Tam O'Neil

The Feminist Open Government Initiative (FOGO) uses research and action to encourage governments and civil society to champion initiatives leading to gender advancements in and through open government. In this research intervention in the Philippines, the presence and engagement of women’s rights organisations and activists was increased in the Open Government Partnership process through financial and logistical support. The study measured quality of participation based on whether participants were active, informed, and have potential influence over outcomes. The brief provides an overview of the intervention, as well as some outcomes and recommendations

Parliaments and parliamentarians are the fulcrum of democratic political systems. They sit at the centre of a web of domestic accountability that links them to the executive and other branches of government, to constituents and the wider public, and to political parties. Expectations about what parliaments should deliver have increased tremendously over the past two decades. Yet in many countries parliaments are weak and ineffective and remain among the least trusted and legitimate institutions in the eyes of the population. As such, parliaments are both a cause of poor democratic governance – and an integral element in improving it. How to help parliaments become more effective and responsive is therefore a crucial question for international development actors who are committed to democratic strengthening.

Gender issues are enjoying a renaissance within the international development community, with notable momentum around the threats to women posed by conflict and violence. How to promote the role of women in peace and security, and how to address violence against women and girls, are now two of the top priorities for the international community. The challenge gender advocates face is to transform international commitments into real gains for women at national level. This briefing draws on recent ODI research and evaluation (Domingo et al., 2012; 2013; 2014) to review opportunities to promote women’s political participation and leadership in transitional and post-conflict settings, assess current international efforts to do so, and provide recommendations for policy and programming in this area. May 2014

"Legal empowerment occurs when poor or marginalised people use the law, legal systems and justice mechanisms to improve or transform their social, political or economic situations. The concept of legal empowerment emerged within the development community in the early 2000s from a critique of the ‘rule of law orthodoxy’ and its perceived top-down technical assistance approach to justice sector reform. By contrast, legal empowerment approaches are explicitly interested in the agency and priorities of marginalised people, and understanding how they can use the law to advance their interests. As a concept, it was important in reorienting the attention of the international community towards the experience of the ‘end-users’ of law and justice programmes. At the same time, the use of the law and legal systems by disadvantaged people to contest the unfair distribution of power and resources is a real-world phenomenon that predates and exists independently of international law and justice assistance. These activities are rooted in context-specific histories of how law, politics and development intersect to shape the distribution of resources and power. To date, understanding of legal empowerment has remained confined to a relatively small group of legal experts and within a narrow silo of justice support as part of international assistance efforts. But, as this wider legal activism continues in countries around the world, its relevance to development outcomes is becoming much clearer; this includes use of the law and justice mechanisms to expand access to public goods and services or to reduce marginalisation and inequality. This overview summarises recent evidence on legal empowerment and highlights political economy perspectives on what it will take to realise greater empowerment for those who need it most."

... Diana Cammack, Fred Golooba-Mutebi, Fidelis Kanyongolo and Tam O'Neil December 2007 ... Diana Cammack, Fred Golooba-Mutebi, Fidelis Kanyongolo and Tam O'Neil (2007) Working Paper 3: Corruption, Anti-corruption Efforts and Aid: Do Donors Have the Right Approach? ...

The DFID Equity and Rights Team commissioned this scoping study of DFID's current policy on human rights in response to recent changes in DFID's human rights policy environment. The study does three things. First, it examines the policy framework for DFID's work on ...

Acknowledgements Acknowledgements We would like to thank the members of the Evaluation Core Group of DAC members for their cooperation in the preparation of this report and their constructive comments. We would also like to thank Alison Evans and Irene Guijt for their helpful comments and Roo Griffiths for her excellent editorial assistance. Full responsibility for the text of this report rests with the authors. In common with all evaluation reports commissioned by DFID's Evaluation Department, the views contained in this report do not necessarily represent those of DFID or of the people consulted.

