Mary Kay Gugerty

University of Washington Seattle | UW · Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy & Governance

Female genital schistosomiasis (FGS) is a complication of Schistosoma haematobium infection, and imposes a health burden whose magnitude is not fully explored. It is estimated that up to 56 million women in sub-Saharan Africa have FGS, and almost 20 million more cases will occur in the next decade unless infected girls are treated. Schistosomiasis...

This article proposes a research program with two goals: (a) to support nonprofit leaders to productively engage evaluation and (b) to advance a meso-level theory of nonprofit evaluation that recognizes the diverse ways nonprofits contribute to social change. Such a research program is timely, as evaluation becomes increasingly institutionalized in...

For several decades, the aid effectiveness movement has called for more robust, informed and independent impact evaluation of aid activities, but the prevalence and adoption of these practices remain unclear. This article seeks to understand the current state of impact evaluation practice in the development field by examining standard-setting docum...

Background: In an era of global health security challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, there is greater need for strong leadership. Over the past decades, significant investments have been made in global health leadership development programs by governments and philanthropic organizations to address this need. Evaluating the societal impact of...

Although health, development, and environment challenges are interconnected, evidence remains fractured across sectors due to methodological and conceptual differences in research and practice. Aligned methods are needed to support Sustainable Development Goal advances and similar agendas. The Bridge Collaborative, an emergent research-practice col...

Although health, development, and environment challenges are interconnected, evidence remains fractured across sectors due to methodological and conceptual differences in research and practice. Aligned methods are needed to support Sustainable Development Goal advances and similar agendas. The Bridge Collaborative, an emergent research-practice col...

Although health, development, and environment challenges are interconnected, evidence remains fractured across sectors due to methodological and conceptual differences in research and practice. Aligned methods are needed to support Sustainable Development Goal advances and similar agendas. The Bridge Collaborative, an emergent research-practice col...

There are profound differences within the nonprofit sector, and research benefits from the ability to group nonprofits by substantive focus. Researchers typically rely on the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) codes to categorize nonprofits, but we argue that mission statement text offers a better information source for nonprofit researche...

Donors and governments increasingly seek to deliver development projects through community‐based organizations such as self‐help groups (SHGs), but little is known about the effectiveness of such arrangements. This paper briefly summarizes hypotheses regarding the effectiveness of interventions using SHGs and presents the results of an evidence rev...

Nonprofits, governments, and social enterprises face increasing pressure to prove that their programs are making a positive impact on the world. This focus on impact is positive: learning whether we are making a difference enhances our ability to effectively address pressing social problems, and is critical for wise stewardship of resources. Howeve...

All governments, in various ways, regulate and control nonprofit organizations. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), while hopeful of supportive regulatory environments, are simultaneously seeking greater autonomy both to provide services and to advocate for policy change. In part to counter increasing statutory regulation, there is a global nonpr...

We use OLS and logistic regression to investigate variation in husband and wife perspectives on the division of authority over agriculture-related decisions within households in rural Tanzania. Using original data from husbands and wives (interviewed separately) in 1,851 Tanzanian households, the analysis examines differences in the wife’s authorit...

Research on the determinants of foreign aid tends to focus on the relationship between donor country priorities and recipient state characteristics, but donors also make decisions about which organizations and programs within countries will receive assistance. Although NGOs increasingly have been recipients of foreign aid, few data are available to...

Nonprofits seek to enhance their reputation for responsible management by joining voluntary regulation mechanisms such as accountability clubs. Because external stakeholders cannot fully observe nonprofits’ compliance with club obligations, clubs incorporate mechanisms to monitor compliance and impose sanctions. Yet including monitoring and sanctio...

This review is one in a series that examines crop-environment interactions drawing on both the academic literature and the field expertise of crop scientists. In this brief we examine the environmental constraints to, and impacts of, smallholder cassava production systems in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and South Asia (SA), noting where the analysis ap...

Time use researchers working in least developed countries (LDCs) face difficulties collecting data from illiterate populations who may conceptualize time differently than those in industrialized countries. We identify existing gaps in time use data collection methods and discuss two novel, pictorial methods to collect time use data from these popul...

This review is one in a series that examines crop-environment interactions drawing on both the academic literature and the field expertise of crop scientists. In this brief we examine the environmental constraints to, and impacts of, smallholder maize production systems in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and South Asia (SA), noting where findings apply to...

The ability to save for future needs is critical to family well‐being and is especially challenging for low‐income families with little extra income and limited access to institutional structures like employment‐based retirement funds or low cost savings mechanisms. Many nonprofits and governments have created new savings vehicles to fill this void...

Decades of research have been committed to developing effective business logistics systems. In contrast, the important design principles for effective humanitarian logistics systems remains poorly understood. Current research focuses largely on applying business models to humanitarian logistics, however, there remains a fundamental mismatch between...

This paper examines husband and wife perspectives on the division of authority over agriculture-related decision-making within households in Tanzania and Mali. We develop a theoretical model of intrahousehold “accord,” defined as the level of agreement between husbands and wives over who holds authority for different decisions. We then empirically...

Advocacy organizations are viewed as actors motivated primarily by principled beliefs. This volume outlines a new agenda for the study of advocacy organizations, proposing a model of NGOs as collective actors that seek to fulfil normative concerns and instrumental incentives, face collective action problems, and compete as well as collaborate with...

