Social Responsibility: What Africa’s Working Women Want from Multinationals

What do working women in the developing world want – and how can overseas firms they work for help to improve their lives and promote their advancement? At a time when women in the developed world are rebelling against the harassment and power imbalances that have kept them down for decades, the voices of working women in Africa and other emerging markets are more rarely heard. Yet they too have a lot to say – and the rewards to companies for listening are real, in worker satisfaction and fuller use of available talent.

We found out what women workers in Ghana in three sectors – information technology, garments, and mining – want for their lives and from their employers. This came from polling and focus groups we conducted for Business for Social Responsibility as part of a broader examination of the needs and views of African working women. Although the survey was small – four focus groups and 150 women polled – the research was in-depth. We think the results were revealing. They offer firms a starting point for companies thinking about social responsibility policies towards their employees, and not just in a small country in West Africa. They reflect attitudes and concerns that are likely to be felt by many women throughout the continent and in lower middle-income countries elsewhere. .

Our most important finding was this: as economic actors, the women in the various sectors in the study inhabit the same world – and it is our world. A common set of experiences and concerns unite working women in Ghana. There are differences among women in these sectors, to be sure, but these are outweighed to a considerable extent by the similarities.

They are ambitious and upwardly mobile. They are connected, with mobile phones and internet access. They want more education and training. They’re interested in moving up within their company or becoming entrepreneurs, many hoping to keep a relationship with their current industry by linking into the supply chains of their firm.

The extent to which their jobs have positively impacted the lives of these women workers is both striking yet also familiar.

Their economic progress is matched by a significant degree of progress towards gender equality. They have considerable say at home with respect to the disposition of their earnings and their bodies.

However, Ghana’s women still face the burdens of poverty and gender inequity. Even though their country is the envy of others in Africa for its development record, economic existence for many is precarious. Many still have difficulty making ends meet. Only a few have a permanent contract with their employers. At work a variety of economic and personal factors hold them back, mostly ones that women in the developed world would recognize. Despite their aspirations for social mobility, they have little experience of credit, training in entrepreneurship, or support from their employers.

Moreover, Ghanaian working women face various concerns in and outside the workplace. These include sexual harassment, health care access and costs, childcare, transport, and housing. Yet they express a lack of faith in government to address pressing needs so they will look to their employers to fill the gap.

There are, of course, some differences between the sectors, due in part to the demographics of their work forces. Women in ICT are a comparatively privileged grouping, those in garments are young strivers, while mining attracts a poorer and more narrowly focused female labor force.

Younger women, too, stand out from older women in several ways. They are better educated, more financially self-sufficient, self-confident in speaking up to bosses and harassers, and interested in getting started in the job and housing markets. They are the keenest on education, training, and business development opportunities. Yet here, too, it is worth noting that most of these are differences in degree rather than opposing views.

So what can companies do to help them – and help themselves? The women’s top priorities for business action included:

• Better pay and benefits, and job stability: particularly for non-permanent employees.
• Sexual harassment: Abuse hotlines
• Health and childcare: Free on-site medical care, flex time for mothers
• Education and training: More training opportunities at work, in and outside working hours
• Entrepreneurship: Incubator space and low-interest credit for startups
• Transport: Employer-provided transport to and from work
• Housing: Low-cost rental housing

If companies pay attention to these requests, they will reap dividends. Some will come in cash, to be sure, thanks to better morale, greater productivity, lower turnover, and better use of under-utilized talent. Others will be less tangible but also important gains in community acceptance, corporate image, and a more supportive business environment.

The full report is available by clicking here

There are well-known reports on corruption issues – but they are not much use if you’re struggling with the specific problems facing particular companies, industries, or jurisdictions.  The best-known measures of corruption focus on reputations, not behavior; the public sector, not private business; and general, national-level information, not the granular detail needed for policy or enforcement.  Moreover, studies evaluating anti-corruption efforts — tracking their results and revealing problems — are exceedingly rare. 

