The future of development, collaborative learning and more: These were R4D’s top stories of 2024
Stepping into 2025, the global challenges we face are more complex than ever. Finding transformative, sustainable and equitable solutions will require innovation, collaboration and an unwavering commitment to ensuring local leaders are in the driver’s seat. At Results for Development (R4D), we’re beginning the new year with a review of the most read and impactful stories we shared in 2024, examining them for insights about where the conversation may turn in coming months.
Our most read pieces of the last year span a wide range of topics including the future of international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), anticorruption, embracing real-time evidence use, health insurance and more. But each piece is tied to a common thread about the way we work at R4D, which is always in partnership with local- and country-level stakeholders to create lasting results.
Discover the stories that caught our audiences’ eyes last year and share your favorites with us in the comments. We welcome your ideas and feedback about what you would like to see more of in 2025.
R4D’s top 5 blogs of 2024
1. The future of international NGOs: Defining our role in locally led development
At a moment when many in the global development ecosystem were voicing uncertainty about their roles and futures in an evolving landscape, R4D CEO Gina Lagomarsino laid out a clear vision for INGOs as the sector continues to shift toward locally led development. In this piece, Lagomarsino also offers actionable ways for the disparate actors in global development to better align and work together. Read more.
2. State Capture Matters: Challenging corruption and a new dataset
The R4D-led Governance Action Hub uses evidence and data for action in one of its core themes: state capture and anticorruption. In this blog post, Senior Fellow Daniel Kaufmann dives into a data set examining undue influence by members of the economic and political elite. These individuals and groups sometimes morph and distort the laws, policies, regulations and institutions of the state to their own advantage at the expense of society. Read more.
3. Evaluation and Adaptive Learning at work: Insights from RF MERL Mali
USAID’s Rapid Feedback Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (RF MERL) initiative co-designs rigorous-yet-flexible approaches to generating timely and useful data for USAID and its partners. This piece offers a case study from the R4D-led RF MERL consortium about how traditional evidence generation methods and adaptive learning approaches can work together. Read more.
4. Transitioning from voluntary to mandatory health insurance in Nigeria: Excerpts from a fireside chat with Chris Atim
Good health insurance coverage is an integral component of attaining universal health coverage (UHC), providing financial security against overwhelming health care costs and lessening the risk of incurred medical debt. Even with these benefits, less than 10% of the Nigeria’s population has enrolled in its National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) decades after its start. R4D’s Chris Atim led a discussion about the benefits and potential of mandatory health insurance, sharing lessons from other countries in Africa. That conversation is excerpted in this blog post. Read more.
5. Increasing the odds of evidence uptake: 3 lessons from global education researchers and practitioners
Research is critical to building and using knowledge, but many studies never make it past the point of publication. How can researchers and educators better ensure that evidence produced is translated and implemented? The School Action Learning Exchange (SALEX) at a March 2024 event in Barranquilla, Colombia, and compiled lessons learned into this blog post and an accompanying learning brief. Read more.
Most downloaded resource
Collaborative Learning Networks Measurement & Learning Framework
R4D’s pioneering Collaborative Learning approach convenes change agents to engage in peer-to-peer learning to jointly solve problems, create knowledge and tools, and adapt that knowledge to specific contexts to address shared challenges. R4D has managed and facilitated more than 20 Collaborative Learning Networks (CLNs) over the last 15 years, and in 2024, we launched a framework for measuring and capturing valuable insights into these networks’ progress and contribution to impact. Read more.
Hottest news story
R4D hosting new sustainable nutrition financing platform
In October, we announced that R4D would host a new platform aimed at transforming the nutrition financing landscape. Alongside partners Spark Health Africa, Health Strategy and Delivery Foundation and the Center for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP), R4D is inspiring government leaders in 66 countries to elevate and prioritize nutrition financing through the Finance Capacity Development Platform (FCDP) for Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN). Read more.
