devinitorg/iati-policy-markers huggingface dataset:
Adaptation and mitigation strategies to cope with the effects of extreme heat in developing countries: implications for climate change. The increase in extreme temperatures associated to global warming and climate change are creating drastic effects at a planetary scale. These impacts seriously disrupt economic activities, particularly among the most vulnerable in the developing world, such as traditional farmers or low productivity informal workers in urban areas. Their ability to cope with environmental disruptions and to adapt to a changing climate can have strong implications in terms of vulnerable households' wellbeing.

The goal of the proposed research is to deepen our understanding on how environmental events associated with climate change affect income generating activities and individuals' subsequent adaptive behaviour in developing countries. Accounting for these responses is very important to obtain more precise estimates of the economic costs of climate change, to identify potential winners and losers, and to inform the design of context-specific mitigating policies. Research and development activity contributing to the UK’s strategy to address key development challenges.
Tackling Fire in Informal Urban Settlements: An Interdisciplinary Approach Around one billion people across the globe live in shack settlements. Many of these settlements are at constant risk of lethal fires, due to the use of flammable construction materials and contents, open flame lighting, heating and cooking methods, the close proximity of the shacks, and the lack of effective fire services, amongst other factors. Our project focuses on this problem in South Africa (specifically the Cape Town area) where shack fires are an everyday occurrence leading to death and injuries, displacement, and damage to property, possessions, businesses, and communities. Research and development activity contributing to the UK’s strategy to address key development challenges.
Economic Recovery in Post-Conflict Cities: the Role of the Urban Informal Economy The research explores the role of the urban informal economy (IE) in poverty-reduction and peace-building in post-conflict cities, and its scope to provide livelihoods for the extreme poor and a platform for economic recovery. With a focus on urban areas in post-civil war settings, and on cities affected by protest or on-going turf wars, the research explores the complex drivers of conflict and links to the IE, the structural and individual factors that support/inhibit growth of the IE, and the role of local government (LG) in post-conflict economic recovery.

Political upheaval or violent conflict is often characterised by a fundamental failure of governance and economic collapse. An immediate impact of crisis may be the destruction of livelihoods and local economies, leading to insecurity, poverty, and hunger, which in turn exacerbates insecurity and rights violations. A further problem is the failure of local governance and the provision of basic services in conflict-affected settings. Working in the IE is an important coping strategy in such contexts. Worldwide, the contribution of urban informal enterprises to GDP and jobs is substantial. Even when political stability is assured informality remains a structural characteristic of low-income economies, yet local and international policies see the IE only as a temporary solution. Post-conflict strategies should thus foster the IE, rather than dismiss its potential. Post-conflict recovery is a long and cyclical process and the research is based on case studies of cities with different drivers of conflict, those facing current unrest and those which have made a transition from conflict. The five case study cities have different experiences of conflict, including 'institutional' struggles for state control (Cairo and Kathmandu), 'economic' conflict over control of resources (Monrovia), 'social/political' control (Karachi) and 'emergent governance' (Hargeisa). Research and development activity contributing to the UK’s strategy to address key development challenges.
Indigeneity and Pathways through Higher Education in Mexico The social and economic disadvantage faced by Indigenous groups represents a significant global policy challenge. The world's 310 million Indigenous peoples, who largely live in Official Development Assistance (ODA) countries, face a poverty rate that is estimated to be twice that of the non-Indigenous population, as well as poorer health and education outcomes, and a lack of recognition of their rights. In terms of addressing this policy challenge, many countries have developed pioneering social policies in health, welfare, employment, and more recently in higher education. Little is known about how innovations in higher education policy, including diversified forms of higher education provision, are affecting the social and economic development of Indigenous peoples, including the relative benefit of policies that seek to assimilate (by programmes of affirmative action) or separate Indigenous youth (into universities designed specifically for them). Underlying policy development, we can identify two competing discourses, a collectivising one on Indigenous knowledge and identities, and an individualising one of skills development and labour market entry. These both represent distinct values, politics, and methods, as well as real tensions in the needs of Indigenous peoples. This project stands at the conjunction of these discourses and will seek to critically question how different types of university impact on Indigenous groups both socially and instrumentally, through focussing on the Mexican case. Mexico represents the ideal internationally relevant case study given its pioneering role developing new kinds of university provision designed specifically for Indigenous groups ('intercultural universities'). We examine how the type of university attended impacts on Indigenous student experiences, skills/knowledge acquired, and identifications across different social domains. The proposal has been developed in partnership with the Mexican Ministry of Education, Indigenous community development NGOs, UNESCO, and the Mexican National Association for Universities and Higher Education. Research and development activity contributing to the UK’s strategy to address key development challenges.
AFLA - Assessment for Learning in Africa: Improving Pedagogy and Assessment for Numeracy in Foundation Years The low level of numeracy skills of millions of poor and marginalised students, particularly in developing nations, is of international concern. This project focuses on improving these through developing teachers' and teacher trainers' pedagogical and assessment skills in extremely deprived urban areas in South Africa and Tanzania. Eighteen schools and three training colleges will be involved.
Our approach is to develop classroom materials for primary school numeracy and use these as the basis for workshops and for the development of teacher learning communities in each area. The workshops will focus on how formative assessment ('Assessment for Learning') can be used to enhance the quality of the teaching and learning of numeracy. The aim is to improve teachers' own numeracy skills and their understanding of how numeracy can be more effectively communicated to their students. The workshops and teacher learning communities will draw on the extensive experience which has been generated by the implementation of Assessment for Learning internationally. One task for participants will be to adapt this experience to the limited resources of schools in slum areas (for example, large classes and few materials). Research and development activity contributing to the UK’s strategy to address key development challenges.
Delivering Inclusive Financial Development and Growth The aim of this research is to identify workable policies to help make the financial sector an effective instrument in promoting financial inclusion and sustained growth in LICs, and consequently create an enabling environment for transitioning these countries to middle income status. We will provide a set of answers to ALL THREE critical questions posed in the Call for Proposals concerning i) the role of international capital flows in growth and development, ii) the design and provision of institutional frameworks to support financial development, and iii) the ways in which financial systems can help generate and transmit technical change in the economy as a whole.

