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Studies on developed countries demonstrate that an increase in women legislators leads to a prioritization in health, an increase in social policy spending, and a decrease in poverty. Women representatives could therefore improve development trajectories in developing countries; yet, currently, no cross-national and longitudinal studies explore this possibility. Using random effects panel regression, we examine the influence of women's representation on child health (one development indicator) across 102 developing countries from 1980 to 2005. Compared to countries with no women in parliament, countries meeting a 20-percent threshold experience increased rates of measles immunizations (10 percentage points), DPT immunizations (12 percentage points), infant survival (0.7 percentage points) and child survival (1 percentage point). Incremental increases in women's representation show that child health improves most in socially and economically disadvantaged countries, and in countries less integrated in the world polity. Our findings reveal the importance of increased women's representation, particularly in less developed and less globally embedded countries.

Following divorce or separation, father-child contact is deemed an important influence on child development. Previous research has explored the impact of sociodemographic and attitudinal factors on the amount of contact between fathers and their children following a union dissolution. This article revisits this important question using fathers' reports on a sample of 859 children from newly available survey data. Multilevel random intercept models are used to reassess the influence of child- and father-level factors on the amount of reported contact. Results show that the amount of father-child contact following separation is the product of several factors such as the father's income, conjugal/parental trajectory, and level of satisfaction with existing arrangements. (Contains 14 notes and 4 tables.)

Following divorce or separation, lather-child contact is deemed an important influence on child development. Previous research has explored the impact of sociodemographic and attitudinal factors on the amount of contact between fathers and their children following a union dissolution. This article revisits this important question using fathers' reports on a sample of 859 children from newly available survey data. Multilevel random intercept models are used to reassess the influence of child- and father-level factors on the amount of reported contact. Results show that the amount of father-child contact following separation is the product of several factors such as the father's income, conjugal/parental trajectory, and level of satisfaction with existing arrangements. Keywords: father-child contact; separated fathers; custody agreements; parental attitudes; multilevel modeling

Despite extensive literature examining human rights decoupling between treaty commitments and practices, little research has addressed how to fill these empty promises. This paper proposes a mechanism neglected in prior studies that might play an important role in narrowing human rights decoupling and improving world society model compliance: foreign aid. Using longitudinal analysis on a sample of 120 aid-receiving countries between 1981 and 2011, we find: total aid has a significant effect on reducing human rights decoupling; aid to good governance shows a similar pattern but the impact is much weaker; by contrast, aid to human rights has limited influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation: The public needs to be better informed on the reasons for providing aid, especially that which supports the Sustainable Development Goals. How aid is framed by donors directly affects levels of public support. Purpose: The article investigates support for aid among English‐speaking Canadians, and how this varies by the framing of aid spending, socioeconomic markers, personal values and political engagement. Approach and methods: Statistical analysis is undertaken of data from a representative survey of English‐speaking Canadians on their knowledge and attitudes with respect to aid to developing countries. A particular focus of the analysis is the influence of the framing of aid spending on public support for aid spending, while controlling for the influence of socioeconomic factors. Findings: Support for increased spending rises when spending is framed relative to the size of the economy, whether in dollar or percentage terms, rather than when framed relative to government taxation or spending. Providing information on the current level of aid spending also raises support for increased aid spending. Overall, when informed about the level of aid spending, most respondents support maintaining or increasing aid. Views on aid vary little by age, education and other socioeconomic markers. People's values, however, did affect support for aid. Respondents who believe in "Canada first" were considerably more likely to support aid cuts than others. Those who see kindness as part of Canadian identity tend to favour aid, while those who see economic prosperity as part of national identity tend to want aid cuts. While voting intention does not affect views on aid, respondents who have been either politically active or involved in collective action on media/social media are a little more likely to favour increased aid. Policy implications: The findings confirm the importance of the framing of aid spending for designing and implementing programmes to inform, engage and elicit support from the public. Given how values influence public support for aid, engagement needs to be tailored to different target audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview of the institutionalist literature on decoupling. Based on that literature, it proposes an analytic framework to consider state characteristics that lead to decoupling: commitment, capacity and context, or 'the 3Cs'. Then, using this framework, it assesses what sorts of aid initiatives we would expect to see to answer the question 'How can aid reduce or increase decoupling gaps?' Finally, it presents several possible combinations of the 3Cs and examples of how the presence or absence of one or all of these components have increased or reduced decoupling in ongoing or concluded aid interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jackie Smith, Social Movements for Global Democracy. Themes in Global Social Change. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007, 304 pp. $US 25.00 paper (978-0-8018-8744-4), $US 55.00 hardcover (978-0-8018-8743-7) Jackie [...]

