Category: Other

“There is Rubbish Everywhere!”

Guest blog written by Sinit Zeru, Safiatou Diallo, Diaraye Diallo, Himideen Toure and Sophie Tidman Team Guinea successfully completed the 15-week Practice of PDIA online course that ended in June 2018. This is their story.  During a press conference held before his second term, Guinea’s President, Alpha Conde, eloquently summarised our team’s chosen challenge: “there is rubbish everywhere!”  In the…Continue Reading “There is Rubbish Everywhere!”

PDIA and Climate Change Adaptation

written by Tim O’Brien and Salimah Samji We launched a pilot course entitled “The Practice of PDIA: Adapting to Climate Change,” in September 2017. This was our first attempt at customizing our free, PDIA online course to a specific theme of development problems. Our motivations in choosing climate change adaptation as an anchor for the…Continue Reading PDIA and Climate Change Adaptation

We recently ran a PDIA course on climate change adaptation. Why?

written by Tim O’Brien Leader of farming cooperative in central Sri Lanka that diversified into ginger production as drought increasingly hurt rice cultivation. If you live in a developed country, odds are that you think about climate change as something that will harm future generations — your children or your grandchildren perhaps. But if you…Continue Reading We recently ran a PDIA course on climate change adaptation. Why?

How do money, ideas and, reforms come together to produce better development outcomes?

Despite the considerable time, money, and effort that aid agencies, international organizations, and NGOs expend producing analysis and advice to inform or influence policymakers in developing countries, there is a remarkable lack of understanding about which of these instruments are most and least effective at spurring and sustaining reforms – and why. In an attempt…Continue Reading How do money, ideas and, reforms come together to produce better development outcomes?

Making the case for case studies in development practice

Written by Michael Woolcock The frequency and sophistication with which case studies are deployed by social scientists has greatly expanded in recent years. The goal now is not merely to document or describe, but to diagnose, explain, interpret, and inform a basis for action. Professional schools across the disciplines – from medicine and engineering to…Continue Reading Making the case for case studies in development practice