To achieve this ambitious goal, the project will be structured into four clusters on 1) institutional framework for inclusive growth, 2) capital flows, 3) technological diffusion, and 4) a cluster which will run in parallel to the other three to synthesise findings in order to derive meaningful policy recommendations and drive tangible global impact. Component II of the programme is planned to focus on additional policy-oriented issues, and will be developed in tangent with DFID policymakers, the ESRC and other national and international academics and end-user stakeholders, and will be run in partnership with the Africa Growth Initiative at the Brookings Institute, US. Research and development activity contributing to the UK’s strategy to address key development challenges.
Joint Fund for Poverty Alleviation - Phase 3 - Poverty Annual Knowledge Event Delhi The conference was focused on the ESRC DFID Joint Fund for Poverty Alleviation as it approaches its final phase. This was an ESRC DFID event coordinated by The Impact Initiative with logistical assistance from Gung Ho event management services. This was a valedictory activity designed to both capture learning from the Fund, help secure its legacy and provide phase 3 and Development Frontiers grant holders support to maximise the impact of their research. This builded on the Joint Fund ten year anniversary in Pretoria held in 2015 which was also supported by the then new Impact Initiative. Held in Dehli. Research and development activity contributing to the UK’s strategy to address key development challenges.
Supporting the social mobility of trapped populations in very poor urban areas This project investigates when migration from rural to urban areas becomes a pathway into poverty and how policy can support rural-urban migrants to access urban opportunities and escape from poverty. There are three central questions. First, research considers under what circumstances rural-urban migration presents an opportunity for poor people and what factors contribute to them becoming 'trapped'. Second, the project investigates the relationship between physical and socio-economic mobility. This will consider both mobility within the city and ongoing connections with migrants' rural households. It focuses particularly on migrants' own perspectives of what they consider to be successful integration in the city. Finally, the project assesses the attitudes of city government and other significant actors, such as community organisations, police, NGOs and international organisations. This will focus on ways in which these institutions facilitate or prevent new migrants integrating into city life. Research and development activity contributing to the UK’s strategy to address key development challenges.
Multilingualism and Multiliteracy: Raising learning outcomes in challenging contexts in primary schools across India This innovative project examines the causes of low educational outcomes in schools in India where many children fail to achieve basic literacy and numeracy levels, while dropout rates, affecting girls more than boys, are very high. A starting point of this research is that bilingualism and multilingualism have revealed cognitive advantages and good learning skills in children raised in western societies. Multilingualism is the norm in India. However, rather than enjoying cognitive and learning advantages, multilingual Indian children show low levels of basic learning skills including critical thinking and problem-solving. This project is innovative in seeking to disentangle the causes of this paradox.
The project builds on Tsimpli's large scale (600K) EU-funded THALES bilingualism project which assessed cognitive and language abilities of 700+ children in five different countries, expanding this project into numeracy, critical thinking and problem solving in multilingual children which are key elements in the Indian context. The PI and co-Is have been preparing this application for the last two years in conjunction with the current project partners and consultants in India with 20k. Funding from the British Council and 3k funding from the Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism at the University of Reading. Research and development activity contributing to the UK’s strategy to address key development challenges.
Investing in our Future: The Early Childhood Intervention and Parental Involvement in Bangladesh Our project sets out to investigate the impact of several novel programs targeting both pre-school children and their parents, with the goal of improving both short- and long-term outcomes of rural children in Bangladesh. Past research, such as that on the Perry Preschool Program, has demonstrated that the return to investment in high quality childhood education is substantial and that this is especially true for families from disadvantaged backgrounds. However, the vast majority of these programs are currently found in developed countries and it is uncertain whether these types of intensive programs can be effectively run in a poor developing country. Other research has shown that parenting skills are potentially as crucial as formal early life educational programs for child development. Again, this evidence is mainly from developed countries and no research has examined if this is true in the context of developing countries where many poor families have limited education themselves. Recent work has also shown that parental stress is a particularly important impediment to investments in children among the poor. Some researchers have argued that other investments, such as those in formal education, are unlikely to have benefits if parents are constantly worried about day-to-day stressors. Research and development activity contributing to the UK’s strategy to address key development challenges.
SLOW DESIGN DRIVEN INNOVATION: DEVELOPING A BUSINESS MODEL FOR GLOCALISED ENTERPRISES SLOW DESIGN DRIVEN INNOVATION: DEVELOPING A BUSINESS MODEL FOR GLOCALISED ENTERPRISES. This research will directly impact Vietnamese slow design groups who have selfidentified as lacking appropriate business models which encompass the values which their industries promote. Research and development activity contributing to the UK’s strategy to address key development challenges.
Digital livelihoods? The online gig economy and the future of decent refugee work in cities This project aims to have a positive impact on the future of decent refugee work in the online gig economy, with a focus on refugees in urban areas. Lebanon – an Upper Middle Income Country – will thus directly benefit from the outcomes of this project. Secondly, due to the high numbers of forcibly displaced persons from Syria currently living in Beirut, and the resulting relevance of this project for this particular population, the project will also be indirectly beneficial to Syria, and directly beneficial to Syrians living in exile. The labour markets in urban areas of Lebanon have been under severe pressure since the Syrian mass displacement, resulting in restrictions on Syrian labour to a limited number of economic sectors. Access to fair and just work is thus very scarce for Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Yet, ‘Decent Work’ is a key pillar of the global sustainable development agenda, with particular endorsement by the International Labour Organization, with which this project collaborates. At a time of widespread mass displacement with uncertain economic futures for many displaced families and individuals, the need for decent work as a key component of sustainable development necessarily includes the need for fair and decent work among registered refugees. By looking at the particular risks and opportunities that are provided by the growing online gig economy in Beirut among refugees, this project is directly relevant to key development challenges of Lebanon, with special regard to displaced persons living in the country. Secondly, digital labour may provide new opportunities for linking informal refugee labour with a positive impact on displaced persons’ re-integration in the home country, once safe return has become possible. The project is therefore directly relevant to the development challenges a post-crisis Syria will be facing, especially in terms of its labour market and its economy. The activities and outputs, and the pathway to impact this project follows, are designed to promote more just and equitable forms of economic development in Lebanon and beyond, mainly through offering a better understanding of the development-related impact of digitally mediated refugee labour. The project will contribute to better labour market policies that take refugees’ complex economic lives into account. Though its outputs and partnerships (with the ILO), it will also reach diverse policy actors and seeks to influence their policies through research. One example for this is the production of a policy paper in collaboration with the ILO, with a focus on just digital refugee work. Research and development activity contributing to the UK’s strategy to address key development challenges.
Learning on the streets. Urban youth and vending in Zimbabwe Existing scholarship on political socialization has predominantly generated knowledge on 'socialization mechanisms' in Western settings and emphasizes the role of family, schooling and civic associations. Research in Africa has, however, mainly looked at the socialization of violent youth in/into gangs and violent extremism. The proposed project will fill an important gap in knowledge by focusing on youth that are not mobilized into violence, and by developing a new conceptual framework for studying political socialization of African, urban youth. The project will contribute to theories of political socialization by conceptualising how participation in informal networks in the informal economy shapes political learning. This conceptual framework can be used in future research, thus contributing to theory in the field of youth studies. The project will also contribute to the fields of international development and African politics through the analysis of informal networks in African cities.

