Inclusive leadership and governance
Voluntary Local Review – Kibaha Town Council, Tanzania
This Voluntary Local Review (VLR) aims at understanding how well the SDGs have been localized and implemented in Kibaha Town Council (KTC), Tanzania. The process employed Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) to represent local voices in a participatory and inclusive manner. The results show that localization of SDGs has helped the government and citizens to…
Voluntary Local Review – Emboreet village, Manyara, Tanzania
The United Nations Agenda 2030 contains 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with 169 targets to address global social, environmental, and economic challenges by 2030, of which many must be implemented at the local level. Voluntary Local Reviews (VLR) have gained prominence as a means for local and regional governments to assess SDG progress and remaining…
Voluntary Local Review – City of Bijeljina, Bosnia and Herzegovina
This report looks into the localisation of SDGs in the City of Bijeljina, which is an SDG pioneer in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It reviews three SDGs – SDG5 (gender equality), SDG10 (inclusion), and SDG17 (partnerships towards goals) – through the lens of Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) which is based on an immersion of researchers into…
Local government for inclusion: centering non-exclusionary policies in a decentralized setting
This research in four municipalities and districts in West Java, Indonesia finds that marginalization, discrimination, and violence against religious and gender minorities is often justified by the presence of exclusionary morality-based policies. This brief explains under what conditions such policies are more likely to be adopted by the local government. This brief also recommends several…
Increasing Transparency in Local Governments: Implementation and Evaluation of Citizen Budgets in Uganda, Kenya, and Zimbabwe
Regional focus: Eastern Africa Time: October 2023 – June 2024 This action research project follows up on previous ICLD research by supporting local governments to implement a citizens budget and adapt the associated Toolbox to African experiences. Abstract: This research project investigates the implementation and impact of Citizen’s Budgets at the local level in selected countries. It…
Local Democracy and Resilience in Ukraine: Learning from Communities’ Crisis Response in War
Regional focus: Ukraine/Eastern Europe Time: October 2023 – November 2024 Abstract Amidst the devastating impact of the full-scale Russian invasion, Ukraine has retained its sovereignty. Enabled by decentralization reforms from 2015-2020, local self-governance bodies have played a crucial role in Ukraine’s resilience, offering essential services and backing defense efforts. This phenomenon is puzzling in light of conflicting…
It Takes Two to Tango: Perceptions and motivations towards campaign clientelism in Zambia
Various studies on clientelism usually start from a common puzzle: Why is campaign clientelism widely practised by politicians even when they have no means of ensuring reciprocity from the voters? Similarly, why is campaign clientelism widespread amongst voters despite its numerous negative consequences on societies, democracy, and development? These puzzles have motivated my research, where…
Towards Inclusive WASH Policy-Making: A case study of exploring barriers to adopting gender responsive budgeting (GRB) in the water and sanitation sector in Cape Town
This study investigates different potential barriers to adopting a Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) approach that aims to address gender inequalities in the WASH sector. The study explores the perspectives of civil servants, local politicians, and civil society representatives through semi-structured interviews, shedding light on the challenges faced in intensifying gender equality perspectives at the local…
Postdevelopment Assistance Made Possible? A qualitative analysis of the ICLD’s International Training Programmes in Tanzania from the local stakeholders’ perspective
Development is a contentious concept, praised by some for enabling progress and criticised by others for perpetuating global power imbalances. Development assistance tends to strengthen the donor-recipient dependency, which, according to critics, primarily serves the interests of the Global North while neglecting the needs of the Global South. Mainstream market-driven strategies have exacerbated inequalities in…
Morality policies and the prospect for inclusive citizenship in decentralized Indonesia: A study of West Java
This study examines the making of exclusionary morality policies and how those policies have affected the lives of faith-based and gender-based minority groups in West Java, Indonesia. Combining policy review, in-depth case studies, and survey, we identify distinct patterns of exclusion, which are top-down for faith-based minorities and bottom-up for sexual/gender minorities. Around 121 exclusionary…
