This article reports on a project involving the development and release of an ethnographic film about the women divers of Atauro Island, Timor-Leste, and suggests a theoretical framework to interpret its outcomes. It describes the project aims and the filmmaking process, and reports on its results. In doing so, the paper explores the potential use of an agent-based concept of narrative capital focused on collective agents. The article suggests that the ideas of narrative capital and transformations of capital by collective agents can provide a valuable interpretative framework for the design, implementation, and analyses of results of development interventions involving filmmaking.

Increasing interest in faith-based international development organisations (FBOs) recently has improved understanding of these agencies. One reason for complex, often contradictory findings is the lack of frameworks analysing the interactions of worldviews on organisational structures, processes, and behaviours of agencies, and development outcomes. We utilise Lincoln's (2003. Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion after September 11. Chicago: University of Chicago Press) four “domains of religion” to explore how the literature reports faith impacting the shape of development FBOs’ structures, behaviours, and outcomes. Literature suggests faith has a significant impact upon these agencies. We outline very specific similarities and differences, highlighting the importance of nuanced analysis of faith's role in FBOs. Further research is needed to build more evidence around these impacts of faith on FBOs.

Based on findings from a qualitative study in northern Uganda, this article explores factors leading to gender-based violence (GBV) in the post-conflict African context. The crisis of masculinity becomes crucial to understanding women's vulnerability to GBV. This crisis stems from the trauma of losing one's internal resources – socially constructed identity role and purpose, and one's external resources – wealth and productive assets. We find that armed conflict replaces the positive male identity as household head with a destructive model of masculinity. It is the interaction between negative masculinities and extreme poverty that characterises the prevalence of GBV in such conditions.

This article reports on a study that aimed to deepen understanding of the factors which influence livelihood choices, and perceptions of wealth and poverty, in Accra, Ghana. Focus group discussions and household surveys were held in ten selected communities. Although parents are able to influence their households’ livelihood choices, the prevailing socio-economic circumstances are more likely to determine what household members are likely to do. Perceptions of wealth and poverty are influenced by factors both internal and external to households, indicating the complexity and variety of interrelated assets which the poor depend on for their livelihoods.

This article offers an institutional and sociological analysis of knowledge generation and dissemination for policy in Bangladesh. Because institutions participating in knowledge generation remain largely understudied, the article focuses on analysing the means and challenges to knowledge creation, and the complex agency and power relations among and within think tanks and universities. The article concludes that the scarcity of domestic financial resources and the political co-option of think tanks and universities weaken academic freedom, fragment the knowledge creation process, and contribute to depoliticising research. Research-to-policy linkages are engineered through the personalised networks of a few strategic individuals.

This article investigates gender dimensions of decision-making on access to, and control over, productive assets for agricultural development in selected communities in Ghana. The men were more educated, resourced, and economically empowered than the women. This resulted in differential access to, and control over, resources by gender and a low level of female participation in decision-making. The study identified a land access gap by gender and crop acreage gap of up to 80% for women as compared to men. Challenges limiting women in agricultural production and processing include inadequate land access, inadequate capital, inefficient processing technologies, and unattractive markets.

This article reports on a case study of a mid-programme capacity building evaluation within a large education aid programme collaboration between non-governmental educational organisations in Malawi and US university literacy faculty. The article outlines the programme context and its formal and informal capacity building inputs. Analyses of data collected on capacity building at the midpoint of the programme are offered. The authors argue that capacity is built along the life of large programmes, and evaluating capacity building development (and understanding its challenges) before the end of the programme can help cross-national teams of administrators and implementers in modifying programme operations.

Amidst criticism of the concept of “the learning organisation” there is a perspective which is both critical of, and open to, innovative ways of developing the notion of a learning organisation. This article contributes to this perspective by examining the learning practices of a feminist NGO which operates across Southern Africa. The ways in which this NGO has interpreted the idea of a learning organisation and put it into practice are an example of a bottom-up approach which is informed by humanism. The findings of this qualitative study demonstrate both innovative possibilities for organisational learning and potential pitfalls.

Africa grapples with the world's most serious public health crisis, but this article shows that there are public health solutions that work in the African setting. When the Ebola virus disease outbreak was announced in Nigeria in July 2014, some public health specialists worried that an apocalyptic outbreak would sweep through the vast slums of Lagos. The words “Ebola” and “Lagos” in the same sentence were viewed as a dangerous combination, due to the large population of Lagos and the inefficient health care system in the city. Contrary to this view, the outbreak of Ebola virus disease was successfully contained in Nigeria. This article focuses on the factors that were responsible for this success. It examines strategies developed within Nigeria that help to ensure the successful containment of the disease. The paper identifies lessons that can be learnt by other countries from the Nigerian experience.

As an increasingly consolidated middle-income region, Latin America’s position within the international aid architecture has shifted. Funding for civil society has decreased as a result of economic growth, crises affecting bilateral donors, and operational and financial restrictions stemming from political polarisation and increasing government hostility in various countries. Based on a current and historical literature review as well as informal consultations with CSO sources, this article summarises the results of a research project focused on civil society’s funding mechanisms in Latin America and accounts for recent CSO efforts to explore novel funding alternatives.