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    Critical perspectives on open development : empirical interrogation of theory construction
    (MIT Press, 2021-02-16) Chib, Arul; Bentley, Caitlin M.; Smith, Matthew L.
    Over the last ten years, “open” innovations—the sharing of information and communications resources without access restrictions or cost—have emerged within international development. But do these innovations empower poor and marginalized populations? This book examines whether, for whom, and under what circumstances the free, networked, public sharing of information and communication resources contribute (or not) toward a process of positive social transformation. The contributors offer cross-cutting theoretical frameworks and empirical analyses that cover a broad range of applications, emphasizing the underlying aspects of open innovations that are shared across contexts and domains. The book first outlines theoretical frameworks that span knowledge stewardship, trust, situated learning, identity, participation, and power decentralization. It then investigates these frameworks across a range of institutional and country contexts, considering each in terms of the key emancipatory principles and structural impediments it seeks to address. Taken together, the chapters offer an empirically tested theoretical direction for the field.
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    Making open development inclusive : lessons from IDRC research
    (MIT Press, 2020-08-25) Smith, Matthew L.; Seward, Ruhiya Kristine
    A decade ago, a significant trend in using and supporting open practices emerged in international development. “Open development” describes initiatives as wide-ranging as open government and data, open science, open education, and open innovation. The driving theory was that these types of open practices enable more inclusive processes of human development. This volume, drawing on ten years of empirical work and research, analyzes how open development has played out in practice. Focusing on development practices in the Global South, the contributors assess the crucial questions of who is able to participate and benefit from open practices, and who cannot. Examining a wide range of cases, they offer a macro analysis of how open development ecosystems are governed, and evaluate the inclusiveness of a variety of applications, including creating open educational resources, collaborating in science and knowledge production, and crowdsourcing information.
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    Formal and informal enterprises in francophone Africa : moving toward a vibrant private sector
    (IDRC, Ottawa, ON, CA, 2020-07-03) Mbaye, Ahmadou Aly; Golub, Stephen; Gueye, Fatou
    While the duality of African economies is well recognized in economic literature, only a few comprehensive studies have examined the formal and informal economies using the same instruments. The research presented in this book uses a unique dataset carefully collected on both formal and informal firms, and an analytical approach based on a continuum of formality/informality characteristics, to analyze both private entrepreneurship and employment. Focusing on Francophone Africa, with particular emphasis on Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Gabon, and Senegal, the book also includes comparisons with other countries in Africa and in developing regions. The formal economy is shaped by institutions largely determined by their French colonial legacy, reflected in traits such as stringent labour market regulation. This, coupled with weak governance and high factor costs, prevents firms from growing and, thereby, incentivizes informality. Meanwhile, the informal sector is the major source of income and employment, typically accounting for about half of aggregate output and 90 percent of employment. Informal firms embody traditional economic practices, nurtured by deeply entrenched customs and well-established kinship networks, often spanning national borders. The book sheds light on some important and previously understudied aspects of the sector, using case studies, surveys and original data, and interviews. It also makes well targeted policy recommendations, taking into account firm heterogeneity and differentiated responses to various policy stimuli. This book is recommended for undergraduate and graduate students studying economic development in Africa, and economics researchers at universities and think tanks.
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    Rêver d’une vie meilleure : le mariage d’enfants à travers les yeux des adolescents
    (Young Lives, 2020-03-31) Crivello, Gina; Mann, Gillian
    Mettre un terme à la pratique du mariage des enfants est devenu un engagement international dans le cadre de l’Objectif 5 de développement durable qui vise à autonomiser les filles et les femmes partout dans le monde. Rêver d’une vie meilleure : le mariage d’enfants à travers les yeux des adolescents présente de nouvelles perspectives et de nouvelles données qui pourront contribuer aux efforts déployés pour atteindre cet objectif. Ces perspectives nouvelles ont pu être développées au cours de projets de recherches et d’interventions qui ont été financés par le Centre de recherches pour le développement international (CRDI) du Canada et qui avaient pour but d’examiner différents aspects de la question du mariage des enfants. Les chapitres réunis dans cet ouvrage, qui abordent la question dans des zones rurales et urbaines au Bangladesh, en Côte d’Ivoire, en Inde, au Mali, au Niger, au Pakistan, au Pérou, au Sénégal, au Togo et en Zambie, couvrent de nombreux thèmes tels que la capacité d’agir des adolescentes et leurs rôles dans les prises de décisions liées au mariage, la maternité à l’adolescence, les violences sexuelles et sexospécifiques envers les enfants et les leçons tirées de tentatives pour influencer les politiques et mettre en place des programmes dans le but de réduire le nombre de mariages d’enfants. Ces courts chapitres combinent photos, éléments visuels, entretiens et rapports au format traditionnel et sont conçus pour servir aux décideurs politiques dans le cadre de leurs contextes nationaux et toute personne engagée dans le soutien et l’autonomisation des enfants et des jeunes marginalisés partout dans le monde.