Despite substantial scholarly attention given to aid allocation motives of state agencies and professionalized non‐governmental organizations (NGOs), privately funded grassroots international NGOs (GINGOs), which have rapidly emerged in the global North, have escaped academic analysis. Using an original dataset of 948 Canadian NGOs, this study compares country aid allocation patterns along competing variables of need, merit, self‐interest and convenience between professionalized, mid‐sized independent and grassroots international NGOs. Our results underscore the importance of a disaggregated analysis yet reveal similar aid allocation trends between all three NGO groups and show significant herding behaviour. These findings question the added value of the growing phenomena of GINGOs. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of bilateral foreign aid in supporting the diffusion and enactment of common models and institutions of the rule of law among aid‐recipient low‐ and middle‐income countries. We ask whether aid targeted at security‐sector reform and the rule of law influences the adoption of constitutional and legal reforms over time (institutional diffusion), and whether aid also supports more effective implementation of the rule of law, writ large (legal reach). We use event history and fixed‐effects panel regression models to examine a sample of 154 countries between 1995 and 2013 to answer these questions. Our findings suggest that aid does increase the likelihood of adopting several rule of law reforms, but its effect on increasing the depth or quality of rule of law over time within countries is much less substantial. These findings suggest that though aid may play a role in supporting the diffusion of models contributing to state isomorphism among countries, it is less effective at increasing the pervasiveness and quality of such model's implementation. This discrepancy between the effectiveness of bilateral aid in promoting law on the books versus law in action in aid recipient countries calls into question the current approach to rule of law reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent scandals in the media have questioned the legitimacy of and public trust in international NGOs (INGOs). Yet, little research has explored the complex relationships that influence public trust in INGOs. This article addresses this knowledge gap by analysing data from an experimental survey of English-speaking Canadian residents to explore how trust varies based on the different ways INGOs are framed and the individual determinants that influence public trust. The results reveal critical factors influencing the trust of Canadians in INGOs and inform strategies to regain public trust to safeguard their role on the world development stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Development Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In 2010, the G8 placed renewed focus on maternal health via the Muskoka Initiative by committing to spend an additional $5 billion on maternal, newborn, and child health before 2015. Following the end of the Millennium Development Goals and the advent of the Sustainable Development Goals, maternal health issues have continued to feature prominently on the global health agenda. Despite these substantial investments of foreign aid over the past decade, there is limited evidence on the effectiveness of foreign aid in reducing maternal mortality in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Using data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Development Indicators and the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, this study analyzes the effects of aid on maternal health in a sample of 130 LMICs from 1996 through 2015. Our results show that the effects of total foreign aid on maternal mortality are limited, but that aid allocated to the reproductive health sector and directly at maternal health is associated with significant reductions in maternal mortality. Given these targeted effects, it is important to channel more donor assistance to the promotion of reproductive health and contraceptive use among women as it serves as a tool towards the reduction of maternal mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its implementation, several studies have asserted that theYouth Criminal Justice Act[YCJA] (2003) has been successful in lessening the number of Canadian youth sent to court and later incarcerated. However, earlier work has not addressed the limitations of the YCJA in provinces where its provisions have only been partially implemented due to limited resources. Analyses of quantitative data derived from a survey of police officers in an Atlantic province reveals that knowledge of the YCJA and YCJA procedures is a poor predictor of officers’ likelihood to use extrajudicial (diversion) measures. Analysis of the open-ended portion of our survey, however, provides an explanation: the Act has not been fully implemented here because of resource limitations, which affect an officer’s ability to adhere to the YCJA. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Electoral quotas are a key factor in increasing women's political representation in parliaments globally. Despite the strong effects of quotas, less attention has been paid to the factors that prompt countries to adopt electoral quotas across developing countries. This article employs event history modeling to analyze quota adoption in 134 developing countries from 1987 to 2012, focusing on quota type, transnational activism, and norm cascades. The article asks the following questions: (1) How might quota adoption differ according to quota type—nonparty versus party quotas? (2) How has the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China (Beijing 95), contributed to quota diffusion? (3) Do global, regional, or neighboring country effects contribute more to quota adoption? Results provide new evidence of how quota adoption processes differ according to quota type, the central role played by participation in Beijing 95, and how increased global counts contribute to faster nonparty quota adoption while increased neighboring country counts lead to faster to party quota adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Focusing on local government and non-governmental nonhuman animal welfare