ABSTRACTED FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: On December 30, 2018, Bangladesh held national elections. The election was not deemed fair by observers, and from the point of filing nomination papers to election campaigning, the opposition faced severe political obstacles. Their cadres were arrested, and rallies and campaign were attacked by the ruling party’s supporters. The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed, which has been in power since 2009, employed the police as a political tool during the period under review.

ABSTRACTED FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The most important event in Pakistan during the period under review was the 2018 general election. This was the third general election in a row in which rival civilian individuals and parties contested each other at the ballot box for seats in the legislatures and the chance to form a government. Moreover, it was the second consecutive transfer of power from one elected civilian government to another.

This paper underscores that corruption remains of key concern to land governance institutions in Africa, escalates costs of doing business and therefore undermines investments. Where widespread, land related corruption can grossly undermine tenure security, that it can cause deep discontent and foment social and political insecurity. It therefore needs appropriate responses.Many land governance institutions are in the process of establishing initiatives to respond to corruption.

ABSTRACTED FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: In the period from 2017 to 2019, Tajikistan’s authoritarian retrenchment continued. Political institutions were monopolized by the elite after the destruction of the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) in 2015, at the time the only viable political opposition party. The IRPT’s chairman went into exile, its remaining leaders were rounded up, and lawyers who acted on their behalf were also imprisoned for lengthy prison terms.

ABSTRACTED FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: In 2014, Afghanistan faced two major interconnected transformations. First was the withdrawal of most international troops. On January 1, 2015, the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces officially took over full defense and security related responsibilities in Afghanistan. Second was the first transition of power through elections in the history of the country. In light of the withdrawal of international troops, the new Afghan government was supposed to focus on developing effective policies related to military, economic and security aspects.

ABSTRACTED FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The 2017 to 2018 period in Uzbekistan gave rise to a feeling of relief among the population. With the death of the first president of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, in September 2016 and the election of Shavkat Mirziyoyev as new president in December 2016, the so-called post-Soviet transition period had come to an end. The new president managed to create a new image as the leader of the country and as a reformer.

The last two years have been a period of rebound and cautious optimism in Nepal. After having been hit by two large earthquakes in 2015 that killed over 9,000 people and rendered many more homeless, and having suffered through a long, tortuous constituent assembly process that finally resulted in a new constitution, the country has seen progress on political and economic fronts in the recent past. Governance, however, remains an issue.

Over the past two decades, academics and development practitioners have written extensively about the harmful impact of corruption on economic development and social outcomes. From an economic perspective, corruption diverts resources away from their most productive uses, acting as a regressive tax that supports the lifestyles of the elite at everyone else’s expense. Corruption undermines the legitimacy of political systems by providing the elite with alternative ways of holding on to power, rather than through genuine democratic means.

Microfinance programs targeting poor women are considered a ‘prudent’ first step for international financial institutions seeking to rebuild post conflict economies. IFIs continue to visibly support microfinance despite evidence and growing consensus that microfinance neither reduces poverty nor breaks the cycle of domestic violence. In the case of Timor-Leste, a feminist political economy approach reveals how microfinance engendered debt allows for the control, extraction, and accumulation of profits and resources by an elite class and exacerbates gender-based violence.

Based on practical examples and on-going discussions, this paper critically reflects on prerequisites and conditions to be observed for open land data to contribute to increased transparency and better land governance. Moreover, the paper touches on the question of what open land data and transparency can mean for addressing land corruption which negatively affects the livelihoods and prosperity of many men and women globally.

Notre article porte sur les pratiques de corruption liées aux opérations de lotissement dans le District de Bamako, plus précisément dans la commune VI. Notre démarche a consisté dans un premier temps, à faire une analyse des textes législatifs sur le foncier au Mali, dans un deuxième temps, à réaliser des enquêtes de terrain auprès des acteurs impliqués dans une opération de lotissement.

In Zambia, security of tenure for communities residing under customary land tenure settings has in recent years increasingly come under threat owing to the pressures of high rate of urbanization, speculation, subdivision and conversion to state land, which effectively excludes marginal populations from accessing resources for their land. While customary land is a major resource for most Zambians, the inadequacy or total lack of documentation leads to tenure insecurity, making people susceptible to forced displacements, and frequent land disputes.