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    Dreaming of a better life : child marriage through adolescent eyes
    (Young Lives, 2020-03-31) Crivello, Gina; Mann, Gillian
    Putting an end to the practice of child marriage became an international commitment under Sustainable Development Goal 5 that focuses on empowering girls and women worldwide. Dreaming of a Better Life: Child Marriage Through Adolescent Eyes offers fresh insights and evidence to inform these efforts, based on findings from research and intervention projects funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) to investigate different aspects of child marriage. Spanning rural and urban settings across Bangladesh, Côte d’Ivoire, India, Mali, Niger, Pakistan, Peru, Senegal, Togo and Zambia, the chapters address themes such as adolescent girls’ agency and roles in marital decision-making, teenage motherhood, sexual and gender-based violence against children, and lessons learned from trying to influence policies and implement programmes to reduce child marriage. The short chapters, and mix of photo, visual, interview and traditional reporting formats, are designed to appeal to policymakers in their national contexts, as well as resonate with others committed to supporting and empowering marginalised children and young people everywhere.
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    Scaling impact : innovation for the public good
    (Routledge, 2019-05-24) McLean, Robert; Gargani, John
    Scaling Impact introduces a new and practical approach to scaling the positive impacts of research and innovation. Inspired by leading scientific and entrepreneurial innovators from across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Middle East, this book presents a synthesis of unrivaled diversity and grounded ingenuity. The result is a different perspective on how to achieve impact that matters, and an important challenge to the predominant more-is-better paradigm of scaling. For organizations and individuals working to change the world for the better, scaling impact is a common goal and a well-founded aim. The world is changing rapidly, and seemingly intractable problems like environmental degradation or accelerating inequality press us to do better for each other and our environment as a global community. Challenges like these appear to demand a significant scale of action, and here the authors argue that a more creative and critical approach to scaling is both possible and essential. To encourage uptake and co-development, the authors present actionable principles that can help organisations and innovators design, manage, and evaluate scaling strategies. Scaling Impact is essential reading for development and innovation practitioners and professionals, but also for researchers, students, evaluators, and policymakers with a desire to spark meaningful change.
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    Reducing urban violence in the global south
    (Routledge, 2019-05-31) Salahub, Jennifer Erin; Gottsbacher, Markus; de Boer, John; D., Mayssam
    Reducing Urban Violence in the Global South seeks to identify the drivers of urban violence in the cities of the Global South and how they relate to and interact with poverty and inequalities. Drawing on the findings of an ambitious five-year, 15-project research program supported by Canada’s International Development Research Centre and the UK’s Department for International Development, the book explores what works, and what doesn’t, to prevent and reduce violence in urban centres. Cities in developing countries are often seen as key drivers of economic growth, but they are often also the sites of extreme violence, poverty, and inequality. The research in this book was developed and conducted by researchers from the Global South, who work and live in the countries studied, and challenges many of the assumptions from the Global North of how poverty, violence, and inequalities interact in urban spaces. In so doing, the book demonstrates that accepted understandings of the causes of and solutions to urban violence developed in the Global North should not be imported into the Global South without careful consideration of local dynamics and contexts. The book concludes by considering the broader implications for policy and practice, offering recommendations for improving interventions to make cities safer and more inclusive. The fresh perspectives and insights offered by this book will be useful to scholars and students of development and urban violence, as well as to practitioners and policymakers working on urban violence reduction programs.
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    State of open data
    (African Minds, 2019-05-05) Davies, Tim; Walker, Stephen B.; Rubinstein, Mor; Perini, Fernando
    It’s been ten years since open data first broke onto the global stage. Over the past decade, thousands of programs and projects around the world have worked to open data and use it to address a myriad of social and economic challenges. Meanwhile, issues related to data rights and privacy have moved to the centre of public and political discourse. As the open data movement enters a new phase in its evolution, shifting to target real-world problems and embed open data thinking into other existing or emerging communities of practice, big questions still remain. How will open data initiatives respond to new concerns about privacy, inclusion, and artificial intelligence? And what can we learn from the last decade in order to deliver impact where it is most needed? The State of Open Data brings together over 60 authors from around the world to address these questions and to take stock of the real progress made to date across sectors and around the world, uncovering the issues that will shape the future of open data in the years to come.
