written by Lant Pritchett The PDIA approach to building state capability grew out of a sense among practitioner/academics (or “pracademics”) that (a) organizational capability for implementation was key to success—as, if not more important the adoption of new policies or the creation of new programs and (b) that the existing models (both in the mainstream…Continue Reading The Big Stuck: Updated
Deconstructing ‘PDIA’ a Catchy Acronym in Development
Guest Blog by Lucy Peace Nantume, Robinah K Manoba, Maurice Olupot, Rebecca Kukundakwe. This is a team of four development practitioners working for the Democratic Governance Facility (DGF) in Uganda. They successfully completed the 15-week Practice of PDIA online course that ended in May 2019. This is their story. As employees of a donor agency aimed at building…Continue Reading Deconstructing ‘PDIA’ a Catchy Acronym in Development
Premature load bearing: a fresh look at the WDR 2011
Guest blog written by Paul von Chamier In 2011 the World Development Report shed some light on the extent of the challenges that drive premature load bearing, a concept discussed in earlier BSC blog posts. Among hundreds of figures presented in the Report was a simple table that showed how long it should take for…Continue Reading Premature load bearing: a fresh look at the WDR 2011
Lack of Youth Participation in Papua New Guinea
Guest blog by Coletah Ronah Kibai, Kirk Gibson, Pricillar Napoleon, Andrew Lepani, Hannah Athaliah James, Hercules Jim, Maliwai Sasingian Many members of this team work for The Voice Inc. in Papua New Guinea. They successfully completed the 15-week Practice of PDIA online course that ended in December 2018. This is their story. Young people under…Continue Reading Lack of Youth Participation in Papua New Guinea
Enhancing Women’s participation in Nigeria
Guest blog written by Adetunde Ademefun, Lois Chinedu, and Suleiman Oluwatosin This team is made up of of experienced Programme, Research and Communication Staff and Assistants who work at the Nigerian Women Trust Fund (NWTF). They successfully completed the 15-week Practice of PDIA online course that ended in December 2018. This is their story. Amazingly, when we…Continue Reading Enhancing Women’s participation in Nigeria
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
Using PDIA to tackle off-budget spending in Liberia
Guest blog by Alieu Fuad Nyei Like many other African countries, budget execution is a huge challenge in Liberia. Last fiscal year (July 2016 to June 2017), off-budget spending was over 15% of the approved budget while in-year budgetary transfers have been on the increase, significantly undermining the credibility of the approved budget. This huge…Continue Reading Using PDIA to tackle off-budget spending in Liberia
Doing Problem Driven Work, great new guide for governance reformers and activists
By Duncan Green One of the criticisms of the big picture discussion on governance that’s been going on in networks such as Doing Development Differently and “Thinking and Working Politically” is that it’s all very helicopter-ish. ‘What do I do differently on Monday morning?’, comes the frustrated cry of the practitioner. Now some really useful…Continue Reading Doing Problem Driven Work, great new guide for governance reformers and activists
Busting Myths about Governance and Development
David Booth highlighted 5 myths about governance and development in a blog earlier this year. Two of his points are particularly relevant for PDIA. Myth 2: Governance-improvement is a good entry-point for developmental reform. In our experience, constructing local problems is the entry point to begin the search for solutions that ultimately drive change. We…Continue Reading Busting Myths about Governance and Development
Rising to the challenge: Supporting PDIA in Nigeria
The importance of thinking and working politically in programs concerned with governance and institutional reform is widely recognized – but shifting from thinking politically to working politically is proving a major challenge. The State Accountability and Voice Initiative (SAVI), a governance reform program in Nigeria, supports local partners and stakeholders not through the usual accountable…Continue Reading Rising to the challenge: Supporting PDIA in Nigeria