This case study is part of the Overseas Development Institute’s (ODI’s) work on the politics and governance of public goods and services in developing countries. As a case study of successful pro-poor legal mobilisation in Bangladesh, it contributes to the effort to document approaches and ways of working that make a difference in terms of achieving development results. In many countries, marginalised groups and their allies use the law and justice systems to contest and improve their access to rights, goods and services. This is the essence of legal empowerment. Taking a claim to a dispute resolution mechanism, such as a court or community mediation forum, is one way poor people can use the law. Yet there is no automatic link between litigation, or other forms of legal action, and improved outcomes for poor people. The success of legal mobilisation depends not only on a favourable legal ruling or decision. It also requires the enforcement or implementation of rulings in ways that r...

CARE International’s mission is to save lives, defeat poverty and achieve social justice. CARE’s Vision 2030 puts gender equality – including women’s and girls’ voice and leadership and eliminating gender-based violence – at the heart of all our programming and advocacy. Why? Gender inequality is a key driver of poverty and one of the most widespread forms of injustice and rights violations in the world. Participation in public and political life and decision-making is a human right, and the over representation of men in decision-making and leadership at all levels of society and government perpetuates gender injustice.

This position paper provides guidance and resources for CARE leadership and staff to enable us to respond to women and marginalised groups’ aspirations for equal voice and social transformation. The position paper supports CARE achievement of Vision 2030 and it contribution to the Sustainable Development Goal on Gender Equality – and specifically Goal 5.5 on ‘women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life’.

 Development practitioners use political economy analysis to understand how and why power and resources are distributed the way they are in a society and what this means for their objectives.  A gendered political economy analysis explicitly examines how gender and other social inequalities shape people's access to power and resources and what this means for feasible pathways of pro-poor and equitable change.  A political economy analysis should be a good-enough and action-oriented product that practitioners review and use to adapt their thinking and activities through the life of the programme.  As a practitioner-led, participatory approach, gendered political economy analysis ensures the perspectives of a diversity of women inform the process, findings and use of the analysis.  This leads to a more holistic understanding of the causes of poverty and inequality and helps practitioners to identify how to support marginalised people to actively change root causes.

New Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) research suggests that effective donor programming on gender in fragile contexts requires doing more and doing things differently. A critical step is to close financing gaps in key sectors through both dedicated funding and gender mainstreaming. Donors can also do more to improve quality of programming, notably through supporting women as active agents in reducing conflict and fragility; paying more attention to transforming root causes of inequality and fragility, such as gender norms and relations; adopting more politically smart and adaptive approaches; and strengthening donor co-ordination on gender. Donors should ask not only how fragility shapes or impacts on gender inequality, but also how gender ideologies and practices can contribute to fuelling fragility. Top-level leadership, matched by dedicated expertise and robust accountability systems, was found to be key in improving how gender is integrated into donor programmes in fragile and conflict-affected contexts.

The paper looks at four priniciples of adaptive development and their application to feminist action: (i) support change led by local stakeholders, not external funders; (ii) start with problems or issues, not with ready-made solutions; (iii) be politically informed and use smart tactics; and (iv) build learning and adaptation into organisations and programmes.

After outlining the principles, each section reflects on why aid-funded women’s organisations and gender-related programmes may not work in this way and provides examples of some that do. The paper concludes with outlining areas in which the gender and adaptive development communities could further learn from each other.

his case study uses the 2014 election to examine the state of women's access to parliamentary power in Malawi and the electorate's apparent rejection of women leaders after what was a promising start.

To date, research and advocacy in Malawi have paid more attention to the numbers of women elected rather than their experience and performance once elected. Meanwhile, surveys of parliamentarians are rare, and longitudinal panel surveys even more so. This case study uses a survey to produce comparative (within country) data on the profile, perspectives and experiences of the current cohort of women MP in Malawi to answer the following questions:

What factors infl­uence women’s ability to become MPs?
What factors infl­uence women’s ability to be effective MPs?
Do women MPs promote gender equality and/or represent the interests of other women?
How could support to prospective and elected women MPs be improved?

