Working Paper Fragility at the Local Level

This paper is an introduction to available literature on local democratic governance in fragile settings with an emphasis on contexts marked by protracted violent conflict. In this paper the term ‘fragile settings’ is used as it covers fragile states as well as regions within countries that experience state fragility. First the challenges to local governance in fragile settings are introduced drawing on three debates; fragile states and state-reconstruction, decentralisation, and participato...

Workshop 24th of November: local governance in fragile states

On the 24th of November, HIVOS, PSO, ICCO and IDS organize a workshop on participatory governance in fragile states. Jon Gaventa (IDS) will introduce key issues and then it’s over to the participants. So if you have insights to share or issues for discussion, this is an opportunity not to be missed.

Reconsidering Human Security

This workshop to be held on 28 and 29 May (UK) aims to ground discussion of human security in the lived experience of those who suffer insecurity. Since security tends to be unequally distributed, it will explicitly address questions of equality, rights and social justice. It will also ask how human security is framed in different cultural, regional and national contexts. It will consider whether human security is at risk of becoming a hegemonic discourse in the conceptual arsenal of the inte...

Background & Objectives

  This project focuses on forms of civic engagement and mechanisms that facilitate interactions between local level state institutions and social actors in the specific context of a post-conflict setting. It concentrates on different forms of social organisation, the crucial social-political factors for engagement, and the characteristics of state institutions that affect the available space for this engagement.