Sector – Page 16 – Building State Capability

Connecting Young Professionals to Local Government Public Service in Scottsdale, Arizona

Publication date May 2, 2023

Guest blog by Stephanie Zamora, MPA Taking on large organizational or societal challenges requires a degree of creativity, risk-taking, and discomfort in addressing them properly. While we can certainly continue to rely on traditional methods of policy implementation, we may find ourselves missing the mark, not delivering on promises, and depleting the most scare resource:…Continue Reading Connecting Young Professionals to Local Government Public Service in Scottsdale, Arizona

Go Fish! Tackling Chronic Street Homelessness in Central Beaverton

Publication date May 1, 2023

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

Tax Administration in Trinidad and Tobago

Publication date April 26, 2023

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

Tackling Affordable Housing in Tarrant County Texas

Publication date April 24, 2023

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

Imagining the Future of Parks and Libraries in Bristol, UK

Publication date April 21, 2023

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

Increasing Enrollment in a Senior Citizen Employment Program in MA

Publication date April 19, 2023

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

Unlocking the Key to Safe Housing in Scranton, Pennsylvania

Publication date April 17, 2023

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

Providing Quality Health Care in Kaduna State, Nigeria

Publication date April 12, 2023

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

Exploring Labor Market Challenges in Bogotá, Colombia

Publication date April 4, 2023

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

Exploring Homelessness in Philadelphia

Publication date March 30, 2023

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