Abstract Motivation Female child head porters ( Kayayei ) migrating from northern Ghana to Accra experience economic opportunities alongside substantial risks to their safety and well‐being. Understanding their migration experiences is important for developing child‐sensitive migration and social protection policies. Purpose This study examines the motivations, settlement challenges, coping strategies, and future aspirations of Kayayei aged 10–17 in Accra. It contributes an integrated adolescent‐focused analysis linking pre‐migration circumstances with post‐migration experiences and survival strategies. Approach and Methods A qualitative research approach was adopted, involving 44 female child head porters aged 10–17 in the Makola and Agbogbloshie markets. Data were collected through focus group discussions involving 24 participants and key informant interviews involving 20 participants. The analysis was informed by the Harris–Todaro and Push‐Pull migration models. Findings Economic hardship, limited livelihood opportunities and aspirations for financial independence influenced migration decisions. Upon arrival, participants encountered precarious accommodation, inadequate sanitation, food insecurity, physically demanding labour, exploitation and exposure to violence. They developed informal support networks and economic coping strategies to navigate these challenges, although such arrangements provided limited protection against persistent vulnerabilities. Participants also expressed aspirations to resume education, acquire vocational skills and establish businesses. Policy Implications The findings highlight the need for coordinated, child‐sensitive interventions that address both the structural drivers of migration and the vulnerabilities experienced at destination markets. Policy responses should strengthen access to safe accommodation, healthcare, sanitation, education and social protection while providing viable livelihood opportunities in communities of origin. Interventions should also recognize children's agency and aspirations without overlooking their protection needs.
Abstract Motivation This study contributes to the literature on the conditions under which results‐based management (RBM) practices enhance or undermine development policy implementation, and research on how aid bureaucrats respond to competing institutional demands. Purpose The case of the Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA), the Swedish government agency for peace, security, and development, contributes to the relatively limited literature on RBM in peacebuilding contexts. Approach and methods The analysis of FBA's responses to competing results demands is based on a qualitative research design combining document analysis, focus group interviews, and in‐depth semi‐structured interviews with staff across organizational functions. The analytical framework centres on institutional logics and strategic responses to conflicting institutional demands, and an ideal‐typical model is developed representing two co‐existing institutional logics for results: a Public Administration (PA) logic associated with requirements of upward accountability, precise measurement requirements and a Field‐based (FB) logic rooted in demands for adaptive, partner‐oriented implementation practices. Findings At FBA, results are predominantly interpreted in line with the FB logic, and few tensions between the logics are found. The less internally represented demands aligned with the PA logic on RBM are strategically redefined and decoupled from core operations using pragmatic bureaucratic skills, specifically a response we define as reversed commensuration . The case also reveals the use of proper organization proxies (legitimate structures, processes, and methods) to signal adherence and future results on the way. Policy implications Contrary to hegemonic beliefs in the field, the findings indicate that the tensions and adverse consequences commonly associated with RBM are not inevitable. The FBA case demonstrates how agencies can mitigate the dynamics of “result fetishism” by strategically mediating competing results demands while sustaining flexibility and responsiveness to partner priorities and avoiding hyper bureaucracy.
Abstract Motivation Debt‐for‐nature swaps (D4NS) have re‐emerged as a potential instrument to address the dual challenges of sovereign‐debt distress and environmental degradation. Despite their growing use, particularly since 2021, their effectiveness as a “triple win” for debt relief, fiscal space, and conservation outcomes remains unclear, with existing evidence largely fragmented and case‐study‐based. Purpose This article aims to evaluate the effectiveness of D4NS across their evolution and to identify the conditions under which they can simultaneously deliver meaningful debt relief and environmental outcomes. It asks: how have D4NS performed across different generations and what design features are required to improve their impact? Approach and Methods The study compiles a transaction‐level database of 169 D4NS across 45 countries between 1987 and 2025. Building on earlier historical inventories, the database harmonizes available information on the face value of debt treated, repurchase terms, and environmental proceeds, enabling comparisons across transactions and generations. It introduces a financial assessment framework based on three core metrics: debt volume, repurchase discount, and environmental proceeds. These metrics are used to compare swaps across time and document recurring empirical patterns in their fiscal and environmental performance. Findings The analysis shows that early D4NS were environmentally effective but small in scale, while later generations achieved larger volumes, but often at the cost of weaker environmental outcomes and limited net debt relief. Nearly 70% of swaps occur during periods of debt distress, indicating that meaningful discounts, and thus fiscal gains, are rarely available outside crisis conditions. Overall, most swaps fail to simultaneously achieve all three objectives. Policy Implications D4NS are not a standalone solution but can play a complementary role in debt and climate strategies if carefully designed. The paper proposes a fourth generation of D4NS centred on a pre‐funded distressed‐debt facility to capture market dislocations, enabling larger‐scale debt relief and improved environmental outcomes through faster and more opportunistic execution.
