Beyond Solutions: Capability, Development Frontiers, and the Process of Good Change
This work underlines the value of building capability and empowering communities by using India’s reduction in maternal mortality as a comparison point.
South Asia & Pacific
Responding Adaptively to the COVID-19 Crisis in Indonesia: Insights and Implications from an Indonesian Governance Program
The COVID-19 pandemic is employed in this paper to determine how strong public sector organizations are in times of immense stress and panic. Authors use public organizations in Indonesia to test the strength of these groups in this paper.
Tackling the Learning Crisis in Indonesia
Indonesia is facing a learning crisis. While schooling has increased dramatically in the last 30 years, the quality of education has remained mediocre. A team of researchers affiliated with the RISE Programme at SMERU, an Indonesia think tank, adapted the Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) approach and deployed it in four district governments.
PDIA for Systems Change: Tackling the Learning Crisis in Indonesia
This work is a look inside the Indonesian education system. Researchers explored the several challenges leaders face, along with potential solutions provided from a PDIA approach.
How Cities Erode Gender Inequality: A New Theory and Evidence from Cambodia
Support for gender equality is generally higher in cities than rural areas. Research in Cambodia suggests this is driven by greater economic opportunities, exposure to alternative gender roles, and stronger avenues to challenge traditional norms.
Incentivising Pro-Labour Reforms
In Vietnam and Bangladesh, governments allowed pro-labor reforms to develop as they helped the nations break into the international economic markets. This paper proves that countries will reduce labor repression if they perceive this as conducive to export growth.
Learning to Improve the Investment Climate for Economic Diversification: PDIA in Action in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka used a Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation process to help officials identify and address context-specific barriers to investment. The paper shows how governments can build practical capabilities for improving the business climate beyond relying on global indicators.
Learning to Engage New Investors for Economic Diversification: PDIA in Action in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka used a Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation process to build government capacity for attracting investors and foreign expertise into new economic sectors. The paper shows that empowered, committed officials can develop an effective investor-engagement strategy within six months.
Learning to Target for Economic Diversification: PDIA in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka used a Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation process to build government capacity for selecting sectors to support economic diversification. The paper shows that committed, empowered officials can develop an effective targeting system relatively quickly.
Has Sweden injected realism into public financial management reforms in partner countries?
Public financial management strategies fail because they aren’t scaled to local political and administrative norms. This paper examines whether or not Sweden could apply their own PFM moves to support global reforms in Cambodia and Mozambique.