Latest Resources
The AmericasBarometer l The Political Culture of Democracy in the Americas, 2012: Towards Equality of Opportunity
Civil Society, Democracy, Latin America and the Carribean, Report, Academic/Think Tank, Inter-Governmental OrganizationThis publication is the preliminary version of the AmericasBarometer regional, comparative report 2012. This round, fundamental social, political, and ethical problem in the Americas are tackled: the tremendous gaps in opportunities experienced and resources available to the region’s citizens. While these disparities are certainly visible in differences in economic development across...
Measuring well-being I different approaches, their implications and an illustration | Development Progress
Africa, Article / Working Paper, Asia and the Pacific, Civil Society, Academic/Think TankThis Project Note examines three methods of measuring progress that allow us to compare the performance of different countries. It argues that the methods we employ to measure progress matter, illustrating the diverse results that are generated in a comparison of performance in East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The note summarises how the findings inform the measurement component of ODI’s...
World Inequality Database on Education (WIDE)
Web Resource, Civil SocietyThe World Inequality Database on Education (WIDE) highlights the powerful influence of circumstances, such as wealth, gender, ethnicity and location, over which people have little control but which play an important role in shaping their opportunities for education and wider life chances. It draws attention to unacceptable levels of education inequality across countries and between groups within...
Paying Bribes to Get Public Services: A Global Guide to Concepts and Survey Measures
Article / Working Paper, Academic/Think TankThis paper reviews concepts essential to understand the experience of mass bribery; compares alternative questions used by major multi-national surveys to measure that experience; and reports data from 248 surveys in 125 countries with 285,678 interviews. The major multi-national surveys included are the Global Corruption Barometer of Transparency International, the Life in Transition survey of...
Social development – a multidimensional approach to social development analysis. Country level evidence for year 2011
Article / Working Paper, Academic/Think TankThe study investigates disparities in social development in 144 countries worldwide. In the paper we aim to investigate cross-country differences in social development level in year 2011, as well as to estimate inequalities on the field. Secondly, we assess relative social development level differences – gaps (divides) among countries. For the analysis purposes, we apply: descriptive statistics...
Matching reforms to institutional realities : a framework for assessing social service delivery reform strategies in developing countries
Article / Working Paper, Inter-Governmental Organization, DonorThe paper is based on the premise that effective institutional reforms for service delivery require a carefully-considered institutional "fitting" process as opposed to transplantation of "international best practices." The paper asks how the specific institutional contexts of a given country limit options for service delivery reforms, and therefore how a feasible set of reform options may vary...
Gender and Well-Being Around the World
Article / Working Paper, Academic/Think TankThere is a wide body of research aimed at better understanding differences across gender in welfare outcomes, and the implications of those differences – in particular the extent to which female outcomes are disadvantaged – for economic development. Women’s rights have improved in general in the past few decades, but there are large differences across regions of the world and across countries...
Measurement and evolution of state capacity: exploring a lesser known aspect of governance
Article / Working Paper, Academic/Think TankThis paper offers an overview of the strengths and limitations in current empirical research on the measurement of state capacity. The paper also surveys the fast emerging literature on the determinants and effects of state capacity. We argue that existing measures on governance quality used in cross-national research can be usefully exploited to capture different aspects of state capacity. We...
NDI's Standard-based Questionnaire - Towards the Development of International Standards for the Functioning of Democratic
Justice, Questionnaire , Civil SocietyThe questionnaire allows respondents to compare their legislature to the norms and basic functions of other democratic legislatures, and identify best practices and lessons learned. It provides a comprehensive checklist which can be used as a diagnostic tool to assess legislative procedures, both in formal and 'in practice'. The questionnaire consists of two-part questions. The first...
My SIGI: (Social Institutions and Gender)
Web Resource, Inter-Governmental OrganizationThe Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) is a new composite measure of gender equality, based on the OECD’s Gender, Institutions and Development Database. It complements and improves existing measures in several ways. While conventional indicators of gender equality capture inequality outcomes, the SIGI focuses on the root causes behind these inequalities. The Social Institutions and...