It has been more than 10 years since the Paris Declaration was signed, yet critical questions remain about whether – and how – increased compliance at the national level has improved the overall effectiveness of Official Development Assistance. Previous studies have argued fundamental tensions arise between the principles of aid effectiveness as they are translated into practice. This article explores this argument using a case study of an Australian-Indonesian technical assistance project – the Poverty Reduction Support Facility – carried out between 2010 and 2015. It demonstrates that tensions do arise between the principles of aid effectiveness as they are translated into practice, but these can be resolved through political negotiation and compromise.

Enabling women to have control over their entitled incomes from direct benefit transfers (DBTs) can strengthen their bargaining power and transform their banking activity, mobility, and other key outcomes. However, ensuring that women are able to effectively access these benefit transfers in an enabling environment where DBTs can lead to transformative impacts requires recognising the economic, normative, and social barriers that women face in accessing and controlling their accounts. It also requires an understanding of the incentives of financial services providers and their constraints in adapting to and addressing these barriers. This article addresses these and offers recommendations for policymakers and practitioners as they seek to improve women's financial inclusion and fully harness the potential of benefit transfers in empowering women economically and socially.

The vision that digital finance can achieve universal financial inclusion is premised on the rarely questioned assumption that the world is rapidly moving towards universal literacy and numeracy. In fact, text and arithmetic notation shape the relationship between formal finance and about a billion of the world’s poorest adults. This “oral” population, stranded outside the reach of formal employment, have neither the capabilities nor the incentives to engage in digital finance as it is currently being offered. Empirical observation of the actual capabilities and incentives of oral adults can offer transformative solutions for mobile wallet providers, NGO projects, designers and governments.

This viewpoint summarises the key research themes from “The Listening Zones of NGOs” research project, that brought together NGO practitioners, language practitioners and academics from a number of disciplines. The research found that paying close attention to languages contributes to successful development programmes, according to the staff of both international and national NGOs. However, the general shift towards an emphasis on technical and thematic expertise among many INGOs has led to the risk that contextual knowledge and the resourcing of language and cultural understanding are not given priority. For INGOs, listening to the competing voices of multiple actors and organisations presents major challenges. The viewpoint presents ways of addressing those challenges.

International development NGOs are in existential crisis. Their legitimacy and added value are increasingly challenged. While scholars have focused on legitimacy, work on “value-added” is scarce. In particular, no research addresses the value of domestic programmes to international NGOs. This article rectifies this, focusing on the case of Oxfam GB’s UK Poverty Programme (UKPP). Using empirical research from 35 interviews with Oxfam GB staff, partners and beneficiaries and over 150 archive documents, the article identifies seven assets through which the programme provides value added to Oxfam GB. It highlights the possibility that these could offer insights into the dimensions of future INGOs.

The Mozambique Eyecare Project was an international partnership to implement and research eye health education in Mozambique and the Africa region. An optometry degree was developed at Universidade Lúrio, Mozambique. In addition, existing eye health workers were upskilled with training. Researchers from various disciplines evaluated the project and its potential for impact on eye health in the region. The body of evidence generated from the research provides useful lessons for development programmes in general, as well as specific lessons for delivering eye health education and service delivery models for low-income settings.

This study assessed farmers’ perceptions of milk-collecting centres (MCCs) in the central and north-eastern regions of Thailand. MCCs can be divided into two groups, dairy cooperatives and private organisations. There were similar perceptions about the role of MCCs among the farmers regarding the basic needs of dairy farmers, but with a stronger focus of economic issues for private organisation members, while dairy cooperative members views were more from the perspective of ownership. The farmers were somewhat satisfied with their MCCs’ performance, except that private organisation farmers were less satisfied with credit services. Policy recommendations are presented.

This article investigates trust among dairy value-chain actors to understand the innovative process in a local productive sector in Tunisia. It uses a sample of 45 smallholder farmers chosen randomly nearby existing collection centres in the region. A trust variable is constructed employing 11 ordinal variables based on principal component analysis, and institutional arrangements then modelled to examine the effect of trust on contracting decisions and cooperative membership. The results show that trust is defined by values such as “integrity”, “competence”, and “existence of credible information”, which are preconditions to sustainable contracts. The article contributes to the growing literature which considers social capital, networking and trust as determinants of farmer’s behaviour, as opposed to the classical model of rationality.

The Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme was established in Ghana to tackle poverty, yet studies on LEAP yielded inconclusive results on its effects. This article reports on an assessment of the effects of LEAP on poverty reduction, using an “after-only” study design. Results suggest that beneficiaries saw improvement in food consumption, income levels, savings levels, access to healthcare, and school attendance following participation in LEAP. The study concludes that LEAP contributed to poverty reduction as it enhanced beneficiaries’ living conditions. It recommends that LEAP targeting be based on the Ghana National Household Registry’s database to eliminate inclusion errors.

The vast biocultural diversity of Tanah Papua (Land of Papua) are important resources for local economic development, especially where their sustainable use incorporates affirmative action to ensure that indigenous communities capture the resulting benefits. Papuan stakeholders already have their own detailed plans, and there are some success stories to instil confidence in the abilities of the indigenous peoples of Papua to lead their own development. Multi-stakeholder approaches are known to work well, and in this case, locally driven initiatives are also known to be promising. This viewpoint suggests the need for a balance between inclusive participation in multi-stakeholder programmes and the enhancement of locally driven initiatives.