How can we learn when we don’t understand the problem?
written by Salimah Samji Most development practitioners think that they are working on problems. However, what they often mean by the word ‘problem’ is the ‘lack of a solution’. This […]
Building State Capability
BSC website gets a makeover
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. […]
Why many development initiatives have achievement gaps…and what to do about this
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 […]
Hirschman’s Hiding Hand and Problem Driven Change
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 […]
Doing Development Differently: Day 2 Summary
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 […]
Doing Development Differently: Day 1 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 […]
Doing Development Differently 2014
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 […]
World Bank uses PDIA in Sierra Leone
written by Salimah Samji International development experts often tell us that they cannot do PDIA because the project processes within their organizations do not allow for flexibility. The truth however, […]
Hello Organization Man: the importance of old (and boring) administration in a new (and exciting) world
written by Matt Andrews Earlier this week, the New York Times ran the following great Op-ed on the lack of administrative focus in governance systems. This is an important article. […]
What is Action Learning?
written by Matt Andrews Action learning is a key part of PDIA. It is “a hybrid technique that allows participants to use what they learn to tackle priority problems within […]