The importance of thinking and working politically in programs concerned with governance and institutional reform is widely recognized – but shifting from thinking politically to working politically is proving a major challenge. The State Accountability and Voice Initiative (SAVI), a governance reform program in Nigeria, supports local partners and stakeholders not through the usual accountable…Continue Reading Rising to the challenge: Supporting PDIA in Nigeria
World Bank uses PDIA in Sierra Leone
written by Salimah Samji International development experts often tell us that they cannot do PDIA because the project processes within their organizations do not allow for flexibility. The truth however, is that all development agencies have some sort of instrument that does allow for experimentation and flexibility. Here’s an example of how a Pay and…Continue Reading World Bank uses PDIA in Sierra Leone
Helping REAL Capacity Emerge in Rwanda using PDIA
written by Matt Andrews What do you do if your government has been pursuing reforms for years, with apparent success, but your economy is still not growing? What do you do if the constraint seems to be the limited capacity of government organizations? What do you do if this capacity remains stubbornly low even after…Continue Reading Helping REAL Capacity Emerge in Rwanda using PDIA
BSC video 25: Real problem driven reform
Solving problems that matter ensure that you are doing something contextually relevant. In this video, Matt Andrews, uses an example of civil service reform in Uganda to illustrate how constructing local problems is the entry point to begin the search for solutions that ultimately drive change. You can watch the video below or on YouTube….Continue Reading BSC video 25: Real problem driven reform
BSC Video 17: Isomorphic Mimicry in Uganda and Melanesia
The systems and structures in development are focused heavily on form and not function. In this video, Michael Woolcock uses examples in Uganda and Melanesia to illustrate what happens when you focus excessively on the form and ignore the function. You can watch the video below or on YouTube. If you are interested in learning…Continue Reading BSC Video 17: Isomorphic Mimicry in Uganda and Melanesia
Bridging the Capacity Gap in Burundi
written by Salimah Samji The knee jerk reaction to building capacity is to organize more training workshops. These are taught by experts and held in fancy locations, with free-flowing food and refreshments. The attendees often do not include the front line workers who are ultimately responsible for implementation. In some cases attendees do learn new…Continue Reading Bridging the Capacity Gap in Burundi
PDIA in Cameroon
written by Salimah Samji In a recent paper entitled, Behavioral Economics and Public Sector Reform: An Accidental Experiment and Lessons from Cameroon, Gael Raballand and Anand Rajaram compare two World Bank projects in Cameroon: a $15 million, 5 year, Transparency and Accountability Capacity Development Project (TACD), and a $300,000, low-profile technical assistance project to improve…Continue Reading PDIA in Cameroon