Political Trust, Tolerance, and Public Goods
This evaluation, in partnership with the USAID Center for Excellence on Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance, studied the role of grinw, political discussion groups ubiquitous in Mali, in generating trust, tolerance, and public goods in post-conflict Mali. The evaluation compared survey responses, political behavior, and outcomes of trust and public goods from individuals to see whether grinw membership is associated with higher levels of trust, tolerance, and willingness to provide public goods. By gathering data on grinw, differences among grinw organization and membership were discovered, allowing for the study of which types of grinw best foster trust, tolerance, political information, and willingness to provide public goods to in-group members and to out-group members. Results from this study were used by USAID to design programs that address the role of civil society in conflict and peace-building in Mali and other countries around the world. The Pulte Institute assisted with the proposal for this project.