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    Digital economies at global margins
    (MIT Press, a copublication with International Development Research Centre, 2019-01) Graham, Mark
    This book brings together new scholarship that addresses what increasing digital connectivity and the digitalization of the economy means for people and places at economic margins. As you read through the book, you might find it useful to think about the roles digital connectivity plays in transforming these economically peripheral areas: whether digital tools and technologies are simply amplifying existing inequalities, barriers, and constraints, or allowing them to be transcended; who is actually benefitting from processes of digitalization and practices of digital engagement; who engages in digital production and where does it occur; whether changes in digital economies at the margins really match up to our expectations for change; and ultimately who are the winners and losers in our new digital and digitally mediated economies.
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    Feminist advocacy, family law and violence against women: international perspectives
    (Routledge; International Development Research Centre, 2019) Afkhami, Mahnaz; Ertürk, Yakın; Mayer, Ann Elizabeth
    Around the world, discriminatory legislation prevents women from accessing their human rights. It can affect almost every aspect of a woman's life, including the right to choose a partner, inherit property, hold a job, and obtain child custody. Often referred to as family law, these laws have contributed to discrimination, and to the justification of gender-based violence globally. This book demonstrates how women across the world are contributing to legal reform, helping to shape non-discriminatory policies and to counter current legal and social justifications for gender-based violence. The book takes case studies from Brazil, India, Iran, Lebanon, Nigeria, Palestine, Senegal, and Turkey, using them to demonstrate in each case the varied history of family law, and the wide variety of issues impacting women’s equality in legislation. Interviews with prominent women's rights activists in three additional countries are also included, giving personal accounts of the successes and failures of past reform efforts. Overall, the book provides a complex global picture of current trends and strategies in the fight for a more egalitarian society. These findings come at a critical moment for change. Across the globe, family law issues are contentious. We are simultaneously witnessing an increased demand for women’s equality and the resurgence of fundamentalist forces that impede reform, invoking rules rooted in tradition, culture, and interpretations of religious texts. The outcome of these disputes has enormous ramifications for women’s roles in the family and society. This book tackles these complexities head on, and will interest activists, practitioners, students, and scholars working on women's rights and gender-based violence.
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    Shadow libraries : access to knowledge in global higher education
    (MIT Press, 2018-05) Karaganis, Joe
    Shadow Libraries explores the question of access to educational materials in the globalization of higher education and digitization of knowledge, alongside the comparatively slow parallel expansion of legal access to materials. Unauthorized archives like Libgen, Gigapedia, and Sci-Hub are international shadow libraries with massive aggregations of downloadable scholarly materials. Book chapters consider current experiments in access: the Russian samizdat tradition, with its connection to resistance; BiblioFyL, an online archive built by students at the University of Buenos Aires; education policy and practices of students in post-Apartheid South Africa; the politics of access in India; and copy culture in Brazil.
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    Social theories of urban violence in the Global South : towards safe and inclusive cities
    (Routledge, 2018-04) Salahub, Jennifer Erin; Gottsbacher, Markus; de Boer, John
    Investing in research from the ground up, based on local realities and local understandings, the chapters in this book reflect research undertaken in dozens of cities in Latin America, Sub- Saharan Africa, and South Asia. Northern theories on their own are inadequate to explain everyday, structural, and sporadic forms of interpersonal and criminal violence in the cities assessed. At the core of this book is the ethos that lasting solutions to urban violence and inequality are best developed locally. This is the first of two books which map inter- linkages between social, political, and economic forms of inequality, exclusion, and violence.
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    Adoption and impact of OER in the Global South
    (African Minds, University of Cape Town, 2017-12) Hodgkinson-Williams, Cheryl; Arinto, Patricia
    The Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) project builds on the body of research regarding Open Educational Resources (OER), to improve access, enhance quality, and reduce the cost of education in the Global South. This volume examines aspects of educator and student adoption of OER and engagement in open educational practices (OEP) in secondary and tertiary education as well as teacher professional development in 21 countries in South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South and Southeast Asia. The ROER4D syntheses presented here aim to help inform open education advocacy, policy, practice, and research in developing countries.