The study will be carried out in Zimbabwe, where many unemployed youth in cities work as informal vendors. Some networks of vendors are regulated by city councils, while other networks are regulated informally by the ruling party. The recent change in political leadership in November 2017 presents a unique opportunity to explore how informal networks among vendors contribute to their political socialization. This study will compare networks of second-hand clothes vendors that are regulated by the city council with networks that are regulated by actors linked to the party. It will study how these political actors promote ideas and behaviours through these networks, and how this affects the political ideas and behaviours that vendors acquire. The study will use qualitative research methods that have been designed to generate robust data; are exciting and interesting to young people; and are safe and feasible within the political context of Zimbabwe: participatory and visual methods, interviews, focus group discussions, and observation. The project will first focus on understanding the nature of informal vending networks and how they are regulated. The project will then focus on understanding how informal networks function as sites for political socialization, and the kind of political ideas and behaviours young vendors adopt as a result. The study pays attention to the gendered experiences in these networks, and whether differences in educational and economic backgrounds matter for political socialization. The project will produce academic outputs (three articles in high-ranking journals and a book proposal) and outputs for civil society and donors in order to improve their programmes (Handbook for civil society and training, donor roundtable, online scrollify, a webinar) that will be promoted widely through the networks of project partners. Research and development activity contributing to the UK’s strategy to address key development challenges.
Promoting Children's Learning Outcomes in Conflict-Affected Countries: Evidence for Action in Niger Children in conflict-affected countries (CACs) experience profound constraints on their academic learning and socioemotional well-being. Children exposed to violence and poverty come to "school" (formal or non-formal education settings) with poor executive function skills (e.g. working memory, inhibition, attention), emotional/behavioral regulation skills and social-information-processing skills. And the formal and non-formal "schools" they attend rarely use effective strategies to advance their academic and socioemotional skills.

