Publications

This report is the result of a case study conducted in Colombia as part of the
evaluation of Dutch policy on International Responsible Business Conduct (IRBC) by the Policy and Operations Evaluation Department of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (IOB).

This report is the result of a case study conducted in Ethiopia as part of the evaluation of Dutch policy on International Responsible Business Conduct (IRBC) by the Policy and Operations Evaluation Department of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (IOB).

This report is the result of a case study conducted in India as part of the evaluation of Dutch policy on International Responsible Business Conduct (IRBC) by the Policy and Operations Evaluation Department (IOB) of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).

This synthesis report forms part of the evaluation of Dutch policy on International Responsible Business Conduct (IRBC)1 by the Policy and Operations Evaluation Department of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (IOB), comprising (i) sector agreements on IRBC, (ii) frameworks for private sector instruments, (iii) Dutch Embassy activities, (iv) international cooperation and legislation, and (v) government procurement policy. These IRBC policy instruments aim to promote responsible business conduct, in accordance with the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, in settings where human rights, worker health and safety, and environmental protection are at risk. The evaluation period covers the timeframe of 2012 until 2018.

The East African Community (EAC) has a strong normative framework on gender equality and women and girls’ rights and is increasingly involved in promoting this agenda. The legal and institutional framework is evolving, showing recognition of the Maputo Protocol, the Maputo Plan of Action and the International Conference on Population and Development commitments, among others. This State of African Women report aims to contribute to the realisation and promotion of women and girls’ rights, in particular in SRHR, by raising awareness of the commitments and tracking progress made towards their full implementation in the East African Community.

KIT Royal Tropical Institute, the Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation (WCDI), the Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) with the financial support of Food & Business Knowledge Platform recently conducted a research on youth inclusion in agricultural cooperatives. The extensive literature review conducted for this explorative study highlighted knowledge gaps, specifically with regards to the role of youth in agricultural cooperatives. The findings presented in this report take into account gender dynamics at play. The different socio-economic realities amongst young women and men – which are critical in determining how easily and under what conditions they can access key resources, such as knowledge, land, and finance – are also highlighted.

In 2015 the maternal mortality ratio for Ethiopia was 353 per 100,000 live births. Large numbers of women do not use maternal health services. This study aimed to identify factors influencing the use of maternal health services at the primary health care unit (PHCU) level in rural communities in Sidama zone, south Ethiopia in order to design quality improvement interventions.

Close-to-community (CTC) providers have been identified as a key cadre to progress universal health coverage and address inequities in health service provision due to their embedded position within communities. CTC providers both work within, and are subject to, the gender norms at community level but may also have the potential to alter them. This paper synthesises current evidence on gender and CTC providers and the services
they deliver.

International business is confronted with significant risks and impacts related to human rights, labour rights, environment and climate change. These impact on local communities, economies, environment and land use in “host” countries, but also affect Dutch companies and consumers. In order to address these risks and initiated by the Dutch Government, the Dutch Social-Economic Council (SER) facilitates trajectories towards agreements on International Responsible Business Conduct (IRBC) in different high risk sectors.

Innovation platforms are fast becoming part of the mantra of agricultural research for development projects and programmes. Their basic tenet is that stakeholders depend on one another to achieve agricultural development outcomes, and hence need a space where they can learn, negotiate and coordinate to overcome challenges and capture opportunities through a facilitated innovation process. Although much has been written on how to implement and facilitate innovation platforms efficiently, few
studies support ex-ante appraisal of when and for what purpose innovation platforms provide an appropriate mechanism for achieving development outcomes, and what kinds of human and financial resource investments and enabling environments are required. Without these insights, innovation platforms run the risk of being promoted as a panacea for all problems in the agricultural sector. This study makes clear that not all constraints will require innovation platforms and, if there is a simpler and cheaper alternative, that should be considered first. Based on the review of critical design principles and plausible outcomes of innovation platforms, this study provides a decision support tool for research, development
and funding agencies that can enhance more critical thinking about the purposes and conditions under which innovation platforms can contribute to achieving agricultural development outcomes.

Innovation Platforms are fast becoming part of the mantra of agricultural research for development projects and programmes. Their basic tenet is that stakeholders depend on one another to achieve agricultural development outcomes, and hence need a space where they can learn, negotiate, and coordinate to overcome challenges and capture opportunities through a facilitated innovation process. This important publication provides a critical analysis of Innovation Platforms, their defining features, key functions, and what they can and – as importantly – cannot do.

This paper dives into past impact evaluations of nutrition sensitive agricultural programs to unpack the different approaches to how they analysed women’s empowerment. It focuses on evaluation objectives, evaluation design methodologies and choice of indicators. The paper applies a women’s empowerment lens to agricultural-nutrition pathways framework to understand how nutrition sensitive programs addressed women’s role and influence (or lack thereof) in relation to key decision making moments along the pathways. These include decisions on what is produced, what is sold and how income is used, and how these influence what is consumed in the household and by whom. The household, and intra household dynamics, are the level that the analysis of the impact evaluations specifically looks at.

This document provides an executive summary of a larger report on “Enhancing the effectiveness of agriculture-to-nutrition pathways: key insights from a gender analysis of impact evaluation design”. See main report for detail on references and recommendations, including links to additional resources and the promising approaches.

This report raises awareness of continental-African commitments to women and girls’ sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR). It also tracks progress in implementing SRHR across the continent.

Le Rapport sur la condition des femmes africaines a pour ambition de contribuer à la réalisation et à la promotion des droits des femmes et des filles, notamment dans le domaine de la santé et des droits sexuels et procréatifs, en sensibilisant le public aux engagements pris et en assurant le suivi des progrès accomplis en vue du respect effectif de ces engagements.

Nationally representative tuberculosis (TB) prevalence surveys provide invaluable empirical measurements of TB burden but are a massive and complex undertaking. Therefore, methods that capitalize on data from these surveys are both attractive and imperative. The aim of this study was to use existing TB prevalence estimates to develop and validate an ecological predictive statistical model to indirectly estimate TB prevalence in low- and middle-income countries without survey data.

Can a motivational intervention create greater respect for the sexual and reproductive rights of groups that are currently denied their rights? The case of men having sex with men in Bangladesh.

This paper presents findings from a study which sought to understand why health workers working under the results-based financing (RBF) arrangements in Zimbabwe reported being satisfied with the improvements in working conditions and compensation, but paradoxically reported lower motivation levels compared to those not working under RBF arrangements.

In many low- and middle-income countries, agribusinesses are deeply engaged in providing services to small- and medium-scale farmers. Such services can include agricultural advisory services or extension. Yet this phenomenon of agribusiness-based advisory services (ABAS) has received relatively little attention in the study of and discussions on advisory services (Babu & Zhou, 2016; IDH, 2016, 2017). This is a critical oversight, as agribusinesses are increasingly present as service providers, and hence shape the prevailing service landscape for smallholder farmers. Importantly, agribusinesses face various challenges in their role as service providers, with impacts both on the agribusinesses themselves and on their ability to contribute to inclusive agricultural development.

Epidemiology is the cornerstone of global health. It shapes policy decisions and evidence-based practice by identifying disease risk factors and preventive healthcare targets.