There is a solution that can give you solid, reliable information on corruption and compliance: the right kind of survey research.  Surveys are the best way to measure the extent of concerns and zero in on the places where they are most serious.  After you institute compliance programs, they are the most persuasive source of evidence that they are working.  This article will explain how you can use surveys to gain vital information on corruption and compliance that can decide the success or failure of your project or program.  Without them, anti-corruption efforts are based largely on guesswork and hope.

Corruption:  The Known Unknown

Everyone knows corruption is pervasive in many emerging markets, yet specifics are hard to find.  The principal information source on corruption worldwide is published by Transparency International, the Corruption Perceptions Index.   Focused on misconduct in government, it draws on surveys of perceptions of government corruption and the likelihood of companies in particular countries to offer bribes to officials.  To provide an accurate picture of corruption, behavioral data — what actually happens — is far more useful than reputational information – what people think happens.  Unfortunately, TI asks no questions regarding company behavior, and its sole behavioral measure is a poll question as to whether citizens have paid bribes to any government officials anywhere.  Consequently, little information is provided on corrupt practices within companies or in marketing within the private sector.  Moreover, even regarding official corruption, results are available only at the national level, not broken out by sector, region, or even affected level of government or ministry.

Yet surveys can be highly effective in revealing improper or improved behavior, because people will disclose it if they can do so safely and anonymously.  Within an organization, if some workers are stealing or breaking the rules, there are usually others among their peers who are left out or annoyed by this.  When companies pay bribes as part of doing business, many executives will discuss this in a survey, either because they see it as normal or feel unhappy at being shaken down.  Ordinary citizens required to make illicit payments resent this and are often anxious to speak out about this.  The key is assuring them that the interview really is anonymous and will protect their privacy. 

Diagnosing the Problem: the Four Flows of Corruption

Analysis of corruption should begin by identifying which of the four principal avenues for corruption is in question.

• Employee misconduct (theft, procedural violations, favoritism) – we call this work force-business malpractice, or WFB corruption.
• Marketing to other firms is tainted by payments, gifts, or kickbacks – this is business to business or B2B corruption.
• Government officials receive payment or gifts from businesses – that is business to government or B2G corruption.
• Citizens pay bribes or give gifts to officials – this is citizen to government or C2G corruption.

Each of these can be revealed by an appropriate survey methodology.

Misdeeds by the workforce (WFB corruption) can be measured by a workforce survey. 

Below you see the results of a staff survey in a large firm with dozens of divisions (with the names changed, of course).  (See Fig. 1) The proportions of staff who saw records falsified ranges from 11% to 2%, while the proportion who did not report misconduct varies from 66% to 36%.  One unit, in A-town, is among the worst scorers on both measures.  This kind of survey makes it possible to assess problems overall and target the areas where they are worst.

Figure 1. Malpractice in a company.

This survey was done online, which makes it easy to give all the firm’s personnel a chance to participate.  Many people also feel more confidence in the anonymity of a survey administered by computer than in one where they speak to an interviewer face-to-face or by phone.

Corrupt practices in marketing (B2B corruption) are trackable via business surveys.  Business people tend to regard providing or receiving illicit payments or gifts in order to do business as a nuisance at best and a source of shame at worst.  In our experience they have been willing to discuss this, particularly where the problem is worst.  Surveys of both sellers and buyers are useful in this regard.  It’s particularly useful to compare the results; where they agree, as they tend to, you have confirmation of a problem.  

Business payments to government officials (B2G corruption) also can be followed by business surveys. The same principle applies here, even more strongly:  business people don’t like to be shaken down.

Figure 2.  B2G Corruption

For example,   in our survey of companies in Afghanistan, 55% said they had to pay bribes or give gifts to officials to stay in business

Few – just 6% — refused to respond to the question.  Moreover, they were even willing to be specific about the amounts and recipients. 

Nearly one-fourth said that bribes took up more than 10% of their business costs.  Local government and customs officials the worst offenders.  With this sort of data, it becomes possible to plan and prioritize anti-corruption efforts.  (If you’d like to see more data on corruption from the survey this chart is drawn from, have a look at our Afghan business survey.)

