This policy brief highlights the role that donor headquarters play in shaping the incentives and rules of the aid system, influencing implementing partner decisions, policies, and investments. It takes a deeper look at how some well-meaning policies can unexpectedly backfire, leading to new challenges, inefficiencies or in some cases, perpetuate conflict. To do so, it analyses five well-meaning policies common to many donors that can have unexpectedly negative results within conflict-affected countries, providing examples from…

Introduction Murle society is non-hierarchical and political power is diffused to the extent that there are no institutional leadership roles. It is thus often represented as lacking credible and legitimate governance structures. While Murle society is acephalous and egalitarian, in that there is no single leader like a king and decisions are instead taken collectively, there are clear authority structures that should be understood.[1] The above representations are, quite significantly, part of the narrative that…

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