Abstract Motivation Women's labour force participation in India remains low despite improvements in education and economic conditions. Household organization and kinship relations may shape women's opportunities for paid work by influencing how unpaid work is allocated among women within the same family. Purpose This study examines whether women's participation and time allocation differ according to their kinship position within Indian joint households. In particular, it compares daughters‐in‐law with unmarried daughters of comparable age and educational attainment residing in the same household. Approach and Methods We use nationally representative data from India's Periodic Labour Force Survey and Time Use Survey. Using household fixed effects and controlling for age and education, we compare daughters‐in‐law and unmarried daughters within the same household. Additional comparisons involving married daughters, mothers‐in‐law, narrower age groups, and households with and without children assess alternative explanations for the observed differences. Findings Daughters‐in‐law are less likely to participate in paid employment and substantially more likely to undertake domestic work than unmarried daughters. Time‐use estimates show that daughters‐in‐law spend about 245 additional minutes per day in home production, including domestic chores and caregiving, while spending less time in paid employment, learning, socializing, leisure, and self‐care. They also spend more time on religious activities. These patterns remain across several alternative samples and comparisons and are consistent with an important role for kinship position and household hierarchy in women's time allocation. Policy Implications Policies seeking to increase women's participation in paid work may need to address household‐ and community‐level norms, bargaining constraints, and expectations surrounding unpaid work alongside conventional interventions focused on skills, employment opportunities, and childcare. Because the analysis is descriptive, these implications should be interpreted as suggestive rather than causal.
Abstract Motivation Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS) have fallen off‐track on multiple Sustainable Development Goals due to a sustained post‐2000 productivity collapse that eroded earlier Millennium Development Goals gains. With the 2030 deadline approaching, restoring productive capacity is both an economic and development urgency, with direct implications for SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth), SDG 9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure), SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy), and SDG 13 (climate action). Purpose This study documents and explains the long‐term growth deceleration in Caribbean SIDS and identifies a sequenced structural reform agenda to reverse it. Taking the growth accounting diagnosis of Amundsen et al. (2025) as the empirical baseline, the article asks: which productivity components drive the slowdown, and what reforms could restore growth momentum and re‐engage the region with the SDGs? The primary contribution is a policy‐oriented companion analysis that links aggregate patterns to microeconomic constraints and develops an actionable, politically realistic, three‐phase reform package. Approach and Methods Growth accounting decomposes real GDP growth and potential output across two periods (1981–2000 and 2001–2019) for 15 Caribbean economies, with real GDP growth also reported for 1980–2000 and 2001–2023. Contributions from total factor productivity (TFP), human capital, population, and physical capital are estimated and compared, with robustness checks across capital share, depreciation, and human capital specifications. The findings are linked to microeconomic constraints through firm‐level and sectoral evidence framed as hypotheses consistent with the aggregate residual. Findings Average real GDP growth fell from 2.64% to 1.45%, while potential growth declined from 3.3 to 1.6 percentage points. TFP contributions collapsed 83% (0.6 to 0.1 pp) and human capital plus population contributions fell 53% (1.5 to 0.7 pp); together these productivity‐related factors explain 76% of the deceleration. A three‐phase reform agenda follows: regulatory digitalization and e‐government (Phase I); financial deepening via digital payments and insolvency reform (Phase II); and renewable energy transition through regional cooperation (Phase III). Policy Implications Macroeconomic stabilization is necessary but insufficient. Coordinated structural reforms targeting microeconomic constraints can operationalize progress on SDG 7, 8, 9, 13, and 17, while inclusive reform design advances SDG 1 and SDG 10. With sustained political commitment, potential growth could move toward the pre‐2000 range within a decade, helping re‐engage Caribbean SIDS with the SDG agenda by 2030. Quantitative magnitudes drawn from external studies should be interpreted cautiously given limited external validity for small, tourism‐dependent, climate‐vulnerable islands.
