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Category: All Courses

Posts related to all courses including IPP, LEG, and PDIA in Action.

The luxury of long-term planning in a predictable environment has outlived its shelf-life

Guest blog by Puneet Balasubramanian I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for victories or defeats in battle or in politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit. – John F Kennedy (1962) The current global crisis caused by COVID-19 has once…Continue Reading The luxury of long-term planning in a predictable environment has outlived its shelf-life

Police reform in Bridgeport through PDIA: A radical approach to an old problem

Guest blog by Maria Viggiano As America faces a national reckoning over racial injustice and the over-policing of communities of color, the concept of “defunding the police” has become a hot topic in various cities including my hometown of Bridgeport, Connecticut. As Connecticut’s largest city, Bridgeport is home to over 145,000 people, the majority of…Continue Reading Police reform in Bridgeport through PDIA: A radical approach to an old problem

‘IPP helped my transition from the private sector to the public sector’

Guest blog written by Giannis Skiadaresis Being part of this very exceptional course was a great opportunity for me to alter the way I was coping with challenges and to find solutions to problems that I was facing in my day-to-day work. Implementing Public Policy was a very unique chapter in my personal development, which coincided…Continue Reading ‘IPP helped my transition from the private sector to the public sector’

Encouraging Nigeria’s youth to engage in agribusiness

Guest blog written by Murtala Mohammad Abubakar The understanding of Public Policy Implementation became a necessity for me after my appointment as the Senior Special Assistant on SDGs to the Executive Governor of Nasarawa State, Nigeria. My career path has, up till then been in the Private sector where the main aim is profiteering as…Continue Reading Encouraging Nigeria’s youth to engage in agribusiness

Reimagining policing and passing reparations in Asheville, NC

Guest blog written by William Young There is nothing in the United States of America that policy does not dictate. In a world where politics touches nearly every aspect of our lives, we are surrounded by public policy. How do we get to that point? The point where policy is implemented into our daily lives, known…Continue Reading Reimagining policing and passing reparations in Asheville, NC

Working on trade in Mexico from Sao Paulo

Guest blog written by Oscar Benitez We all experienced the turmoil caused by Covid-19 in 2020. We will spend years trying to describe how it became a huge setback for every activity and economic sector. In my case, I spent several months putting on hold most of the projects of the year, to eventually seeing them…Continue Reading Working on trade in Mexico from Sao Paulo

Teaching an Experiential Problem-based Class Online during the Pandemic

written by Salimah Samji BSC Faculty Director Matt Andrews and I have been co-teaching PDIA in Action: Development through Facilitated Emergence at the Harvard Kennedy School since 2018. This is a field-lab class where students learn a research-oriented version of PDIA by working on real-world public problems – they learn by doing. The students work together in…Continue Reading Teaching an Experiential Problem-based Class Online during the Pandemic

Countering Radicalization in France

Police officers approaching a crowd with French flag in background

Guest blog written by Mer Carattini, Sasha Mathew, Imara Salas, Kishan Shah, Katie Wesdyk The PDIA process taught us how to turn a ‘wicked problem’—a highly complex tangle of many problems with high uncertainty—into manageable components that we can begin to address. We learned a strategy for how to deconstruct an abstract problem with the…Continue Reading Countering Radicalization in France

Abandoned Infrastructure Projects in Nigeria

Crowded urban center with minibus and taxi traffic and cargo train moving through

Guest blog written by Nathalie Gazzaneo, Tendai Mvuvu, Rodrigo Tejada, Matt Weber On a winter’s afternoon in early February this year, a Mexican MPP1, a Brazilian MPP2, a Zimbabwean MC-MPA and an American MC-MPA randomly stepped up to the plate of abandoned projects in Nigeria. We, the four students and travelers, had never crossed our…Continue Reading Abandoned Infrastructure Projects in Nigeria

Implementing the Vision Zero plan in Lancaster, PA

Guest blog written by Cindy McCormick Before this course, as an engineer that’s spent most of my career in the private sector, and four years working in municipal government, I never really thought much about ‘public policy’ and wasn’t even sure what it meant.  My new boss of six months thought it would be a good…Continue Reading Implementing the Vision Zero plan in Lancaster, PA