Thinking and working politically is an approach to manoeuvring within social and political realities to achieve development goals, which some see as a new orthodoxy [Teskey 2017. Thinking and Working Politically: Are We Seeing the Emergence of a Second Orthodoxy? Governance Working Paper Series, Issue 1. Massachusetts: Abt Associates]. This research explores the practice of thinking and working politically in the Pacific, through in-depth interviews and observation with nine Pacific Islander staff working within a bilateral aid programme in Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, and Solomon Islands. The findings provide a rich description of what thinking and working politically entails in small, highly connected island communities, with insights into how these processes can be supported in official aid programmes. Highlights This research unpacks thinking and working politically from the unique perspective of Pacific staff working in a bilateral aid programme. Thinking politically involves knowing the context, who to work with, and when to act. Working politically entails good communication, intuition, flexibility, influence, connecting people, and “playing different cards” at appropriate moments. Building and maintaining relationships is the cornerstone of thinking and working politically but is not always valued by within aid programmes. Moving away from political analysis as donor-led, intelligence-gathering exercises towards investment in locally led processes necessitates genuinely valuing relational work.

This research aims to identify the impact of COVID 19 and monsoon floods on rural Bangladesh communities and assess their coping behaviour. Data were collected through an in-depth study. The findings reveal that char(shoal) dwellers and riverbank communities were more affected due to unexpected floods than coronavirus infections with poor access to health, less knowledge of hygiene, no risk reduction measures, or any suitable coping strategies. Furthermore, the result shows that traditional livelihood sources like fishing, ferrying passengers by boat, borrowing money from affluent relatives, or food loans, selling livestock, etc., were usual. Local authorities were mostly inactive in alleviating suffering.

This study explores whether the arrangement for innovative agriculture is fulfilled in the Ethiopian context as perceived by key stakeholder groups, district-level experts, development agents (DAs), and smallholder farmers. A structural–functional analysis framework was used to guide our assumptions. Quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection and analysis were applied. Our findings revealed weak structural elements and poor functional activities arrangements in the zone and significant differences among key stakeholder groups, district-level experts, DAs, and farmers’ perceptions. Particularly, grassroots-level participants (DAs and farmers) enumerated several factors for poor implementation of innovative agriculture in their locality: poor coordination, shortage of competent human resources, budget constraints, and poor infrastructure, among others. To implement innovative agriculture that can benefit the smallholder farming community, therefore, Ethiopia needs to strengthen the arrangements of structural elements and functional activities at the grassroots levels.

The gendered impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women and girls has deepened pre-existing gender inequalities and gender-based violence. Research conducted between February and May 2021 with partner organisations in Somalia/Somaliland, Ethiopia, and Kenya was able to add more evidence to the growing acknowledgement that COVID-19 has triggered an increase in the prevalence of FGM. Furthermore, the research highlighted the urgent need for responses to FGM and other forms of violence against women and girls to be integrated as part of the development response to pandemics. The article points to a need to look more closely at how and why changes in harmful mindsets happen. The findings reveal that unless change is triggered by strong convictions to respect the rights of girls, it is highly fragile and unlikely to be sustained.

The article describes the genesis and application of a training programme for analytical and research skills for NGOs in the ex-soviet republics of Central Asia. This modular course was used in different programme contexts (civil society support, poverty reduction, conflict resolution) in a fast changing external environment. The article presents the aims, methodology, types of participants, and local research studies produced. It discusses the challenges in encouraging open-ended analysis while at the same time focusing on realistic action research studies, and how the programme supported a community of practice and small advocacy projects to lobby and disseminate results.

The number of empirical studies focusing on NGO accountability practices remains limited. This paper responds to this gap. It presents the accountability practices identified in an empirical study of a nongovernmental development programme in Tanzania. Drawing on data collected through field work and analysed through coding, visualisations, and detailed descriptions, this study observed how practices constituting this development programme were held together by accountability practices. This paper analyses these accountability practices: (a) prescribing–reporting–verifying, (b) measuring, (c) contracting, and (d) capacity building, learning, and acting together. It demonstrates how these accountability practices facilitate the coordination of this development programme.

Gender inequality encompasses a myriad of overlapping social norms, legal and cultural structures and practices that disadvantage a group based on gender (European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE). 2020. Glossary and Thesaurus: Definition Gender Inequality. EIGE. Accessed April 4, 2020. https://eige.europa.eu/thesaurus/terms/1182). As the development agenda moves forward across the globe, approaches to address gender inequality have expanded and become more innovative. In this research project, the Centre for Samoan Studies (CSS) collaborated with researchers in other academic units at the National University of Samoa (NUS) and spearheaded a short film training and competition on gender issues in Samoa in 2018. This paper explores the organisation of the project and issues which emerged.

Understanding “what works” for capacity development support in an international development setting remains an important area for operational research. This mixed-methods study explored this topic within a global programme that supports civil society organisations in fifteen countries to secure the health and human rights of marginalised and underserved populations. Taking a complex adaptive systems approach, and seeking to understand the phenomena from the “receiver” perspective, the study found that the programme fostered the development of four interconnected domains of capacity through a reflexive, user-led approach. These capacity gains could be linked, although not causally, to important programmatic achievements for the programme’s focus populations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a global economic crisis, including in Indonesia, demonstrating the vulnerability of the country's economic structure. However, the crisis may offer an opportunity to “build back better” and transition to a greener economy. Using qualitative data analysis, this study aims to analyse contemporary issues on green economy implementation in Indonesia. The authors found that transitioning to a green economy has been included in the national constitution and the 2020–2024 development plan. However, the economic recovery program does little to address environmental issues, demonstrating a lack of consistency between planning and implementation despite the pandemic. The country's economy still heavily depends on extractive sectors and primary commodities that negatively affect the environment. The opportunity to strengthen the green economy, which included the infusion of a sizeable government stimulus, was not fully utilised. This study suggests several policy options to promote green-economy transition including attracting green investment to Indonesia, switching from primary to secondary and tertiary commodities, suspending incentives for the extractive sectors and coal-fired power plants, and maintaining policy and regulation consistency related to the green economy.

This review explores the potential for a conjunction between Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) and Unconditional Cash Transfers (UCT) to intensify development outcomes. ABCD is a community-driven, bottom-up development model that focuses on empowering the poor. UCT is a centralised, top-down, income distribution programme critical in alleviating poverty. Following an overview of the principles, main outcomes, and critiques of these two different development approaches, we present how ABCD and UCT could support one another to improve development. We base our theory upon the fact that both methods can work in a synergistic manner and palliate each other's weaknesses.