written by Matt Andrews Many have asked me how I personally think about governance and assess governance when I visit countries. I have a new working paper that presents my thoughts on this. These thoughts manifest in what I call an ends-means approach to looking at governance. I focus on ends as a starting point…Continue Reading Getting Real about Governance and Governance Indicators
The Chief Minister Posed Questions We Couldn’t Answer
Guest post written by Jeffrey Hammer I was recently at a conference in Lahore, Pakistan sponsored by the International Growth Centre where the keynote address was given by Shahbaz Sharif, the Chief Minister of the province of Punjab, Pakistan (100+ million people). While fun to see old friends and colleagues, the conference was a little depressing in…Continue Reading The Chief Minister Posed Questions We Couldn’t Answer
You cannot Juggle without the Struggle: How the USA historically avoided the “Tyranny of Experts”
written by Lant Pritchett The period between the end of the American Civil War and the end of World War II saw a transformation of America with the rise of dominant large organizations in both the private economy and public life. The economic historian Alfred Chandler’s in The Visible Hand and Scale and Scope documents…Continue Reading You cannot Juggle without the Struggle: How the USA historically avoided the “Tyranny of Experts”
Rigorous evaluation, but to what end?
written by Salimah Samji Many development projects fail because of poor design. They have no clear roadmap of how they will get from A to B and therefore no way of knowing whether they are on the right track. However, design alone is not enough for success. In fact, many development projects that are well…Continue Reading Rigorous evaluation, but to what end?
Can PDIA help to deliver services for the poor?
10 years ago, the World Development Report (WDR) 2004 entitled Making Services Work for Poor People, marked a watershed moment in the development agenda. It recognized that politics and accountability are crucial to improving services. Furthermore, it shifted the focus from measuring inputs to outputs. Earlier this month, ODI and the World Bank jointly organized…Continue Reading Can PDIA help to deliver services for the poor?
The 5 M’s of Development: Mobilizers matter (Part 5 of 5)
written by Matt Andrews As I reflect on how change happens in development, 5 themes come to mind. I have written about the importance of moments, muddling, the mundane and multiple men and women. In keeping with the ‘m’s’, today I will emphasize the importance of mobilizers. These are the people who bring multiple men…Continue Reading The 5 M’s of Development: Mobilizers matter (Part 5 of 5)
The 5 M’s of Development: Multiple Men and Women matter (Part 4 of 5)
written by Matt Andrews As I reflect on how change happens in development, 5 themes come to mind. I have written about the importance of moments, muddling and the mundane. Today I will discuss the fourth one: multiple men and women matter. In my experience, development and governance reform is about people, not as targets of…Continue Reading The 5 M’s of Development: Multiple Men and Women matter (Part 4 of 5)
The 5 M’s of Development: Mundane matters (Part 3 of 5)
written by Matt Andrews As I reflect on how change happens in development, 5 themes come to mind. I wrote about the importance of moments which are vital to foster change in complex contexts, and muddling which is important to find and fit reform and change content that fosters real development. Today I will discuss…Continue Reading The 5 M’s of Development: Mundane matters (Part 3 of 5)
The 5 M’s of Development: Muddling matters (Part 2 of 5)
written by Matt Andrews As I reflect on how change happens in development, 5 themes come to mind. I wrote about moments yesterday. Today I will discuss the second one: muddling matters. What I mean is that developing countries need to muddle through if they want to improve governance; there are no quick answers to…Continue Reading The 5 M’s of Development: Muddling matters (Part 2 of 5)
The 5 M’s of Development: Moments matter (Part 1 of 5)
written by Matt Andrews As I reflect on how change happens in development, 5 themes come to mind. The first is simple, but is one of the most important observations I continually make when observing successful change that fosters better government and development results: Moments matter. ‘Change events’ happen when contexts become ready for change….Continue Reading The 5 M’s of Development: Moments matter (Part 1 of 5)