Surveys of citizens can paint a portrait of corruption in officials’ interactions with the public (C2G corruption).  Even more than business people, citizens tend to resent demands from officials with their hands out for payment.  (The notion that the public regards these as “user fees” for public services is largely a myth.)  As long as they feel it is safe, they are happy to discuss bribery.  Thus, for instance, while corruption is widely considered a problem in the Muslim world, our comparative surveys showed big differences in its incidence between countries.  Just one in eight Indonesians and one in six Pakistanis said they had to bribe and official in the previous year, compared to nearly two-thirds of Algerians and seven out of ten Iraqis. 

Surveys of the behavior of workers, businesses, and citizens thus represent vital diagnostic tools for anti-corruption programs of every sort.  Unlike vague surveys focused on reputation, they make it possible to measure the extent of problems as well as to learn their severity and identify the specific areas or organizations that pose the greatest problem.  In this way, they are essential management tools for developing and planning anti-corruption work.

Assessing Compliance: Identifying Program Impact

After compliance programs have commenced, surveys are the best way to show if they are making a difference – a big concern for compliance officers.  Corrupt practices, and even more, procedural violations, normally occur within large organizations which are not very transparent.  Proving that even a well-intentioned and well-designed program is making the difference which decision-makers or regulators seek can be very difficult.  But surveys can help here too. 

The same sort of research that reveals the extent of problems can also help show whether compliance efforts were having an effect.   For instance, in one former socialist country, the authorities were trying to combat under-the-table payments from patients to doctors as they transitioned the health care system to a market basis.  We were asked a simple question: was it working? We showed that despite the government’s best efforts, the problem was getting worse, and that stronger measures were needed. 

Figure 3.  Measuring Compliance

Surveys can also look inside organizations to gauge the impact of process-oriented efforts.  You can use a variety of measures for this – subjective, objective, and behavioral. 

We used all of these in the large firm mentioned above.  (See Figure 3.)  We looked at whether staffers felt ethics training had helped – a subjective test; whether they knew there were misconduct reporting procedures – an objective one; and whether offenders were held accountable – a behavioral test.  In this way, it becomes possible to see how strong the linkage is between assessments of program impact, increased knowledge resulting from it, and change in the behaviors compliance efforts seek. 

Figure 3.  Assessing compliance.

IN SUM:  If you are concerned with anti-corruption efforts, whether in the business, international development, or security world, you should be putting surveys to work in them.  They are the most accurate diagnostic tools for identifying the nature, extent, and causes of malpractices.  Equally important, they can let you demonstrate that things are getting better after you begin your efforts – or help you identify what still needs fixing.  No other source of information can help you understand and measure systemic problems and changes as clearly and effectively.   They can give you – and those you report to – confidence that you have taken the measure of the problem and have a handle on it. If you don’t use them, you are wandering in the dark – which is hardly the way to get where you want to go.   

Craig Charney is president of Charney Research, a New York based survey research firm specializing in emerging markets and crisis countries. 

Other Charney work on corruption that may be of interest:

Corruption in China: What Companies Need to Know

Afghan Business Attitudes on the Economy, Government, and Business Organizations

By Shehzad H. Qazi | Foreign Policy | June 29, 2015 | 2 pages

The war of words between India and Pakistan escalated again recently, making headlines around the world and ultimately prompting an intervention by Secretary of State John Kerry last week. In May, Pakistan’smilitary top brass and defense minister accused Indian intelligence agency RAW of instigating terrorism within Pakistan. Matters heated up further when India’s defense minister publiclyendorsed a policy of using militant proxies to counter Pakistan sponsoring anti-Indian jihadi groups, and climaxed when Prime Minister Modi lashed out against Pakistan during a historic visit to Bangladesh, blaming it of promoting terrorism and creating “nuisances” for India. With this backdrop, India’s hot pursuit of rebels into Myanmar was widely seen as an aggressive message to Pakistan to rethink harboring militants and elicited a tough response from Islamabad.

This bout is the latest in a string of events that have characterized deteriorating relations between India and Pakistan since last year when foreign secretary-level talks were cancelled. But the hardline positions taken by decision makers in both countries are in sharp contrast to the desires of their people, who for years have widely supported establishing better relations and engagement across a variety of mechanisms to foster peace.