What can be done? This project aims to develop both scientific and practical knowledge about how to lift these constraints on children in CACs like Niger. First, we propose to adapt and test novel, low-cost, targeted interventions (LCTs) like Mindfulness (MI) and Brain Games (BG) designed to improve children's executive function, emotional/behavioral regulation and social information-processing skills and, subsequently, their literacy and numeracy skills and socioemotional well-being.

Second, even when interventions like MI and BG work, they often work better for some children, in some classrooms and schools, and under some conditions than for others. So this study will examine whether variability in the quality of implementation (e.g. dosage, fidelity) of MI and BG results in the variability in their impacts on children's learning and development in Niger.

Third and finally, these types of complex interactions among students, teachers, "schools" and program interventions (like remedial support programs) are embedded in larger systems and broader contexts that may constrain or enable quality implementation of program strategies (such as MI and BG). But there is very little high-quality, rigorous research, grounded in social and systems theories, available in CACs to understand how these higher-level systems influence the dynamic interactions of schools, programs, classrooms, teachers and students. So we will conduct a theory-building qualitative study embedded in the school cluster-randomized field test of MI and BG and their implementation. Research and development activity contributing to the UK’s strategy to address key development challenges.
Urgent Invite - Unravelling the Mediterranean Migration Crisis (MEDMIG) The research aims to better understand the dynamics of migration in the Mediterranean region by providing the first large-scale, systematic and comparative study of the backgrounds, experiences, aspirations and routes of migrants in four European countries (Italy, Greece, Malta and Turkey) gathered from 550 migrants who have recently arrived and 100 stakeholders. The research pushes the theoretical and conceptual boundaries of migration studies, encouraging critical reflexive dialogue and practice by opening new and inclusive spaces for questioning and challenging established ways of categorising and thinking about with the Mediterranean migration crisis. In so doing it will create opportunities for increased policy dialogue and academic collaboration between the case study countries - and across the EU more generally - around the evidence gathered. Research and development activity contributing to the UK’s strategy to address key development challenges.