Around the world, women now have more influence over the decisions that affect their lives. Even in the most conservative societies, feminists and gender advocates have been able to forward more equitable policies and outcomes.

This briefing explores women’s decision-making power in this context. It looks at the reasons for women’s increased presence in public life around the world, and why women in some socioeconomic groups, sectors and countries have less political power than others. It examines when and how women have power and influence in practice, and what they seek to achieve. We also outline how the international community can better support women’s political leadership by investing in women’s education and economic assets, their organisations and political apprenticeships; focusing on political systems and not just elections; and supporting locally-led and problem-driven responses.

The report looks at whether women’s capabilities and actions in different spheres lead them to have more presence and influence within private and public decision-making. Based on a review of over 400 sources, the report is organised around thematic chapters on women’s political participation, social activism, and economic empowerment.

Legal empowerment occurs when poor or marginalised people use the law, legal systems and justice mechanisms to improve or transform their social, political or economic situations. The concept of legal empowerment emerged within the development community in the early 2000s from a critique of the ‘rule of law orthodoxy’ and its perceived top-down technical assistance approach to justice sector reform. By contrast, legal empowerment approaches are explicitly interested in the agency and priorities of marginalised people, and understanding how they can use the law to advance their interests. As a concept, it was important in reorienting the attention of the international community towards the experience of the ‘end-users’ of law and justice programmes. At the same time, the use of the law and legal systems by disadvantaged people to contest the unfair distribution of power and resources is a real-world phenomenon that predates and exists independently of international law and justice assistance. These activities are rooted in context-specific histories of how law, politics and development intersect to shape the distribution of resources and power.

To date, understanding of legal empowerment has remained confined to a relatively small group of legal experts and within a narrow silo of justice support as part of international assistance efforts. But, as this wider legal activism continues in countries around the world, its relevance to development outcomes is becoming much clearer; this includes use of the law and justice mechanisms to expand access to public goods and services or to reduce marginalisation and inequality. This overview summarises recent evidence on legal empowerment and highlights political economy perspectives on what it will take to realise greater empowerment for those who need it most.

This paper looks at the concept of women's empowerment and how it is put into action, as well as ways in which the development community can contribute to progress. The key messages are:
[1] Women’s empowerment is a process of personal and social change through which they gain power, meaningful choices and control over their lives. [2] There are many pathways to women’s empowerment but important enabling conditions include women’s collective action, constitutional and legal reform, social and economic policy measures, and changes in socio-cultural norms. [3] Empowerment is not something that can be done to or for women. Women are the agents of their empowerment. [4] To contribute to progress on women’s empowerment, the international community must support the political actions of women and their allies to change gender and other power hierarchies.

ODI Briefing No.88. ​Gender issues are enjoying a renaissance within the international development community, with notable momentum around the threats to women posed by conflict and violence. How to promote the role of women in peace and security, and how to address violence against women and girls, are now two of the top priorities for the international community. The challenge gender advocates face is to transform international commitments into real gains for women at national level. This briefing draws on recent ODI research and evaluation to review opportunities to promote women’s political participation and leadership in transitional and post-conflict settings, assess current international efforts to do so, and provide recommendations for policy and programming in this area.

During a research trip to Malawi in 2012, a senior government official commented that nearly two decades after the government had renewed its commitment to democratic decentralisation, the working of local government was something of a ‘black box’. Ahead of local council elections in May 2014, the resulting study helps government and donors to understand how local government and service delivery work and to assess whether the return of local councils is likely to improve their functioning.

Well-known problems in Malawi’s health, education and water sectors arise largely from institutional and governance problems. The study focuses on the delivery of these services in Blantyre City and Dedza and Rumphi Districts, where local government is characterised by dual administration, unclear mandates and functional fragmentation. The competitive-clientelist political settlement crafted by elites is the underlying cause of local dysfunctions, for the settlement drives policy incoherence and undermines collective action at all levels of government. In turn, these shape the incentives, choices and behaviours of local officials and frontline providers and hamper the collaboration and coordination needed to delivery public goods. The return of local councillors in May 2014 is unlikely to improve governance and services significantly, and may further entrench clientelist politics in local administrations.

