International Development Research Centre

As countries in South Asia move toward greater economic integration, a range of interconnected challenges to constitutional and human rights guarantees are emerging. These challenges revolve around established norms, gender-based violence, poor justice delivery mechanisms, and inconsistent legal practices and protections. Together, these factors produce distinct patterns of violent conflict, social and cultural inequalities, structural injustices, and governance gaps across the region. The Justice Project brings together prominent documentary film-makers, senior scholars, and practitioners to document the state of justice in the region. It will produce research papers and five films in Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and India on violent conflict and its aftermath; conflict and gender-based violence; justice delivery systems; group conflict, public space, and state order; and land, conflict, and the nation state. These films and papers aim to influence public policy and raise public awareness about the importance of challenging impunity in conflict and post-conflict contexts.

The COVID-19 pandemic, like climate change and other major threats, is pervasive worldwide. This recognition is at the core of the UN’s 2030 Agenda and embedded within each of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Yet a clear understanding of our shared threats and the means to mitigate them is less well developed. This is in part because the required structures for government science advice are often weak or absent, particularly in the Global South. Since 2014, the International Network for Government Science Advice (INGSA) has been at the vanguard of global efforts to instil evidence-based policymaking by drawing on national science systems as a major part of efforts to advance the SDGs. These efforts included a three-year IDRC-funded initiative from 2017 to support research, training, and networking in the Global South, under the auspices of the International Science Council. In 2020, INGSA’s work has taken a new and urgent turn in the context of the COVID-19 global pandemic, acting as a conduit between national public health agencies and research organizations and establishing a platform of information sharing and data collection about how related policy decisions are being made. This project will build on INGSA’s earlier work involving the Global South and on its initial efforts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will focus on ideas, institutions, individuals, and modes of integration that can greatly enhance how science advice occurs in Asia, Latin America, and Africa, with an emphasis on responses to the pandemic and to emergencies more generally. It will support a comprehensive comparative study of COVID-19 responses through original research, including the creation of a new global platform for tracking related policies as well as “deep-dive” case studies. This will help governments better prepare for transnational crises by using high-quality scientific evidence. In parallel, the project will pilot a regional network of high-level science advisors linked to a policy intelligence platform for Southeast Asia and explore scaling out possibilities for other regions. Finally, it will rely on INGSA’s three regional chapters in Asia, Latin America, and Africa to generate new knowledge and regional insights, promote science advice to policymakers, and integrate information across regions, with an early emphasis on COVID-19.

IDRC is committed to developing a critical mass of trained and experienced researchers and innovators in Canada and in low- and middle-income countries to promote sustainable and inclusive development globally. This project will nurture emerging leaders in the application of research to contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, and particularly to achieve the development outcome areas of interest to IDRC. It will fund both academic study and hands-on experience. Some awards will enable doctoral students at Canadian universities to conduct field research in developing countries (accounting for post-COVID-19 contexts as appropriate). Other awards will offer graduates a program of training in research, research management, and grant administration, under the guidance of IDRC program staff. The project will support training and research awards for some 35 Canadians and developing country nationals. In 2020, the project will also manage a new initiative, the David Hopper Prizes for Leadership in Research for Development, which will recognize two IDRC-supported researchers for whom IDRC funding has been foundational to their career.

Climate and Resilience (CLARE) is a partnership co-funded by IDRC and the UK’s Department for International Development. CLARE selected a group of recently closed or near to closing IDRC-supported research programs to further develop and scale their results for greater impact. The selected recipients are expected to participate in a mid-term learning review in late 2020 to reflect on their efforts to achieve scaling and research uptake. One of these recipients is the Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA). This project integrates results from CARIAA by supporting three initiatives in South Asia with strong potential for scaling or research uptake for greater impact. The first initiative focuses on scaling adaptation trials to inform climate financing in Bangladesh. The research will build upon earlier CARIAA results to evaluate the suitability of a set of adaptation options and work with government departments to develop an adaptation funding proposal to invest in and scale promising strategies and increase resilience in coastal Bangladesh. The second initiative focuses on reducing the health risks of rising temperatures in India. The team will follow up on CARIAA pilot studies to assess the effectiveness of the first year of India’s heat stress warning campaign. Working with the Indian Meteorological Department, it will prepare tailored heat stress advice for 50 rural villages. The third initiative will identify pathways for climate-resilient development in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region. The team will map outcomes, explore the effectiveness of livelihood innovations piloted in four countries under CARIAA, and critically examine the opportunities for scaling, creating climate resilient development pathways, and integrating promising strategies into adaptation planning. Expected results include contributions to knowledge through peer-reviewed publications, contributions to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s sixth assessment report, policy-oriented outputs, and practice through strategic engagement and research-into-use activities. It will also strengthen collaboration amongst the network of researchers previously engaged in CARIAA.

Water-induced disasters (WID) in Nepal are becoming more frequent and severe in recent years due to environmental, climatic, developmental, and social factors. Women, children, and the elderly are usually the most adversely affected. Although disaster risk management plans exist, the focus is largely on rescue and relief, rather than strengthening pre-disaster preparations and planning. A number of legal, institutional, and policy frameworks have been established, such as the newly promulgated constitution, which has made provisions for disaster management at all levels of government. However, there is a gap between policy and practice. Moreover, measures to deal with climate change and disasters continue to operate in separate silos. This project attempts to address these concerns by undertaking applied research on the drivers of WID to better understand the various vulnerabilities, and by examining linkages between WID, climate change, and variables that affect vulnerabilities such as gender and migration. The project will use the knowledge generated to inform WID and climate change adaptation policies and programs and develop, prioritize, and test pilot interventions through a multi-stage participatory planning approach with local communities. It will also collaborate with sub-national bodies to develop strategies to help scale up gender-transformative adaptation plans to increase local communities’ resilience to climate change and water-induced hazards. Finally, it will build the capacity of local stakeholders from communities, government agencies, and local academic institutions to mainstream gender in WID and climate change plans and policies, particularly for younger and early-career researchers and policymakers. Research outputs include peer-reviewed publications, technical reports, disaster risk management and climate change adaptation plans, and policy briefs. A variety of communications products will be developed to communicate research findings to policymakers and other relevant stakeholders. In order to achieve the intended outcomes of the project, these outputs will be institutionalized through collaborative engagements with local governments to help them develop gender-transformative planning and implementation for WID and climate change adaptation.

Global supply chains are an engine of economic growth and job creation for many countries in South Asia. However, they can also be sources of inequality and social exclusion in the absence of sound employment policies and practices. Failures at different levels within global supply chains lead to serious problems in working conditions, particularly for those workers at the bottom of the chain. The most vulnerable tend to be dependent outworkers, the majority of whom are women who work in off-site facilities, often their own homes. As “homeworkers” they are less likely to be recognized as workers entitled to social protection or skills development, and they lack bargaining power. This project examines the employment relationships and working conditions of homeworkers in global supply chains in India and Nepal. It will provide evidence on key issues faced by this disadvantaged category of workers within global supply chains and contribute to policy reforms towards decent jobs for them. The project will undertake advocacy and awareness campaigns with the different stakeholders, especially the global companies and local authorities, harnessing their collaboration throughout the project; collect and analyze data on employment relationships and working conditions of homeworkers; and undertake capacity building and outreach activities for key stakeholders to disseminate the results of the study in a way that promotes action and policy reforms. HomeNet South Asia Trust, a network of home-based workers’ organizations, will lead the project in partnership with the Indian Institute for Human Settlements.