Policy Briefs
The Necessity of Talking the Talk: The functions of Communication for Anti-Corruption Political Will and Policy Development in Ukrainian Local Government
Abstract Corruption is a notoriously intractable problem. How do local public authorities manage to initiate and sustain meaningful anti-corruption efforts? To address this question, we examine the processes and interactions among key stakeholders in six local settings in Ukraine showing sustained reform effort between 2014 and 2021. The analysis identifies key communicative tasks that, taken…
Making Participatory Budgeting work: our money, our voice!
Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a democratic innovation that strengthens local democracy by including citizens in budget decisions. By doing so from formulation to execution, it allows for more responsible, equitable and transparent spending. This policy brief highlights key issues that should be observed for effective implementation. This publication is a result of the Local Democracy…
Whose voice matters? Inclusion in local decision-making in Kenya and Lebanon
This policy brief analyses how participation and inclusivity relates to influence in local decision-making in two post-conflict contexts. Peacebuilding increasingly overlaps with development research in the turn to a local level, bottom-up approach which puts emphasis on including all groups in society in decision-making. The authors find that inclusion and participation in local decision-making can…
Innovating with urban governance: municipal committees for inclusive, nature-based solutions
This policy brief explores the challenges and innovative opportunities for institutionalising participatory processes within municipal contexts. Specifically, we report on the creation of municipal committees, a proposal framed within the EU-funded project URBiNAT aimed at co-creating healthy corridors made up of a combination of nature-based solutions (NBS). The proposed committees aim to consolidate citizens’ engagement…
Local Democracy and the Legitimization of Climate Action in Rural Municipalities of Sweden, Chile and the US
Case studies in rural Chile, Sweden and the US, show that climate policy often leads to conflicts with other rural development objectives. Rural municipalities thus need new tools to balance climate change action with other important local demands. This brief highlights how national- and state-level implementation of the Sustainable Development Goal 13 (climate action) interacts…
Problems of Public Participation in Urban Improvement Programmes: Cases of Petrozavodsk, Yekaterinburg and St Petersburg
As part of the LUPSRUSS³ -2 project, our team compared the implementation of the state-run ‘Creation of Comfortable Urban Environment’ programme in three Russian cities. Based on the analysis of regulatory documents, media and social network publications, surveys and interviews, we identified the main problems associated with public engagement in the formation of a comfortable…
Overcoming Barriers to Participate in Local Democracy for People with Disabilities: The Case of Zimbabwe
This policy brief discusses barriers to the inclusion and participation of people with disabilities in local democracy in rural Zimbabwe and provides recommendations for enhanced participation. The analysis is part of a broader mixed research study on the inclusion and participation of vulnerable groups in Zimbabwe’s local democracy. Results of the study show how people…
Reducing the negative effects of climate change: Lessons from the Citizens’ Assembly on Climate Change in Budapest
In 2020 the City Council of Budapest invited locals to take part in the Citizens’ Assembly on Climate Change in order to develop a climate strategy that matched people’s lives and aspirations. This policy brief provides empirical evidence of how local governments can address the problems of climate change in cooperation with non-governmental organisations and…
Closing or keeping open public schools during COVID-19 in Serbia: finding the middle way
This policy brief offers a practical, feasible action plan for how to preserve and enhance the provision of public education in deprived suburban neighbourhoods during a pandemic. Based on critical insights collected in the past year at the urban periphery of Belgrade (Serbia), the brief suggests a shift in perceiving public schools in deprived suburban…
Public procurement reforms in rural local authorities in Zimbabwe
Prior to the introduction of the new procurement reforms in 2018, the public sector in Zimbabwe operated a centralised, corrupt, chaotic, and inefficient system which had a negative impact on good local governance and democracy. The ushering in of the new public procurement reforms in 2018 was a welcome development as it advocated for the…
