Guest blog by Mekalia Paulos Aklilu, IPP ’24
The last 6 months have been truly insightful as I embarked on the ‘IPP journey’. I thought I knew sufficiently enough about public policy, but yet was keen on broadening my perspectives and reinforcing, fine-tuning and honing my expertise on the issue. IPP exceeded my expectations! It was a unique experience that provided an ‘unorthodox’ way of looking at public policy, primarily through the PDIA tool, particularly coming from the United Nations. It was very innovative, fresh and caused me to view public policy implementation differently. I relished having my assumptions disrupted…and IPP did not fail to deliver.
I have always worked towards being effective in my duties and responsibilities at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) as I provide technical assistance and policy advice to our African member States in the realm of climate action, the energy transition and financing. Policy implementation is a complex undertaking and requires commitment for the long-haul. There are numerous ‘mountains and valleys’; thorny challenges keep on popping up and one requires patience, persistence and tenacity. I must admit that at times, the inertia or ‘slow’ movement of implementation can make one question the policy paradigms that are in place.
Enter PDIA. This new norm of problem construction/deconstruction, finding entry points and constantly iterating/adapting towards emergence was completely new to me. I hail from the ‘plan and control’ approach: when faced with a policy challenge, one plans meticulously and follows the plan in a controlled way, replete with monitoring and eval mechanisms, internal controls and audits through which one checks whether the plan has been followed. Very clear-cut and ‘black and white’, so to speak. Hence, the ‘grey-ness’ of PDIA was intriguing to me. Addressing big solutions periodic, repeated small steps can aid us to learn our way to new ideas and new capabilities.
Crucially, the ‘stairway to heaven’ of legitimacy and functionality has been very useful to me. Admittedly, I am nowhere near solving my implementation challenge for a variety of reasons. I am still iterating and taking an incremental approach, having learnt the wisdom of celebrating the ‘small victories’. Seeing progress towards attaining my goal, no matter how small, has kept me motivated. Despite my main authorizer’s green light towards proceeding with my implementation challenge, the funding we had hoped for did not pan out and pivotal colleagues I had hoped would be engaged in my implementation challenge turned out to have more pressing priorities. Hence, things did not transpire in the way that I had anticipated. Yet, I was not deterred, opting to adapt my vision and my actions, “sticking with it” and meeting with diverse stakeholders, searching for ‘allies with authority, ability and acceptance’ to see how to take the challenge forward. Interestingly, communicating my learning has been powerful. As Matt poignantly stated, “we do not have all the answers ourselves, but when we work together amazing things can happen.”
The course has been insightful in numerous ways. The urge to be persistent and keeping one’s eye on the end goal and never giving up have permeated in other areas of my work and life as well. I am employing my learnings of PDIA and the overall skills imparted to me, for instance, of zeroing in on trying to identify the problem as an entry point to tackling a challenge. I am humbled to have been taught by the incredible IPP teams in a very compelling learning environment indeed, even for experienced leaders hailing from all corners of the world. I am grateful to now be equipped with the PDIA tool as I tackle development issues in Africa. I feel empowered and armed with fresh insights and tools to navigate the complex work of my implementation challenge, particularly in light of the obstacles I have faced. I will continue to focus on small wins towards attaining the final goal, with patience, persistence and tenacity.
This is a blog series written by the alumni of the Implementing Public Policy Executive Education Program at the Harvard Kennedy School. 42 Participants successfully completed this 6-month hybrid program in November 2024. These are their learning journey stories.