Read more.

China’s Economy Is Recovering

By Leland R. Miller and Craig Charney | The Wall Street Journal | July 15, 2015 | 1 pages

After several disappointing quarters, there are signs of improvement—just not for the official reasons.

China released second-quarter statistics Wednesday that showed the economy growing at 7%, the same real rate as the first quarter but with stronger nominal growth. That result, higher than expected and coming just after a stock-market panic, surprised some commentators and even aroused suspicion that the government cooked the numbers for political reasons. While official data is indeed unreliable, our firm’s latest research confirms that the Chinese economy is improving after several disappointing quarters—just not for the reasons given by Beijing.

The China Beige Book (CBB), a private survey of more than 2,000 Chinese firms each quarter, frequently anticipates the official story. We documented the 2012 property rebound, the 2013 interbank credit crunch and the 2014 slowdown in capital expenditure before any of them showed up in official statistics.

The modest but broad-based improvement in the Chinese economy that we tracked in the second quarter may seem at odds with the headlines of carnage in the country’s financial markets. But stock prices in China have almost nothing to do with the economy’s fundamentals. Our data show sales revenue, capital expenditure, new domestic orders, hiring, wages and profits were all better in the second quarter, making the improvement unmistakable—albeit not outstanding in any one category.

Read more.

By Craig Charney

WHAT’S BEHIND THE SURGE IN VIOLENCE IN JERUSALEM AND THE WEST BANK — AND WHERE WILL IT LEAD?

If you follow the news, you’ve probably heard about the young Palestinian man who rammed his car into four Israeli policewomen at a Jerusalem tram stop on March 6, then hacked a passerby with a cleaver. But here are some other stories you probably haven’t heard.

In the first week of March alone, two young Palestinian men were shot as they fought against a raid by Israeli soldiers in Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem. Shots were fired into an Israeli home in the West Bank settlement of Shomron, and at an army jeep near Nablus. A West Bank teenager armed with a knife was caught by police at a border crossing, and told them he planned a stabbing attack in Israel. Jewish gravestones were found desecrated on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem. Rocks hurled by young Palestinians smashed windows of Jewish-owned cars in Abu Tor, a Jerusalem neighborhood nestled between the Jewish west and Arab east, and damaged a tram.

These are just some of the Palestinian-Israeli clashes reported by local media — and largely ignored by the international press. They form part of the greatest upsurge of Palestinian protest in over a decade.

While Israel’s upcoming election (and Benjamin Netanyahu’s bluster) has dominated overseas headlines, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has heated up again. Like the prior intifada, or uprising, that began in 2000, this one is driven by the radicalization of Palestinian public opinion following a breakdown in the peace process and deepening conflict, making resistance appear the only remaining option to improve Palestine’s grim conditions.

Read more. 

“Maybe We Can Reach a Solution“: Syrian Perspectives on the Conflict and Local Initiatives for Peace, Justice and Reconciliation

We are pleased to present findings from our most recent study for the Syrian Justice and Accountability Centre (SJAC): “Maybe We Can Reach a Solution”: Syrian Perspectives on the Conflict and Local Initiatives for Peace, Justice, and Reconciliation. 

This report covers the second phase of research for the Syrian Justice and Accountability Centre (SJAC), a Syrian-led organization promoting transitional justice and accountability. It is a qualitative study involving in-depth interviews among all the country’s major political, religious, and ethnic groups. Major insights first revealed by this report include growing divisions between pro- and anti-government Syrians, strong rejection of extremists and a desire to restore normal daily life. 

To Download a Copy of the Report Summary Click Here.

To Download a Copy of the Full Report Click Here.

Cautious Radicals: Public Opinion and Hong Kong’s Democracy Protests

By Craig Charney

SECURITY AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION

Researcher’s Diary: Polling in a Conflict Zone – Lessons from Iraq

By John Moreira

 As I listened over a scratchy Skype connection to survey supervisors in Baghdad while training them for a political poll, I  wondered if the line would go dead again for the umpeteenth time that day.

