written by Matt Andrews A preamble to my views on Morocco Earlier this year I wrote a paper and a blog on why African countries struggle to win in global soccer. I argued that teams from these nations seem stuck at middling levels of competitive participation (who they compete against) and rivalry (how often they…Continue Reading Morocco’s Semi-Final Soccer Capabilities
written by Matt Andrews I wrote a blog post earlier this week asking if an African country has what it takes to win soccer’s World Cup. Some people asked why I chose that topic—and especially why I took the time to write this longer paper about it! The reason is simple. I work on public policy, mostly in developing…Continue Reading African Soccer and a Country’s Capabilities to Compete
written by Matt Andrews The Africa Cup of Nations soccer tournament began in Cameroon this week. It has already provided the excitement fans were hoping for. While watching, I wonder how African countries will perform in the World Cup tournament at the end of the year. Is this the tournament where an African team wins,…Continue Reading Will an African country win the soccer World Cup?
written by Matt Andrews Governments are most important in times of public crisis. This is where individuals—no matter how talented or self-reliant—look to their governments for help; to empower or use or deploy the powers and potentialities of the collective on behalf of that collective. But many people tasked with leading public organizations in times…Continue Reading Public Leadership Through Crisis 1: Can public leaders navigate high winds and big waves in little boats?
As you may have noticed, our website was antiquated, to say the least. The task of giving it a makeover has been on the back burner for a while now. We are proud to finally announce that our new website is live! The site provides an overview of PDIA, links to our blog and lists…Continue Reading BSC website gets a makeover
written by Matt Andrews Yesterday I blogged about Hirschman’s Hiding Hand. As I interpret it, a central part of his idea is that many development projects: focus on solving complex problems, and only once they have started does a ‘hiding hand’ lift to show how hard the problem is to solve, but because policy-makers and…Continue Reading Why many development initiatives have achievement gaps…and what to do about this
written by Matt Andrews I referred to Albert Hirschman’s work on the “Principle of the Hiding Hand” in my class today. It is a great principle, and has real application when thinking about PDIA and problem driven change. In his essay, “The Principle of the Hiding Hand” Hirschman argues that creative solutions most frequently come from adapting…Continue Reading Hirschman’s Hiding Hand and Problem Driven Change
Yesterday was the last day of Doing Development Differently (#differentdev). A group of about 40 development professionals from around the world met to discuss positive cases where development initiatives (call them projects, interventions, activities or whatever) have led to real results and impact. It was another full day with two DDD Exchange Sessions, a PDIA…Continue Reading Doing Development Differently: Day 2 Summary
Today was the first day of Doing Development Differently (#differentdev). It was a full day with two DDD Exchange Sessions, a design thinking session and a wind tunnel meeting. View the videos, tweets and photos. When we designed this workshop, we wanted to maximize the opportunity to hear from as many people as possible. Specifically, we…Continue Reading Doing Development Differently: Day 1 Summary
Last October, we hosted a one-day workshop entitled, Untying Development: Promoting Governance and Government with Impact. The day brought together different voices to discuss the challenge of creating a governance agenda that focuses on solving country-specific problems, involves local people through flexible and context-fitted processes, and emphasizes learning in the reform process. We are proud…Continue Reading Doing Development Differently 2014
