Growth has been strong, yet poverty remains high. Underlying the shortage of good livelihoods and high social inequality is the lack of diversification in Africa's economies-in contrast to...

Social protection for the poor and poorest : an introduction / Armando Barrientos and David Hulme -- Risks, rights, and needs : compatible or contradictory bases for social protection? / Lauchlan T. Munro -- Insurance for the poor? / Stefan Dercon, Tessa Bold and Cesar Calvo -- Transformative...

This paper examines the take up of Political Economic Analysis (PEA) tools and approaches by development agencies. It charts the emergence of PEA, reviews the embryonic literature on this phenomenon and asks whether this approach assists donors and development agencies to comprehend politics and...

This paper argues that two ideas - human development and results-based management - have been particularly significant in shaping the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These are unlikely intellectual bedfellows, but by charting the evolution of the MDGs their many influences are demonstrated....

Establishing peace and reconstructing Africa's war-damaged economies are urgent challenges. For Africa to recover, communities must reconstruct, private sectors must revitalize, and states must transform themselves. Thus, unless communities rebuild and strengthen their livelihoods, neither...

The increasing realisation that governance quality is a fundamental element of long-run development has led to its consideration as a desirable development goal in its own right. To contribute to such a process, this article provides a framework to set, measure and monitor governance goals in...