organizations, this paper reports survey results on institutional policies, interpretive frameworks, and practices regarding companion animals in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The findings suggested that local governments and animal shelters use different interpretive frameworks of companion animal welfare, with the former taking a human-centric position and the latter focusing on animal well-being. The results showed that most local governments are not well engaged with animal welfare issues. Instead, these issues are more often dealt with by non-governmental organizations that operate on limited budgets and rely heavily on volunteer labor. Whereas federal and provincial governments are responsible for legislating companion animal welfare, practical implementation of animal welfare has been largely the responsibility of nongovernmental organizations. Our findings demonstrated that the ways that animal welfare policy is interpreted and enacted at the local level have significant implications for animal well-being more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article highlights an emerging research agenda for the study of foreign aid through a World Society theory lens. First, it briefly summarizes the social scientific literature on aid and sociologists' earlier contributions to this research. Next, it reviews the contours of world society research and the place of aid within this body of literature. Finally, it outlines three emergent threads of research on foreign aid that comprise a new research agenda for the sociology of foreign aid and its role in world society globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high percentage of women in Rwanda's parliament is well known. At 64%, it scores far above the world average of about 22% (IPU 2013). Rather than an anomaly, Rwanda is representative of many postconflict developing countries that feature women's political representation at above-average levels. A frequently identified correlate of this heightened representation has been the presence of electoral quotas for women (Bush 2011; Fallon, Swiss, and Viterna 2012; Paxton, Hughes, and Painter 2010). More generally, the role of societal rupture and transitions from conflict to peace or from authoritarianism to democracy have been a focus of gender and politics research in recent years (Fallon, Swiss, and Viterna 2012; Hughes 2007; 2009; Hughes and Paxton 2007; Viterna and Fallon 2008). Within such transitions, the role of women's participation has been identified as a key determinant of more beneficial posttransition outcomes for women (Viterna and Fallon 2008). Peace processes and the accords that they yield represent a mechanism through which transition and women's rights become linked and theoretically hold the potential to shape postconflict societies. However, the link between women's involvement in peace processes and the subsequent adoption of electoral quotas has not been explored. In this article, we seek to answer the question: What is the relationship between postconflict transition, peace processes, and quota adoption? To this end, we examine the role played by peace accords and, more specifically, accords with a focus on women's rights in leading countries to adopt electoral quotas for women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fragmentation of a donor's foreign aid across too many recipient countries is widely believed to be detrimental to aid effectiveness. This article explores the origins of a new norm - recipient concentration - and assesses the extent to which it can be expected to improve aid effectiveness. It also examines 23 donors' actual record of country concentration, and finds that, though there are some potential explanations for donors' behaviour, their collective failure to implement country concentration has very little consequence in theory or in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Canadian Studies is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Growing similarity of development assistance policy and reference to emerging global consensus on development issues has been a striking trend in the foreign aid community in recent years. This article uses event history techniques to undertake an exploratory analysis and test world polity effects on the spread of gender and development policies and institutional structures among 22 aid donors of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee from 1968 through 2003. Findings point to the influence of other donors, international civil society, international treaties and conferences as strong determinants of the homogenization of development assistance policy and the adoption of gender policies by donor organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Increasing levels of democratic freedoms should, in theory, improve women’s access to political positions. Yet studies demonstrate that democracy does little to improve women’s legislative representation. To resolve this paradox, we investigate how variations in the democratization process—including pre-transition legacies, historical experiences with elections, the global context of transition, and post-transition democratic freedoms and quotas—affect women’s representation in developing nations. We find that democratization’s effect is curvilinear. Women in non-democratic regimes often have high levels of legislative representation but little real political power. When democratization occurs, women’s representation initially drops, but with increasing democratic freedoms and additional elections, it increases again. The historical context of transition further moderates these effects. Prior to 1995, women’s representation increased most rapidly in countries transitioning from civil strife—but only when accompanied by gender quotas. After 1995 and the Beijing Conference on Women, the effectiveness of quotas becomes more universal, with the exception of post- communist countries. In these nations, quotas continue to do little to improve women’s representation. Our results, based on pooled time series analysis from 1975 to 2009, demonstrate that it is not democracy—as measured by a nation’s level of democratic freedoms at a particular moment in time—but rather the democratization process that matters for women’s legislative representation., Sociology