Latest Resources
Citizenship and Governance in the Asian Region: Insights from The International Civic and Citizenship Education Study
Article / Working Paper, Academic/Think TankLarge scale assessment of student performance is a regular feature of the international education landscape. The International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) is a recent attempt with a focus on citizenship knowledge and skills. Student political trust data from ICCS is reported here and a mixture Rasch model is used to identify the heterogeneity in this data. The results...
Democracy assessment: The Basics of the International IDEA Assessment Framework
Africa, Democracy, Framework, Civil SocietyThe IDEA State of Democracy project has developed a comprehensive methodological tool that the citizens of all democracies in the world can use to assess the functioning of their own democratic systems. The assessments are aimed at raising public awareness, sparking discussions and helping identify areas for reform. This publication is a basic guide to the International IDEA Democracy...
Blurring the Boundaries - Citizen Action Across States and Societies
Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Civil Society, Democracy, Latin America and the Carribean, Report, Academic/Think Tank, DonorBlurring the Boundaries - Citizen Action Across States and Societies provides a summary of nearly a decade of research on citizen engagement done by the Development Research Centre on Citizenship, Participation and Accountability (the Citizenship DRC). The brief note Blurring the Boundaries - Citizen Action Across States and Societies has been produced by the Development Research Centre on...
So What Difference Does it Make? Mapping the Outcomes of Citizen Engagement
Article / Working Paper, Civil Society, Democracy, Academic/Think TankOver the last two decades, the idea that citizen engagement and participation can contribute to improved governance and development outcomes has been mainstreamed in development policy and discourse. Yet despite the normative beliefs that underpin this approach, the impact of participation on improved democratic and developmental outcomes has proved difficult to assess. ...
Strengthening Women's Citizenship: Kosovo security sector and decentralisation
Civil Society, Europe and CIS, Governance and Gender, Report, Civil SocietyKosovo has developed a number of policies and mechanisms to respond to the needs of its citizens, in particular in relation to security and decentralisation. Nonetheless, as the study has shown, women face a particularly large gap between formal and substantive citizenship due to discriminatory practices including economic, social and cultural barriers and intra-familial relations; these...
Citizenship law in Africa: a comparative study
Africa, Human Rights, Justice, Report, Civil SocietyLaws and practices governing citizenship in too many African countries effectively leave hundreds of thousands of people without a nationality. These stateless Africans are among the continent’s most vulnerable populations: they can neither vote nor stand for office; they cannot enrol their children in school, travel freely, or own property; they cannot work for the...
Consolidating democratic governance in the SADC Region: Swaziland
Africa, Democracy, Parliament, Report, Civil SocietySwaziland remains the only state in SADC with sovereign monarchical powers. It is a unitary state country with minimal involvement of citizens on the socio-economic issues and on other matters of interest to them The structures instituted for people’s participation at regional level are not yet workable due to constraints of minimal understanding of the...
Measuring change and results in voice and accountability work
Civil Society, Report, GovernmentCitizen voice and accountability (V&A) work has emerged as a priority in the international development agenda, as part of the importance of governance in improving the lives of poor people. Citizens’ capacity to express and exercise their views is a vital part of poverty reduction. This paper brings together a set of indicators that are used to measure the process...
Mozambique democracy and political participation
Africa, Democracy, Report, Civil SocietyThe quality of governance is a major determinant for the success or failure of nations. This report uses data from interviews and literature reviews to examine the health of Mozambique’s democracy and the quality of political participation in the country. Its aim is to contribute to consolidating democracy and strengthening political participation. It delves into issues of elections...
Struggles for citizenship in Africa
Africa, Book, Conflict, Human Rights, Civil Society‘We needed a war because we needed our identity cards. Without an identity card you are nothing in this country.’ As the author points out, a fighter for the rebel ‘new forces’ in Côte d’Ivoire condenses the argument of the book into two short sentences: that the denial of a right to citizenship has been at the heart of many of the...