This study analyses how strengths and weaknesses of economic, societal, political and environmental structures played out during the Covid-19 crisis in Africa since March 2020. Its main aim is to improve evidence on the direct and indirect effects of the pandemic on African countries and, based...

In the context of the global refugee crisis, trans-Saharan and trans-Mediterranean (irregular) migration from Africa to Europe has recently received huge public and political attention, particularly within Europe. Calls for reducing and containing irregular migrant flows and addressing the...

Social cohesion is key for sustainable development. While social cohesion has suffered in many societies from the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, high levels of social cohesion have helped to overcome critical situations during the pandemic in other societies. As a consequence, protecting...

How to assess impact in governance programmes successfully? This publication documents some practical lessons learnt on how to conduct rigorous impact assessments, with a special focus on governance interventions. The project “Wirkungsinitiative Afrika” of the German Development Institute /...

Global threats to democracy – one of the world’s most important forms of inclusive governance – have been rising recently. This paper assesses the effects of social and economic inequalities on autocratisation, meaning a decline in the democratic qualities of a political regime. The key...

Implementing the 2030 Agenda in an integrated way poses new challenges to political institutions and processes. In order to exploit synergies and to mitigate trade-offs between the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), innovative governance approaches are needed. National bodies to coordinate...

Wie kann die Wirkung von Governance-Programmen erfolgreich analysiert werden? In der vorliegenden Publikation dokumentieren die Autor/innen praxisorientierte und verallgemeinerbare Erkenntnisse über die Durchführung rigoroser Wirkungsanalysen in entwicklungspolitischen Governance-Programmen....

The EU has made democracy support a stronger aspect in its relations with African countries since 2002. However, a broad range of political and economic dynamics within as well as outside of Europe challenge democracy and its supporters: the rise of non-democratic countries such as China,...

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that, empirically, state fragility – con­ceptualised as a multi-dimensional phenomenon along the categories of authority, capacity and legitimacy – comes in several distinct configurations, yet that the number of such configurations is rather...