Civic Studies » Africa

Easter readings: new selection of articles and notes on democracy, open government, civic tech and others

Tiago Peixoto — Sat, 03 Apr 2021 10:57:13 +0000

Open government’s uncertain effects and the Biden opportunity: what now? A review of 10 years of open government research reveals: 1) “a transparency-driven focus”, 2) “methodological concerns”, and 3) [maybe not surprising] “the lack of empirical evidence regarding the effects … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Catching up (again!) on DemocracySpot

Tiago Peixoto — Mon, 02 Oct 2017 07:16:24 +0000

It’s been a while since the last post here. In compensation, it’s not been a bad year in terms of getting some research out there. First, we finally managed to publish “Civic Tech in the Global South: Assessing Technology for … Continue reading → Continue reading →

New IDS Journal – 9 Papers in Open Government

Tiago Peixoto — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 06:34:27 +0000

The new IDS Bulletin is out. Edited by Rosemary McGee and Duncan Edwards, this is the first open access version of the well-known journal by the Institute of Development Studies. It brings eight new studies looking at a variety of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

World Development Report 2016: Digital Dividends

Tiago Peixoto — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 22:47:48 +0000

The World Development Report 2016, the main annual publication of the World Bank, is out. This year’s theme is Digital Dividends, examining the role of digital technologies in the promotion of development outcomes. The findings of the WDR are simultaneously … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Three New Papers (and a presentation) on Civic Tech

Tiago Peixoto — Tue, 09 Jun 2015 01:35:34 +0000

This blog has been slow lately, but as I mentioned before, it is for a good cause. With some great colleagues I’ve been working on a series of papers (and a book) on civic technology. The first three of these … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Video Explains the Importance of Subsistence Land Commons

David Bollier — Sat, 29 Nov 2014 17:41:45 +0000

Participants in a workshop hosted by the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) and the German Institute for Human Rights are featured in a nicely done five-minute video, “A Commons Conversation.” (Tip of the hat to Silke Helfrich.) It’s a thoughtful introduction to subsistence and traditional commons, especially in Africa. The focus is on secure land tenure and food security.

The July 2014 workshop is in the midst of producing a “Technical Guide on Tenure Rights to Commons” (or “TG Commons,” for short) at the request of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). The guide seeks to support the adoption of “Voluntary Guidelines for the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT).”

According to the workshop, the TG Commons will:

provide strategies to overcome the challenges inherent in the recognition and protection of tenure rights to commons. The overall objective of the guide is to contribute to national food security, to secure access to natural resources (especially for marginalized and vulnerable groups), to support human well-being and livelihood, sustainable resource use, and ecosystem functioning. This is particularly timely, since today about three billion rural families’ livelihoods depend on common lands, forests and fisheries.

The TG commons guidebook is focused on “providing concrete strategies to achieve the recognition and protection of tenure rights to commons."

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Who Participates in Africa? Dispelling the Myth

Tiago Peixoto — Sun, 23 Mar 2014 17:20:53 +0000

Whenever discussing participation in Africa (as well as in other developing contexts) the issue of “who participates” often emerges. A constant in these conversations is an assumption that participation in the continent is strongly driven by material and immaterial resources … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Has Democratization Reduced Infant Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa?

Tiago Peixoto — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 18:26:31 +0000

Evidence suggests it has. Excerpts from paper by Masayuki Kudamatsu: Does democracy promote development? Despite a large number of empirical studies of this question, the evidence remains inconclusive since it is difﬁcult to establish causality running from democracy to development: democracy is likely … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The Effect of SMS on Participation: Evidence from Uganda

Tiago Peixoto — Sat, 30 Nov 2013 17:48:42 +0000

I’ve been wanting to post about this paper for a while. At the intersection of technology and citizen participation this is probably one of the best studies produced in 2013 and I’m surprised I haven’t heard a lot about it … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Open Budgets in Africa: Tokenistic?

Tiago Peixoto — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 17:08:47 +0000

Matt Andrews recently posted an interesting analysis in his blog. Measuring the difference in transparency between budget formulation and budget execution, Matt finds that “Most countries have a gap between the scores they get in transparency of budget preparation and … Continue reading → Continue reading →