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Category: Staff Picks

Helping Current and Future Adolescent Girls Requires Bailing Out the Boat but Also Fixing the Hole

Guest blog written by Michelle Kaffenberger, Kirsty Newman, Marla Spivack Guaranteeing quality education for every girl requires a two-pronged approach: bailing out the boat and fixing the hole in its hull. We need to invest in today’s primary school girls—who are future adolescents—to ensure that they gain the foundational skills they need to start and…Continue Reading Helping Current and Future Adolescent Girls Requires Bailing Out the Boat but Also Fixing the Hole

Panama Embassy official writes about promoting US-Panama trade ties

Guest blog by Franklin Morales, Head of Commercial and Economic Affairs at the Embassy of Panama in the United States. A few years ago, I became a diplomat of my country in the United States.  Over time, I gained more responsibility until I became the Head of the Commercial and Economic Section. I am responsible…Continue Reading Panama Embassy official writes about promoting US-Panama trade ties

Food security in Burien, WA during COVID-19 pandemic

Guest blog by Kevin Schilling COVID spread within three months of my first term on Burien City Council.  When I ran for the office a few months prior to that, my expectations for policies to implement focused primarily on improving coordination between our city’s robust social service providers and the city’s administrative capabilities.  However, these priorities…Continue Reading Food security in Burien, WA during COVID-19 pandemic

A Hands-on Deconstruction of Youth Unemployment in Kenya

Guest blog by Moses Sitati When I received a work email asking for my interest in taking the Leading Economic Growth course, I quickly had a look and was not entirely sure that it was the one for me. I did some quick mental calculation to check whether it made sense for me to devote scarce…Continue Reading A Hands-on Deconstruction of Youth Unemployment in Kenya

Developing State Capacity in a Weak State

Village in Bihar state, India

Guest blog written by Dr Himanshu Jha Dr Himanshu Jha is a Lecturer and Research Fellow at the Department of Political Science, South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University. What engenders state capacity in a weak state?  How do weak states develop state capacity? And Under what conditions do policy paradigms succeed in historically weak states? In this…Continue Reading Developing State Capacity in a Weak State

What Scrabble-playing Monkeys Have to Do with Contractors in Texas: Lessons from Leading Economic Growth

Guest blog by Maggie Jones Finding contractors in Texas right now is hard. Really hard. Finding contractors to work on a niche federally-funded home repair program with lots of red tape and paperwork is nearly impossible. Or so we thought. Fortunately for us, the many lessons from Leading Economic Growth over the last 10 weeks have…Continue Reading What Scrabble-playing Monkeys Have to Do with Contractors in Texas: Lessons from Leading Economic Growth

On being and becoming a “development expert”

Block letters spelling "Expert" with soft focus world map in background

written by Michael Woolcock Half-way through my HKS course on ‘Social Institutions and Economic Development’ I host a class, usually timed to be given on the eve of spring break, on what it means to be a “development expert”, especially as it pertains to engaging with social institutions. For better or worse, I now have…Continue Reading On being and becoming a “development expert”

Anticipatory Government

Guest blog by Urkhan Seyidov Urkhan Seyidov is an expert in the field of innovation and strategic communication, a senior fellow of the Center for Political Psychology in Azerbaijan, and the author of two books: Innovation – Implementation Guidelines and Soft power and Public Diplomacy of Azerbaijan in the Digital Age.  Imagine a gleaming government office tower in…Continue Reading Anticipatory Government

To Increase Girls’ Schooling, Improve Girls’ Learning

written by Michelle Kaffenberger, Danielle Sobol, Deborah Spindelman, Marla Spivack A new paper shows that girls who are learning are more likely to stay in school. Improving learning could be key to achieving both schooling and learning goals. The G7 recently agreed to two new education objectives: ensure that 40 million more girls attend school and that…Continue Reading To Increase Girls’ Schooling, Improve Girls’ Learning

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