But dropped calls were hardly my biggest worry setting up a poll in Iraq, which presents a complex set of challenges for survey  researchers. These include ensuring the safety of consultants, interviewers, and respondents, while creating an environment that  allows respondents to provide their true opinions and attitudes.  Iraq is the nec plus ultra, the acid test for polling in what are  euphemistically called “non-permissive environments” or “denied areas.”

 If Iraq poses tough problems, it also is a place where we have developed answers on how to conduct valid polls  in a conflict zone.  Having done survey research there since 2010 for the National Democratic Institute (NDI), I’ve seen that  there are methods that can produce surprisingly accurate results. These allow groups like NDI to work with political parties and  leaders to increase their awareness of needs of the people.  Just as important, they make Iraq a model of how survey research  techniques can be adapted to work even in a country at war.

Read more.

ASK THE SURVEY DOCTOR

Ask the Survey Doctor: Five Deadly Sins of Survey Research Firms in Developing Countries  

Q. We have to prove our programs perform on a tight evaluation budget.  We also have USAID Forward breathing down our necks to use local contractors.  Aren’t the local survey research firms in developing countries able to do the job – and cheaply?  Why bother with costly international consultants?

A. We’ll begin to answer with a story.  A few years ago, a development consultancy working on a project proposal in Afghanistan told us, “We don’t need an international pollster to evaluate this one.  We found a local outfit with good references and that will help us comply with USAID Forward.”

After some nudging, they told us the local firm’s name – and got a shock. “Did you know they just lost a NATO contract there because of unreliable data?” we told the startled proposal leader.  Better safe than sorry, he decided – and brought us in to do quality control. 

This episode illustrates a big risk facing anyone aiming to do survey research in the developing world: bad quality control.  But that is only one of the deadly sins local research partners in developing countries often commit, putting evaluations, assessments, and market studies at grave risk.  Others involve poor methodology, weak capacity, inexperience with development issues, an academic approach, and shallow analysis.  Whether the result of corner-cutting or simple ignorance, these issues can turn an evaluation survey into an expensive flop. 

For the full answer, click here.

When the Islamic State (ISIS) suddenly began to dominate headlines, their quick takeover and brutal acts surprised the world-but it shouldn’t have. Earlier this year, as ISIS slowly gained ground in Iraq and Syria, polls had revealed a sea change in attitudes that opened the door to the movement’s seizure of Mosul in June and subsequent sweep across northern and western Iraq. Insecurity was rampant in those Sunni regions; economic conditions were deteriorating; and alienation from the Shia-majority government was increasingly pervasive.

The security collapse in the Sunni regions was dramatic by early 2014, as shown by polling by IIACSS, an Iraqi market research firm, for Gallup International ™s World Social Values Survey. Some 21% of residents in Diyala and fully 25% of people in Nineveh said a family member had suffered a crime in the past year. In contrast, just 1% of families in Basra in the mostly-Shia south had experienced such violence. Sentiment was strong that security was deteriorating in the mostly-Sunni west (a massive 84%) and north (55%), while more than two-thirds said it was improving in the south, a Greenberg poll found.

Read more …

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: China’s New Open Door: The E-Commerce Boom

Our second quarter survey of businesses in China, conducted in May and June for the China Beige Book , highlights the phenomenal growth e-tailers are experiencing there. They report soaring sales, big revenue gains and rising sales prices. But not only are these businesses booming; online sellers are out-performing bricks-and-mortar retailers across the board.

These trends can’t be ignored by anyone interested in development – or in retail opportunities –as the world’s most populous nation shifts to a more consumer-focused economy. Retail in China is leapfrogging from traditional mom-and-pop stores to the internet age, as affluent and connected shoppers prefer the convenience of online shopping and seek out alternatives to lackluster local offerings.

Read more …

Ask the Survey Doctor: How do you understand morality?

If you are struggling with surveys, evaluations, assessments, or market research in developing countries, click here to email the Survey Doctor with your question. 

Q. “Restoring normality” is a key task for assistance providers in post-conflict environments as well as for those working in counter-insurgency or disaster zones. It’s particularly difficult to assess and decide priorities as well as to measure progress in such places. Yet how do you measure “normality”? And what metrics can we use to do it?

