written by Matt Andrews A colleague asked me two questions in response to last week’s blog on initiating PDIA: “It does not sound like you develop a thorough plan for action. Is this correct?” “How do you move from the workshop to action, and particularly to action learning?” I will reflect on these questions in future…Continue Reading Active and adaptive planning versus set plans in PDIA
written by Matt Andrews “Once there is interest, how do you start a PDIA project?” Many people have asked me this question. They are often in consulting firms or donor agencies thinking about working on PDIA with host governments, or in some central bureau in the government itself. “We have an authorizer, know the itch that…Continue Reading Initiating PDIA: Start by running…and then run some more
written by Matt Andrews “How do you decide where to work on a PDIA project?” This is probably the most common question I have been asked with respect to PDIA. After over 5 years of doing this work in a variety of countries and sectors, I have a simple answer: “When we find authorizers with an…Continue Reading PDIA and Authorizers with an itch
Guest blog by Archon Fung I just want to begin by expressing my profound pride about the new book by Matt Andrews, Lant Pritchett and Michael Woolcock: Building State Capacity: Evidence, Analysis and Action. It is a wonderfully innovative volume that is full of insights about how to do development better. As many of you…Continue Reading Toward a new theory and practice of building state capacity
written by Salimah Samji We are delighted to announce that we will be offering our free PDIA online course once again. This is our third iteration of the course and we will use the recently published “Building State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action” book as the core reading. We will offer two courses tailored to different…Continue Reading Registration for our free PDIA online course is closed
written by Salimah Samji We offered 4 free PDIA online courses between November 2015 and June 2016. They were well received and 365 people, living in 56 countries, successfully completed the courses. In January 2017, we surveyed the 365 PDIA course alumni to learn whether (and how) they are using PDIA in their day-to-day lives. 113 (31%) of…Continue Reading PDIA Course: Alumni are already practicing what they learned
written by Salimah Samji We are delighted to inform you that our PDIA book entitled, “Building State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action” was just published by Oxford University Press. The book presents an evidence-based analysis of development failures and explains how capability traps emerge and persist. It is not just a critique, it also offers a way of…Continue Reading Download the new PDIA book for free
written by Lant Pritchett At a recent holiday party I was discussing organizations and innovations with a friend of mine who teaches at the Harvard Business School about organizations and is a professor and student about technology and history. I told him I was thinking about the lessons for the development “best practice” mantra from…Continue Reading Best Practice is a Pipe Dream: The AK47 vs M16 debate and development practice
Guest blog by Robert Klitgaard Thomas C. Schelling has been rightly lionized for his contributions in economics, international security, and the transdisciplinary field of game theory. He was also a pioneer in policy analysis. In this note, I want to reflect on what Schelling can teach us about doing policy research. Though a theorist, he was fascinated…Continue Reading Thomas C. Schelling’s Contributions to Policy Analysis
On 17 November 2016, ODI, in collaboration with the Building State Capability program at Harvard University, convened a private workshop bringing together a number of actors from academia, civil society, and donors, to look at how the adaptive development agenda has been put into practice throughout the world. We attempted to draw out some lessons…Continue Reading Doing development differently: two years on, what are we learning?