Our analysis is deeply pessimistic in many ways. Nevertheless, we suggest that it is possible to reform institutions to improve local governance and services. Given the prevailing conditions, the challenge is to identify the types of institutions that can support public goods provision and, in the longer term, will nudge Malawians towards a more developmental political settlement. In line with this approach, we provide both principles of assistance and concrete suggestions for policy and programming that can help improve the delivery of local services and administration.

"Parliaments have never been more important. Most countries are now a democracy of some sort and great demands are placed on parliamentarians. Yet parliaments remain one of the least trusted institutions in the eyes of the population. And, while support to parliaments has steadily grown since the late 1980s, parliamentary development assistance is widely seen as one of the least effective areas of democracy assistance – a reputation that has become ever more problematic in the current result-based climate.

But what do we know about how – and how well – the international community support parliaments? Has the field changed over the past decade? Is there a need or an appetite for a multi-stakeholder thematic evaluation of parliamentary development assistance (PDA)? If not, what else might be done to move the field forward in the coming decade?

For this Sida-commissioned Evaluation Pre-Study, we undertook an extensive literature review and consulted widely with parliamentary experts and the organisations that support parliaments, as well as a small group of parliamentarians. Key findings include:

1. The PDA field is diverse and complex, with many different types of organisations and ways to support parliamentary reform.

2. A clear and consistent set of recommendations has emerged over the past decade or so, and there is now a consensus between donors on the principles for improved practice.

3. There are some important examples of innovation in the field, but change remains on the margins with many organisations unable or unwilling to apply lessons consistently or at all.
PDA is an under-evaluated area of development assistance – but a broad thematic evaluation of such a diverse field is likely to only reaffirm widely accepted principles of more effective support and will not provide much-needed operational guidance.

4. To move forward, the parliamentary development assistance community needs to undertake targeted research and evaluation exercises to fill knowledge gaps and better understand constraints on absorbing and acting on learning in the field.

5. For many organisations, the principal constraint on progress may come form perverse incentives in the aid architecture of PDA.

6. Priority areas include: comparative evaluations of similar organisations or approaches  (e.g. parliamentary associations, political party foundations, issues-based support and integrated democracy programmes), and substantive research on both the interests, needs and preferences of MPs in different contexts and political economy of PD assistance.
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"Support to state-building and development in fragile and conflict-affected states is a priority for the international community. These are often hostile enviornments for human rights promotion and protection. This report examines the interface between human rights, fragility and development. It asks whether and how human rights has a role in identifying and overcoming obstacles to increased stability and development, with a focus on five thematic areas: transitional justice; violence and security; justice and rule of law; social exclusion; and service delivery.

The study informs development partners on the merits and challenges of working with human rights in these difficult contexts, and to provide practical guidance on how they can do so more effectively. "

"This study of ‘town chiefs’ initiates a long-term programme of research on local leadership in Malawi. It contributes to the Local Leadership and Governance (LL) research stream of the Africa Power and Politics Programme (APPP).

Town chiefs are one type of hybrid political order or governance ‘mode’ in Malawi; they operate within overlapping normative universes, and perform acts which have both historical resonance and modern purposes. Whilst known collectively as town chiefs, they assume a number of titles, and have various characteristics, roles and authority. Their behaviour facilitates community action, social order and cohesion, producing a variety of public goods that we consider developmental.

Section 2 outlines the major local governance structures and trends that have emerged in Malawi since colonialism, presenting a brief review of legislation that has influenced the activities and powers of local councils and traditional chiefs. Given their affinity to town chiefs, Annex 3 provides a summary of the de jure and de facto roles and authority of traditional chiefs to facilitate comparison. A brief overview of urbanisation demonstrates that Malawi’s towns are growing rapidly and in a largely un-planned manner.

