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BSC 2020: The Year in Review

written by Salimah Samji 2020 was a challenging year. The Covid-19 pandemic and other crises highlighted the failures of governance and the large economic disparities that exist around the globe. The need to build public sector capability to meet these increasingly complex challenges has never been greater. Our response to these challenges included convening and training policymakers, as well as practitioners, around critical issues of leading through crises, implementing public policies, inclusive growth, and…Continue Reading BSC 2020: The Year in Review

Using the PDIA Toolkit to Help a Nonprofit in Philadelphia

Fishbone Diagram on homelessness and addiction in Philadelphia

Guest blog written by Jamison Hicks The PDIA toolkit has yet again proven to be both useful and effective in providing organizations with the structural means to continually monitor and evaluate programmatic and organizational success. From a usage perspective, even though the toolkit was created in the US, the majority of PDIA blog posts on…Continue Reading Using the PDIA Toolkit to Help a Nonprofit in Philadelphia

LA FÁBRICA, a strategy for the economic transformation and social inclusion of Renca, a commune in Chile

Guest blog written by Gabriela Elgueta P  Photograph: Cerro de Renca, Matias Peralta @matias.fpl In the midst of the pandemic, I began this course when Chile had 300 deaths and 27,219 infections. Today, at the end of this process, I have to regret a total of 7,186 deaths and a total of 321,205 infections, mostly…Continue Reading LA FÁBRICA, a strategy for the economic transformation and social inclusion of Renca, a commune in Chile

Learning about Economic Growth in the Middle of a Pandemic

Pakistan flag

Guest blog written by Beenish Amjad I was afraid that the onslaught of the pandemic would have devastating impact on a developing country like Pakistan which has a strong history of sluggish economic growth and long-standing need-base relationship with the IMF. The economy in 2019 was weakening and poverty (headcount poverty ratio 24.3) and inequality…Continue Reading Learning about Economic Growth in the Middle of a Pandemic

Bringing the Field to the Classroom: Learning to do PDIA in Practice

Matt Andrews and Salimah Samji with MLD103 students and their authorizers in a classroom

written by Salimah Samji Implementation is hard. It is often the weakest link in the success of a policy or program. Yet, public policy education remains focused on teaching students to design and analyze policies. As Francis Fukuyama aptly wrote, “most programs train students to become capable policy analysts, but with no understanding of how to…Continue Reading Bringing the Field to the Classroom: Learning to do PDIA in Practice

PDIA and Coordination Challenges within Government

Government building in Tarrant County, Texas

Guest blog written by Nevena Bosnic, Mehdi El Boukhari, Ama Peiris, Matthew Welchert Over the past seven weeks, our group embarked on the learning journey of problem driven iterative adaptation (PDIA) as it applies to coordination challenges facing the various levels of government as well as civil society in addressing homelessness in Tarrant County, Texas….Continue Reading PDIA and Coordination Challenges within Government

Leading Economic Growth 2020: Moving Executive Education Online during a Pandemic

written by Salimah Samji In March 2020, Harvard University decided to move all classes to online-only, in an effort to de-densify our campus and to slow the spread of COVID-19. It soon became clear that remote learning was going to be our new normal.  At the time,  Leading Economic Growth, a longstanding 5-day residential executive education…Continue Reading Leading Economic Growth 2020: Moving Executive Education Online during a Pandemic

Becoming Comfortable with Complexity: Maternal Mortality in Meghalaya

Pregnancy

Guest blog written by Rebecca Trupin, Prateek Mittal Our PDIA journey began with our authorizer, a senior bureaucrat in the State Government of Meghalaya, sharing a document with us about his vision to build capability of the state administration to deal with complex problems. We had been working with him on local governance-related projects and…Continue Reading Becoming Comfortable with Complexity: Maternal Mortality in Meghalaya