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)
PMRDF: an Innovative State Capability Experiment in India
written by Salimah Samji. Anyone who has ever worked in India knows how hard it is to implement programs. The sheer size of the country makes it impossible for anyone but the government, who is the only one with infrastructure and reach, to provide public services to its citizens. Currently, every district administers typically 100+…Continue Reading PMRDF: an Innovative State Capability Experiment in India
Rigorous Evidence Isn’t
written by Lant Pritchett Currently, there are many statements floating around in development about the use of “rigorous evidence” in formulating policies and programs. Nearly all of these claims are fatuous. The problem is, rigorous evidence isn’t. That is, suppose one generates some evidence about the impact of some programmatic or policy intervention in one…Continue Reading Rigorous Evidence Isn’t
BSC Video 13: Scaling through the Diffusion of Practice
Innovations and adaptations that occur in one place often need to be scaled in order to lead to system-level change. However, in development, the road from small to big is challenging and rife with pitfalls. In this last of the first BSC video series, Michael Woolcock, discusses our approach to building state capability, which is…Continue Reading BSC Video 13: Scaling through the Diffusion of Practice
BSC Video 12: Maintaining your Authorizing Environment
Maintaining your support through a change process is often a challenging task which requires time and effort. In this video, Matt Andrews, explains how one does not only have to maintain the initial authorization, but also expand the number of actors who provide authorization, thus increasing the legitimacy of the project or reform. You can…Continue Reading BSC Video 12: Maintaining your Authorizing Environment