Advocacy organizations are viewed as actors motivated primarily by principled beliefs. This volume outlines a new agenda for the study of advocacy organizations, proposing a model of NGOs as collective actors that seek to fulfil normative concerns and instrumental incentives, face collective action problems, and compete as well as collaborate with...

How can nonprofit organizations and NGOs demonstrate accountability to stakeholders and show that they are using funds appropriately and delivering on their promises? Many nonprofit stakeholders, including funders and regulators, have few opportunities to observe nonprofit internal management and policies. Such information deficits make it difficul...

Nonprofits are increasingly engaged in efforts to develop collective self-regulation systems. These efforts stem in part from of growing pressure on nonprofits to demonstrate accountability and transparency. In spite of the growth in such initiatives, however, little research examines self-regulation in a systematic way across settings, resulting i...

This article examines the evolution of NGO self-regulation in Africa from 1990 through 2009 using cross-national data on 22 countries and more detailed case studies of 6 initiatives. The article uses collective action theory to characterize self-regulation as a collective endeavor in which organizations must find ways to develop and maintain common...

The global nonprofit and nongovernmental (NGO) sector has expanded substantially during the past two decades. As a result of this “global associational revolution” – marked by massive infusion of funds from governments, international organizations, foundations, and individuals – the nonprofit sector became a major component of the social service de...

Nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations (nonprofits, in short) have emerged as important actors across a wide range of policy areas. Along with their contribution to economic growth and democracy (Putnam, 1993), some view them as the key pillars of the emerging world society (Meyer 1997) and world culture. Given their policy potential and the...

How can nonprofit organizations and NGOs demonstrate accountability to stakeholders and show that they are using funds appropriately and delivering on their promises? Many nonprofit stakeholders, including funders and regulators, have few opportunities to observe nonprofit internal management and policies. Such information deficits make it difficul...

In this article we examine how information problems can cause agency slippages and lead to governance failures in nonprofit organizations. Drawing on the principal–agent literature, we provide a theoretical account of an institutional mechanism, namely, voluntary regulation programs, to mitigate such slippages. These programs seek to impose obligat...

The volume outlines a new agenda for the study of advocacy organizations, which are often known as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and social movement organizations. Instead of viewing advocacy NGOs as actors that are primarily motivated by principled beliefs, immune from collective action challenges, and prone to collaborating with other adv...

This article examines the structure of nonprofit voluntary accountability and standard-setting programs, arguing that these programs can be understood as collective action institutions designed to address information asymmetries between nonprofits and their stakeholders. Club theory and the economics of certification suggest that such programs have...

Assuming that individual discount rates are constant over time has important implications for policies and programs that involve intertemporal decision making. Using original data from Vietnam and Russia, we find evidence that discount rates do change over time for many individuals, implying that preferences for savings and credit might not be inte...

Abstract The econo,mic performance,of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) over the past two decades has bee n disappointing. The,initial explanation,for this poor,performance,focussed,on deficien t macroeconomicpolicies. However,a number of SSA countries have undertaken and sustained a reasonable measure of macroeconomic reform and still see no significant ex...

The poor and disadvantaged are widely seen as having weak organizations and low rates of participation in community associations, impeding their political representation and economic advancement. Many policy initiatives aim to build civic participation among the disadvantaged by funding local community associations. Taking advantage of random assig...

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play an increasingly important role in public service provision and policy making in sub-Saharan Africa, stimulating demand for new forms of regulatory oversight. In response, a number of initiatives in NGO self-regulation have emerged. Using cross-national data on 20 African countries, the article shows that s...

This article examines one reason why individuals develop and maintain local-level financial savings organizations known as rotating savings and credit organizations, or Roscas. Economic theories suggest that individuals form Roscas to finance the purchase of a lumpy durable good, in response to intrahousehold conflict over savings, or to provide th...

This paper examines ethnic diversity and local public goods in rural western Kenya. The identification strategy relies on the stable historically determined patterns of ethnic land settlement. Ethnic diversity is associated with lower primary school funding and worse school facilities, and there is suggestive evidence that it leads to poor water we...

Previously the role of social capital - defined as the institutions and networks of relationships between people, and the associated norms and values - in programs of poverty alleviation and development has risen to considerable prominence. Although development practitioners have long suspected that social capital does affect the efficiency and qua...

The concept of scapegoating is frequently used to explain how opportunistic elites attempt to deflect blame onto vulnerable ethnic minorities, particularly during times of social turmoil. However, the notion of scapegoating is undertheorized in the confli

Using original data from Vietnam and Russia, we find that individual's discount rates change over time, replicating earlier results from the United States and Israel. We find that commonly held beliefs about gender differences do not hold, and that agricultural populations have higher discount rates, but that they vary less over time than their urb...

Many argue that organizations of the disadvantaged create positive externalities, and in particular strengthen the position of these groups in society. A natural inference is that these organizations should be subsidized. We argue that the benefits of expanding the operations of these groups must be set against the potential costs of weakening the...

The following bibliography contains literature citations about Sub-Saharan African (SSA) Youth in Agriculture, with an emphasis on youth associations. A few key findings were apparent in the literature search. The first is that "youth" has many definitions, including people as young as age 8 or as old as age 30, depending on the context and the cou...

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) play an increasingly important role in public service provision and policy making in sub-Saharan Africa, giving rise to needs for new forms of regulatory oversight of such entities. In response, a number of initiatives in NGO self-regulation are taking place in Africa, a region not typically noted for its instit...