A. Normality is a key goal of conflict resolution and humanitarian efforts – and like any other development goal, it needs to be monitored and evaluated. As Michael O’Hanlon and Jason Campbell have written, “The experience of successful counterinsurgency and stabilization missions leads us to place a premium on tracking trends in the daily lives of typical citizens.” Political and counter-insurgency theory suggests that satisfaction with living conditions boosts public support for governments – and data back this up.

But measuring normality is a challenge. The basic concept is hard to pin down. Moreover, levels of development and expectations vary drastically, and the areas of concern may be difficult or impossible for outsiders to access. However, solutions to this problem can be found. 

Read more …

We don’t know yet who will prevail in Afghanistan’s approaching presidential runoff, but we already know the big winner — the Afghan people. The big loser, of course, is the Taliban and their al Qaeda allies.

The first-round voting generated widespread excitement and high turnout, reflecting Afghans’ desire to choose their own leader, launching two experienced, pro-Western technocrats into the runoff and despite the chorus of complaints that America is abandoning Afghanistan, the vote caps a five-year turnaround, when the U.S.-led “surge” of military and development aid salvaged a situation trending towards defeat.

Today Afghanistan is becoming able to defend and develop itself; it is not the basket case ill-informed reports suggest. Indeed, as security concerns fade, the inward focus on economic and social challenges reveals the growing normalization of Afghan politics. The main threat it faces now comes, ironically, from the international community, where patience is

wearing thin and pressures for a too-rapid draw down of support could turn impending success into failure.

Read more.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Researcher’s Diary – Mali Focus Group Training

OK, I’m feeling a bit intimidated. The women in front of me are stone-faced and look completely aloof. Will they like me? Am I going to bore them?

 A day earlier, I had arrived in Bamako, the capital of Mali, to conduct a five-day training session for these women on the art of conducting focus groups. I was working as a consultant for the National Democratic Institute (NDI), an NGO headquartered in Washington, DC that works to support and strengthen democratic institutions and practices in countries around the world. I was in charge of a study designed to help policymakers in the country better understand women’s attitudes and opinions toward their social and political roles. The first step was to train local women, all university graduates with varying types of experience, to conduct focus groups so that they could carry out a 12-group study in various locations throughout the country.

Read more.

Ask the Survey Doctor: Evaluating Diplomacy

If you are struggling with surveys, evaluations, assessments, or market research in developing countries, click here to email the Survey Doctor with your question. 

Q: I know that polls, focus groups, and other opinion research techniques are often used to evaluate foreign aid programs. But what about that other tool of “soft power,” diplomacy? Can survey research be used to evaluate diplomacy?

A: Evaluating high-level diplomacy – negotiations between governments, carried out deep in the corridors of foreign ministries – is a task for diplomatic historians; what survey research can evaluate is what the international affairs world callspublic diplomacy: the programs and communications one country uses to reach the people of another, rather than their government.

Examples include educational exchanges and international broadcasting (e.g. Voice of America); small-scale engagements, such as “open houses” hosted by an embassy; and large-scale information campaigns about a country’s history, culture, or values. All of these are public diplomacy because their goal is to shape how foreign populations view the sponsoring country.

Read more.

In the confused debate on Ukraine’s whirlwind of change since the fall of its pro-Russian president in February 2014 and Russia’s subsequent takeover of Crimea, one key question has often been lost sight of: What do Ukrainians really want?

One line of thinking portrays Ukraine as riven by ethnic cleavages—Bosnia on the Dniepr—and holds that people in eastern Ukraine might prefer Russian control to Kyiv’s new authorities. Another line of thinking nervously regards Russian troops massed on Ukraine’s eastern frontier and sees Western economic or military assistance as the sole salvation of the hapless former Soviet republic. Yet recent polls show these images don’t square with Ukrainian reality.

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INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Africa Roundup: Retailers Have Big Opportunities – But Female Farmers Face Big Problems

If you are involved in retail development in emerging markets, did you know you should be thinking about Rwanda? A recent report highlights important news from Africa: burgeoning (and unexpected) opportunities for the retail sector as the continent’s growth takes off. Another spotlights an important problem holding Africa back: the continuing gender gap confronting women in African agriculture. These stories matter to business people, development specialists, and anyone else concerned with the continent’s future.