Section 3 reports the main findings from the fieldwork, indicating that town chiefs are unrecorded but numerous, and stand outside the law but are widely recognised and valued. Town chiefs have different origins, forms of authority and legitimacy, some more closely aligned to those of traditional chiefs and others rooted more in democratic or party institutions. Their existence and roles fulfil a need created by a vacuum in urban governance and their nature reflects a notion of leadership shared by ‘translocal’ Malawians.

The functions of town chiefs may divided into six main categories which emerged from our interview data: cultural affairs, administration and management of various sorts, oversight of issues related to land and property, resolving disputes, an involvement in politics, and promoting economic and social development. Their ability to sanction members of their communities to ensure conformity is outlined, and other aspects of their authority, accountability and legitimacy are discussed in brief. Their motivations as well as their relationships with other local actors are summarised.

Section 4 considers the findings in the light of APPP’s interest in collective action problems, the production of public goods and notions of hybridity. We conclude with a warning that these findings on town chiefs are tentative and that any attempt to design local governance programmes that ‘go with the grain’ at this stage would be premature and could be harmful."

This paper reviews the literature on corruption, anti-corruption efforts and aid, with a focus on: (i) tools for measuring corruption; (ii) the social science literature on the country-level causes of corruption and its relationship to poor governance; (iii) donor approaches to reducing corruption – both specific anti-corruption interventions and broader governance measures; and (iv) the debates and evidence on aid modalities and corruption.

This report reviews existing literature and the strategy and policy documents of seven DAC donors in order to contribute to the design of an evaluation framewok to assess the effectiveness of these donors' voice and accountability interventions.

This note introduces the concept of neopatrimonialism, examining its origins and defining characteristics. It then discusses the structural factors that explain the emergence and robustness of neopatrimonial governance in sub-Saharan Africa. This is followed by consideration of the nature of the public sector in sub-Saharan Africa, exploring the implications of neopatrimonialism for public sector capacity and performance. The final section briefly outlines the pattern of reform in Africa and uses political economy analysis – institutional, rational-choice and process approaches – to understand both the dominant trend and variations in reform trajectories in neopatrimonial states.

"This study is part of a larger, two-year programme of research on Governance, Aid Modalities and Poverty Reduction, which is expected to improve the design and implementation of Irish Aid‟s development and governance programmes in poorly performing hybrid states.

The study examines the impact of domestic politics on public sector reform in African states that are classed as neopatrimonial or 'hybrid', exploring three propositions. First, elite behaviour is governed by a particular political logic in hybrid states, leading them to use both formal and informal institutions to gain and retain power in (what tends to be) winner-takes-all competition for control of the state. Secondly, national and local elites instrumentalise reform processes according to this political logic. Thirdly, this explains why formal structures function in unexpected ways and reforms have unexpected outcomes – often to the detriment of development objectives."

This is an exploratory paper aimed at analysing the existing synergies between the aid effectiveness, human rights and good governance agendas, with particular reference to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. The overall purpose is to contribute to the development of a human rights perspective on aid effectiveness with the objective of progressively contributing to (i) effective implementation of the Paris Declaration, and (ii) the continuing evolution of aid effectiveness thinking and (iii) contributing to an Action-Oriented Policy Paper on Human Rights and Development, to be developed by DAC GOVNET in 2005/06.

This study was commissioned by the Human Rights and Development Task Team of the OECD DAC Governance Network (GOVNET) with a view to assisting in the preparation of an action-oriented policy in 2006. It analyses and synthesises the approaches and experiences of bilateral and multilateral agencies working on human rights and development, and offers a number of practical recommendations. The study formed the basis for the first OECD DAC publication on human rights as part of the Development Dimensions series.

This paper identifies areas of agreement and consensus between the three reports related to the issue of equity and/or equality: the 2006 World Development Report, the 2005 Human Development Report, and the 2005 Report on the World Social Situation. Three broad questions were addressed: a) should equity be a goal of development policy, and if so which particular conception of equity should be used?; b) is there a distinct equity policy agenda, different from existing policy agendas?, and c) how can the equity policy agenda be implemented?