Guest blog by Mike Backman, Alicia Bermes, Dawn Borgardt, Jenny Haruyama, Kim Haughn, Stacy Jepson, Marni Kuyl, Sia Lindstrom When our team first began our journey to tackle homelessness, we were looking through a fisheye lens. The problem we wanted to tackle was broad, it involved a large area – all of Beaverton – and…Continue Reading Go Fish! Tackling Chronic Street Homelessness in Central Beaverton
Guest blog by Chiedza Juru, Gigi Hui, Michael Bediako, Manuel Sada Vazquez, Therese Wagner As we found out throughout this course, the challenges faced by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago are many, not least of which is the profound issue of declining tax revenue and generalized tax evasion. While this problem is not new…Continue Reading Tax Administration in Trinidad and Tobago
Guest Blog by: Abby Yang, Amina Benzakour Knidel, Gulnaz Kordanova, Priyanka Varma, Sana Ikram, and Shashwat These past seven weeks, the six of us, all from different personal and professional backgrounds, worked together to learn about and practice how to apply the problem driven iterative adaptation (PDIA) approach to a real-life issue. Specifically, we worked…Continue Reading Tackling Affordable Housing in Tarrant County Texas
Guest blog by Louis Costa, Sofia Martinez, Anjali Nemorin, Mahabuba Rahman, Leonardo da Silveira, Prasanya Thirupathy Over the course of the “PDIA in action” class at the Kennedy School, our team, The Night Owls, worked together in a very dynamic way to find entry points to a real-world, complex problem in just seven weeks. Our…Continue Reading Imagining the Future of Parks and Libraries in Bristol, UK
Guest blog by Danielle Bayer, Julia Lemesh, Othmane Ouhaddach, Konstantin Usov, Nanako Yamaguchi The Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) is a federally funded community service and work-based job training program for low-income Americans who are 55+ years old. A program authorized by the Older Americans Act, SCSEP provides training for low-income, unemployed seniors, many…Continue Reading Increasing Enrollment in a Senior Citizen Employment Program in MA
Lessons from Scranton: How Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation Can Transform an Intractable Housing Crisis for Vulnerable Groups Group blog by Michael Reschke, Velaphi Mamba, VK Vu, Nadyah Hilmi, Ussen Galym, Sam Pairavi How do you address a minimally framed development challenge without data and an ominously opaque understanding of the real problem? Where do you…Continue Reading Unlocking the Key to Safe Housing in Scranton, Pennsylvania
Guest blog by Anis Saidi, David Friedman, Diksha Kataria, Krista Gon, Lucy Kruske, Tatenda Mujeni, Younmi Kim Complex problems are not impossible to solve. As we learned over the course of this module, PDIA teams must adopt a humble, progressive, and iterative approach to tackle complex problems successfully. The initial step is deconstructing the problem…Continue Reading Providing Quality Health Care in Kaduna State, Nigeria
Guest blog by Soraya Mohideen, Shunta Takino, Michaela Tobin, Akinobu Toyoda, Andres Valenciano Writing a team constitution seemed like a tedious step, but it was vital and something that we recognized as beneficial in other contexts. The process of developing a constitution got every team member to think about what a well-functioning and effective team…Continue Reading Exploring Labor Market Challenges in Bogotá, Colombia
Guest blog by Kriti Chopra, Kish Greene, Apoorva Murari, Romita Shah, Abeer Al-Zubaidi On a cold January day, we kicked off the semester with a deep-seated desire to make a difference in the lives of others. By the end of our first class for Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA), we were given a challenge commensurate…Continue Reading Exploring Homelessness in Philadelphia
Guest blog by Hanna Demissie, IPP ’22 It was initially the idea of my boss, who is the Chairperson of the Election Commission and a Harvard Kennedy School alumna, to apply to the IPP program. Fortunately, despite my anxiety and hesitation, I found IPP extremely impactful, and it changed my understanding of policy challenges and…Continue Reading PDIA: An Inclusive Approach to Fortify Voting Rights of Internally Displaced Persons in Ethiopia
