Reducing Youth Unemployment in Nigeria

Guest blog by Esther Adegunle, IPP ’23

“Two professionals, an Economist and a Brilliant Citizen, catch up to discuss the Economist’s recent educational journey at Harvard Kennedy School and its impact on their work in Nigeria.”

Brilliant Citizen: Hello, my Economist, you are looking good and happy!

Economist: Thank you, I certainly am happy.

Brilliant Citizen: You are one of the few that are happy in this hard Nigerian economy and all the global crises. Please share some of the good news, I really need it too.

Economist: I agree there are many things happening to make one sad, but I try to focus on the other good things happening around. For me, one is completing my course with Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) in a few weeks.

Weaving Health into the Policy Fabric: Dearborn’s Journey Toward Inclusive Governance 

Guest blog by Ali Abazeed, IPP ’23

Introduction 

In the quiet bustle of my hometown of Dearborn, Michigan, the city that put the world on wheels, a new kind of revolution is brewing within the halls of government that brings the same locomotive force as a motor vehicle. Except this vehicle isn’t propelled by four wheels and a combustible engine. Rather, the vehicle is a lens that allows the city to incorporate health considerations into everything we do as a city government. 

Dearborn Public Health (DPH) formally launched in April 2022, becoming just the 2nd city in Michigan with a health department. The department is piloting an interdisciplinary health-in-all-policies approach that integrates and articulates health considerations across government to improve the health and well-being of residents across the life course. As the founding director of public health, I found myself at the forefront of this transformative movement and brought this work to the corridors of this classroom. The Implementing Public Policy program at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Executive Education became my compass, guiding me through the uncharted waters of policy integration. 

Implementing the Social Emotional Learning in the Lebanese Educational Curriculum

Guest blog by Tania Tannous, IPP ’23

As a school psychologist, responsible of child protection, my love language is to take care of students in the school environment. I used to work on two referral axes, the first one being able to spread awareness about some emotional social and cultural subjects and the second one being able to work on the individual follow up level for the students. 

My organization, the Lebanese Ministry of Education, norms are about supporting the students’ education, mental health, and safety in the school environment. 

Taking Action to Reduce Poverty in Tempe, Arizona

Guest blog by Parrish Spisz, IPP ’23

I need to tell the truth. I almost didn’t make it to this Harvard Kennedy School Implementing Public Policy (IPP) course. I glanced the first email announcing the course and deleted it. Another email was sent and I deleted it. A third email was sent. I read it more closely and I thought, maybe this is worth considering. I asked the Mayor who he’d like to send to the program. He asked me for my recommendations. I wanted to go but thought it would be strange to recommend myself. I told the Mayor I that I would talk with the City Manager to create a shortlist for him to choose a candidate. To my surprise the City Manager included my name on the list. With my name on his list, it wouldn’t be rude to take the opportunity. However, I still felt I needed to defer to someone else. I called another colleague on the list. She was interested but her job demands wouldn’t allow her to participate. She asked me, “Why don’t you go?” I replied, I will go. The Mayor agreed.

Redefining Development Policy and Management

written by Matt Andrews

I teach international development policy and management courses – to degree program and executive students. Twenty years ago, my classrooms were dominated by people from what we used to call (and still call) ‘developing countries’. These are typically poorer countries in the global south, that are the prime customers of development organizations and NGOs. I saw my job as working with folk from these countries, which was what differentiated my work from other non-development-oriented public policy and management academics. 

The composition of my classrooms has changed in the last decade, however. I have many more students from higher income countries in the global north – especially in executive education – deeply interested in learning about ‘development’. At the same time, my non-development colleagues are finding an increased interest in their classes – on topics like negotiations, persuasion, 21^st century leadership, and more – from poorer countries in the global south.

This has caused me to reflect on what I now believe ‘development policy and management’ is about.

Regulatory improvement and digitization of the government procedure service in Monterrey City

Guest blog by Cintia Smith, IPP ’23

I started the IPP program a year after beginning the analysis of the public issue we were addressing, which, in our case, was “the malfunctioning of municipal service to deliver procedures due to bureaucratic burdens.” Just when we were about to start implementing the governmental digital services and procedures platform, I became familiar with PDIA. For this reason, my considerations in this blog will focus around the lessons the course provided me when it is time to implement public innovation projects.

Combining parenthood and employment in Belgium: What is the problem?

Guest blog by Silvia Steisel, IPP ’23

My role as a leader in a philanthropic organization focused on employment has led me to the realization multiple times that we were attempting to address complex issues in an inadequate manner. Employment is a multifaceted sector influenced by various cyclical, cultural, social, and political factors. Challenges related to employment span from issues of access and equal opportunities to health, skills, job creation, job destruction, technology, aging, and more. How does one tackle these problems? Where does one begin? How does one navigate the complexities, especially in a country where employment is heavily influenced by public policy? How can a smaller, private philanthropic funder make a meaningful impact?

Policies developed not having sufficient outcomes and impact on the African continent

Guest blog by Sheila Shawa, IPP ’23

My journey on implementing public policy I am only realising now, started in the early years on my career in the public sector. I always felt that the policies that were developed did take into consideration the context of the intended communities. I kept wondering if things could be done any better. As life would have it, I found myself in an organisation where policy was developed and I did my best to improve the process including providing sufficient information beforehand during the development process, ensuring that the relevant stakeholders (especially the beneficiaries of the policy) where consulted during the process and feedback was received, and with the feedback coming up with a policy that was aligned to address the needs at community level through a people driven approach. The policies promote Country leadership and ownership so that the solutions are tailored to the needs of the beneficiaries . I felt that getting the process right and ensuring that the policy is as demand driven as possible, implementation would be much easier, but this is rarely the case. The impact is there to a certain degrees but much less than expected and so when I heard about IPP, I was very excited and registered for the course.

Building public trust in the midst of crisis and change

Guest blog by Jennifer Hale Christy, IPP ’23

I began my Implementing Public Policy journey in May of 2023, eight months into serving as Chief of Staff to the Mayor of Beaverton, Oregon. Before that, I served as the Mayor’s Communication Officer for nearly two years. My journey to public service was unconventional–from seminary to teaching, higher education administration, pastoring, and entrepreneurship–to local government.

While unconventional, there are some common threads: a strong focus on community, a call to service, and communication-focused work. My first date with local government was a neighborhood association meeting I attended as an associate minister of a church in the neighborhood. By the third meeting, I became the chair and started meeting with neighborhood program staff at the city.

Building a 15-minute city in lower income neighborhoods – with people, not for people 

Guest blog by Joyce Pan Huang, IPP ’23

As someone new to the public sector in the last two years, I leapt at the opportunity to attend the Implementing Public Policy program. I enjoyed building friendships and connections with government officials and policymakers from around the world. While our challenges were different across the world, we could relate to the commonalities among government work on the local, state, and national levels. 

It was easy to engage right away with the ideas from Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation. The City Planning sector is notorious for planning toward an idealized future and “locking in the plan”. Plans that “sit on the shelf” signal implementation failure.  Further, the long list of implementation actions in the last portion of the plan ought to happen in real time based on political and resource realities, including an honest evaluation of levels of authorization and policy legitimacy.