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Ask the Survey Doctor: Evaluating Training Programs – A Project Manager’s Guide

Training programs are a frequent component of your international development efforts. So, how do you evaluate training? Learn how to deliver a fuller sense of the results of your program to clients and founders with a “four level” tool that assesses training evaluation research on four levels: reaction, learning, behavior and results.

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We got a surprise from our Development Evaluation Survey: beneficiary surveys remain the least-used evaluation method, despite all the emphasis on better evaluation, results-based management, and value for money from funders.

When we did a follow-up survey to find out why, we got even more surprising findings – and clues to improve use of the most powerful evaluation methods.

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After the Arab Spring: Democratic Consolidation in Tunisia’s Elections?

Tunisia has been touted, rightly, as the Arab Spring’s success story – but questions still hover over the country where the revolts against Middle Eastern dictators began.

After three years of struggle and crises, North Africa’s most developed country has a consensus constitution and a caretaker government steering it to its second democratic election. Yet this means the country now faces the acid test for the consolidation of a new democracy: will it establish meaningful electoral competition and the alternation of power?

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Ask the Survey Doctor: Non-Economic Evaluation – Measuring Outcomes and Impact of Governance, Social, or Security Programs

If you are struggling with surveys, evaluations, assessments, or market research in developing countries, click here to email the Survey Doctor with your question.

Q: I’m stumped by the lack of standard methods to measure and evaluate the non-economic outcomes and impact of development projects, particularly in the social, governance, or security spheres. How can we measure the results?

A: It’s tough enough to estimate the return on investment for economic development projects – so it’s understandable that development professionals tear their hair about showing results from other types of programs. Indeed, the scarcity of hard data on the outcomes of democracy, health, or security sector reform work is one of the pretexts for claims that development aid is a waste of funds.

But the right kind of evaluation can solve this problem.

Read more

When we released Charney’s Development Evaluation Survey for the Society for International Development-Washington last month, one of the surprises was how little use people concerned with development evaluation seemed to get out of the blogosphere. Only one blog we tested, the World Bank’s Development Impact, had significant readership. Fully 60% of those polled said they never went to development evaluation blogs – even though few were very satisfied with available development evaluation information sources.

So here is a rundown of blogs specializing in development evaluation. They offer ways to keep up with developments in field, at important development institutions, or in particular methods.

For a summary of the findings, click here.

What Syrians Think: Views on the Conflict, Negotiations, and Transitional Justice

What do Syrians think about the civil war raging around them for nearly three years? What are their views of key actors in the government and opposition? How do they want the conflict resolved? What are their attitudes toward accountability?

Few people have any idea – yet these are vitally important questions. To seek some answers, Charney Research conducted qualitative survey research among Syrians inside and outside their country for the Syrian Justice and Accountability Centre, a non-partisan NGO working on transitional justice issues in Syria. The results are in our new report, “’He who did wrong should be accountable’: Syrian Perspectives on Transitional Justice,” released at a meeting on January 29 at the US Institute of Peace in Washington.

The findings will surprise many – for they show a consensus in favor of a negotiated settlement and accountability for abuses on both sides. They are essential reading for anyone concerned with ending the conflict or how transitional Justice can help in a Syrian transition.

To read the article, click here.

To read the full report, click here.

Ask the Survey Doctor: Surveys in Conflict Zones and Non-Permissive Environments

If you are struggling with surveys, evaluations, assessments, or market research in developing countries, please email your question to jeffrey@charneyresearch.com.

Q. Many development, security assistance, or conflict resolution programs necessarily operate in insecure environments. How are you able to conduct surveys in conflict zones and non-permissive environments?

A. This is a very real problem, particularly as development, defense, and diplomatic objectives have become more closely aligned since 2001. It’s important to be able to conduct surveys, assessments, and evaluations – but it’s essential to know how to operate in conflictual or non-permissive environments. It’s trickier than in more normal places – but it can be done.

For the full answer, click here.