written by Salimah Samji Wow – I can’t believe that we’ve trained 1,112 development practitioners in 86 countries through our free PDIA online course! When we first launched this course in November 2015, we thought that training 50 people would be wildly successful. So my friends – the state of the PDIA course is strong!…Continue Reading PDIA Course: 1,000+ alumni in 3 years
10 new things we did in 2018
written by Salimah Samji It’s February and 2018 feels like a long time ago! Last year, I wrote my first annual stock taking blog and I’ve been meaning to write a follow up since early January, but 2019 has been off to an incredibly busy start. As you may know, we are small team of…Continue Reading 10 new things we did in 2018
Can States Promote Game Changing Growth?
written by Matt Andrews This post relates to the working paper, ‘Who Wins in the World Economy and English Football?’ The Question: ‘Can We Get Game Changing Growth?’ Governments are interested in addressing many problems. In our experience at Building State Capability (BSC), the number one problem always centers on the word ‘growth’. However, the problem is…Continue Reading Can States Promote Game Changing Growth?
Registration for our free PDIA online course is now closed
We are delighted to announce that we will be offering The Practice of PDIA: Building Capability by Delivering Results once again, from February 3 – May 19, 2019. This is a 15-week course for practitioners who are in the weeds of development and actually want to learn how to do PDIA. In this course you will have the opportunity…Continue Reading Registration for our free PDIA online course is now closed
How often do public policies really fail? A question to help you escape the policy futility trap
written by Matt Andrews Last week I blogged about the ‘public policy futility trap’ in which countries get stuck when a negative feedback loop institutionalizes itself in the public policy domain. Experiences of past policy failure erodes the confidence (of citizens and public officials) to deliver in future, which undermines the potential for positive future…Continue Reading How often do public policies really fail? A question to help you escape the policy futility trap
Implementing Public Policy: Is it possible to escape the ‘Public Policy Futility’ trap?
written by Matt Andrews Polls suggest that governments across the world face high levels of citizen dissatisfaction, and low levels of citizen trust. The 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer found, for instance, that only 43% of those surveyed trust Canada’s government. Only 15% of those surveyed trust government in South Africa, and levels are low in…Continue Reading Implementing Public Policy: Is it possible to escape the ‘Public Policy Futility’ trap?
Introducing the PDIA Toolkit

written by Salimah Samji In 2009, we began to explore how to do PDIA in the real world. Our early engagements helped us learn, develop and refine our tools – some of our key ideas (problem construction, problem driven convening, problem deconstruction, sequencing, action pushes etc.) emerged from this process. In 2012, the Building State…Continue Reading Introducing the PDIA Toolkit
Bottom-up PDIA and the fishbone diagram – “a tool for life, not just for business”

Guest blog written by Rosie Pinnington and Iana Barenboim In Oxford Policy Management’s DFID-funded MUVA programme, informal female market sellers have been using the PDIA-inspired fishbone diagram to diagnose their own problems. This has helped them identify the factors that limit their businesses’ growth, allowing MUVA to be led by the views and experiences of the…Continue Reading Bottom-up PDIA and the fishbone diagram – “a tool for life, not just for business”
Announcing our newest online course: Creating Public Value
We are delighted to announce that we will be offering a brand new free online course entitled Creating Public Value, from October 7 – December 2, 2018. The course will be taught by Mark H. Moore, Professor of Strategic Public Management at the Harvard Kennedy School. This is an 8-week course for individuals who have executive responsibility in government…Continue Reading Announcing our newest online course: Creating Public Value
Applying the ‘triple A’ framework in Pakistan and Palestine: what we learnt about implementing reform

Guest blog written by Albert Pijuan and David Hoole 86 development practitioners at OPML have successfully completed the 15-week Practice of PDIA online course over the past two years. This is a story of how they are using the PDIA tools. At Oxford Policy Management, we have been building on and incorporating the lessons from the…Continue Reading Applying the ‘triple A’ framework in Pakistan and Palestine: what we learnt about implementing reform