Economic Resilience in Wyoming

Guest blog by Ron Gullberg, LEG ’23

Lions and camels and hippos, oh my!

The Leading Economic Growth (LEG) course provided the necessary tools – and wild kingdom metaphors – to navigate the complexities of identifying and addressing binding constraints to growth in Wyoming as a state and in communities.

Updated French PDIA Toolkit

Our French PDIA toolkit has been updated to include translated BSC book chapters as well as links to all toolkit videos with French subtitles available.

Upscaling Recruitment in the Greater Sepik Labour Mobility Program in Papua New Guinea

Guest blog written by Cameron Artango, David Kaling, Nadia Kun, Sharlyne Mangai, and Emmanuel Tomarum

Youth Unemployment stands to be a great issue in present Papua New Guinea. In Team Survivors, we worked on addressing part of this issue through the Greater Sepik Labour Mobility Program in East Sepik, Papua New Guinea. As individuals who are committed to working in the deliverance of this program, the team was brought together to work on how to best reform the program and up-scale recruitment to labour mobility schemes abroad. Our team comprised of a Human Resource Executive Director, a Provincial Youth Coordinator, and three Youth Advocates and Volunteers.

Applying PDIA to Land Conflicts in Uganda

Guest blog by Smith T. Matsiko, IPP ’23

This article gives a practical application of Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) on the implementation challenge of deconflicting land in Uganda, providing the progress made and insights about the problem of land conflicts in Uganda as well as key lessons learnt from SLAAC policy intervention. 

Further insights are shared on how PDIA approach has been used, applied and also changed the conventional approach on public policy implementation. The key lessons learnt have been shared in reference to implementation. 

Doing Recycling Differently in Jordan

Guest blog by Tim Kornprobst, LEG ’23

The past 10 weeks have been an inspiring for me. Thanks to the Leading Economic Growth Program, I have better understood the complexity of an important challenge: Recycling in Jordan. Prior to the course, as a researcher and advisor, I have worked with the methods of the Center for International Development, in particular Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA). However, despite my studies and practice, I have discovered many new approaches that will influence my work in current project and my future career.  

PDIA Toolkit Available in Arabic!

We are excited to see the PDIA methodology being utilized and adapted in many countries around the world. In an effort to continue making our tools and materials more accessible, we have translated our PDIA Toolkit into other languages including French, German, Indonesian, Khmer, Portuguese, and Spanish. We are delighted to announce the PDIA Toolkit is now also available in Arabic!

Lack of Monitoring and Reporting on the Capital Investment Budget in Papua New Guinea

Guest blog by Langa Kopio, Herry Mek, Frank Awape, Linson Karu, Joe Willie  

Over the past 7 weeks our team has been working on our problem statement, which is the ‘Lack of Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting on the Capital Investment Budget (CIB) in Papua New Guinea’. We started off with the lack of governance in Papua New Guinea. But after the first five weeks of going through the program we needed to be more focused and decided to narrow down the problem. 

Expanding Affordable Housing in Lagos, Nigeria 

Guest blog by Akinderu Fatai Moruf, IPP’23

In 2019, I was privileged to assume the role of Commissioner of Housing in Lagos State, the commercial capital of Nigeria with a large population of about 23 million.  I was entrusted with the pivotal task of spearheading strategic initiatives to facilitate the expansion of affordable housing. Apart from the fact that there were lots of either abandoned or ongoing projects.  There are lot of gaps in the supply of housing units especially for the low-income earners.  

Low Rate of Female Employment in STEM in Costa Rica

Guest blog by Lilliana Carranza, LEG’23

One of the main lessons learned in addressing the growth challenges in my country was to eliminate the idea that successful external recipes will lead us to solve local problems. 

This practice is very widespread in Latin America where the recipes of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Inter-American Economic Development Bank (among others); Many times, they are imposed from outside and assumed by the politicians in power as the way to follow. In the course I learned that this approach does not focus on the problem or take into account the actors on whom the success or failure of said strategies really depends. 

Death and Taxes in Papua New Guinea 

Guest blog written by Minnie Banimbi, Salome Delabu, Michelle Fimaimba, Cieran Kelly, Eunice Takendu 

Embarking on a journey through the PDIA course, we discovered a rich tapestry of skills crucial for effective problem-solving. We focused on the essentials of collective action, including teamwork, the clear articulation and deconstruction of problems, action facilitation and authorization, and the effectiveness of tackling large problems with small, iterative steps. Additionally, the importance of ‘soft’ skills was emphasized throughout our learning experience.