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    Une vie saine pour les femmes et les enfants vulnérables : application de la recherche sur les systems de santé
    (CRDI, Ottawa, ON, 2017) Godt, Sue; Agyepong, Irene; Flores, Walter; Sen, Gita
    Il existe encore des défis importants à relever afin de garantir que les populations les plus vulnérables, y compris les femmes, les enfants et les adolescents, puissent vivre en bonne santé et profiter du mieux-être promis dans les Objectifs de développement durable. Leurs mauvaises conditions de santé sont souvent causées par la pauvreté, l’inégalité entre les sexes, le manque d’éducation et la marginalisation sociale, ainsi que par des services de soins de santé inaccessibles. Des systèmes de santé solides, équitables et bien gérés peuvent contribuer à améliorer de manière durable leurs conditions de vie. Toutefois, établir des systèmes de santé solides n’est pas facile. Ce livre fait fond sur 15 années de travaux de recherche sur les systèmes de santé financés par le Centre de recherches pour le développement international (CRDI) et menés par des chercheurs qui ont travaillé en étroite collaboration avec les communautés et les décideurs. Ils ont produit des données probantes pertinentes au contexte à l’échelle locale, nationale, régionale et mondiale afin de s’attaquer à ces difficultés propres aux systèmes de santé. Six leçons ont été tirées pour éclairer et inspirer une nouvelle génération de dirigeants et de chercheurs en matière de santé, alors que certaines réflexions critiques sur les défis restants sont échangées avec d’autres membres de la communauté de la santé mondiale, y compris les organismes subventionnaires.
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    Healthy lives for vulnerable women and children : applying health systems research
    (IDRC, Ottawa, ON, 2017) Godt, Sue; Agyepong, Irene; Flores, Walter; Sen, Gita
    This book draws on 15 years of IDRC-funded health systems research undertaken by researchers working closely with communities and decision-makers. They have generated contextually relevant evidence at local, national, regional, and global levels to tackle entrenched health systems challenges. Lessons related to six specific enveloping topics gleaned from this research are: Development matters; People matter; Politics matter; Systems matter; Evidence matters; Funding matters. Inter-relationships between these matters, and critical reflections on remaining challenges, are shared with the global health community, including funding organizations. Part 5 identifies gaps and strategic opportunities for the way forward.
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    Entre el activismo y la intervención : el trabajo de organizaciones de la sociedad civil y su incidencia para la salud de mujeres indígenas en México
    (Alternativas y Capacidades A.C., Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, 2017-05) Juarez Ramirez, Clara; Hevia de la Jara, Felipe; Lopez Ricoy, Ana; Freyermuth Joffre, Laura
    El libro que aquí se presenta, es resultado de la investigación desarrollada durante 2012-2014 por Alternativas y Capacidades, A. C. (en adelante A y C), con el apoyo financiero del Centro Internacional de Investigaciones para el Desarrollo de Canadá (IDRC). El Proyecto general y este libro en particular pretenden articular dos temáticas: la incidencia de las organizaciones de la sociedad civil (en adelante OSC) y el sistema mexicano de salud en torno a un problema: la atención a la salud de las mujeres indígenas en México, enmarcado en la discusión actual sobre la salud como derecho universal a principios del siglo XXI y teniendo como hipótesis de trabajo que las OSC inciden/influyen positivamente como puente en el sistema mexicano de salud al facilitar el acceso a la atención médica institucionalizada y al realizar acciones que favorecen la salud de mujeres indígenas.
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    Revitalizing health for all : case studies of the struggle for comprehensive primary health care
    (University of Toronto Press, 2017-05) Labonté, Ronald; Saunders, David; Packer, Corinne; Schaay, Nikki
    Researchers and research-users from national public health systems were brought together to design, implement, and assess comprehensive primary health care projects in communities around the globe, including in Australia, Brazil, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, and Iran. “Revitalizing Health for All” examines thirteen case studies of efforts to implement primary health care reform. The volume reveals similarities among projects in diverse national contexts and offers a rich evidence base from which future reform initiatives can draw. It includes sections on: Increasing Equitable Access to Health Care; Community Engagement; Community Health Workers; Governance and Intersectoral Action.
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    Putting knowledge to work : collaborating, influencing and learning for international development
    (IDRC, Ottawa, ON, CA, 2017) Mougeot, Luc J.A.
    Funders and beneficiaries are pressing civil society organizations (CSOs) to be more professional and efficient, and more strategic and impactful, but the key role that knowledge plays in the efforts of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) remains often underrated, even by NGOs themselves. “Putting Knowledge to Work” explores how the brains of such organizations function to deliver outcomes and impacts. The book examines how CSOs access, generate, apply, and grow their intelligence, knowledge, and know-how to protect children, improve public security, reduce ethnic discrimination, grow local value chains, expand water resources, and generally make our societies more inclusive and just.