written by Salimah Samji The knee jerk reaction to building capacity is to organize more training workshops. These are taught by experts and held in fancy locations, with free-flowing food and refreshments. The attendees often do not include the front line workers who are ultimately responsible for implementation. In some cases attendees do learn new…Continue Reading Bridging the Capacity Gap in Burundi
PDIA: is not about perpetual muddling (Part 4/4)
written by Matt Andrews This is the last of the four common excuses that I hear about why PDIA cannot be done in development. If you are interested, you can read the first, second and third one. Excuse 4: International development experts often tell me that PDIA is not possible because it implies that we…Continue Reading PDIA: is not about perpetual muddling (Part 4/4)
PDIA: does not necessarily take too long (Part 3/4)
written by Matt Andrews This is the third of the four common excuses that I hear about why PDIA cannot be done in development. If you are interested, you can read the first and second one. Excuse 3: International development experts often tell me that PDIA is not possible because it takes too long. This…Continue Reading PDIA: does not necessarily take too long (Part 3/4)
PDIA: One can find or build political support (Part 2/4)
written by Matt Andrews This is the second of the four common excuses that I hear about why PDIA cannot be done in development. If you are interested, you can read the first one. Excuse 2: International development experts often tell me that PDIA is not possible because politicians will never support it. Again, simply…Continue Reading PDIA: One can find or build political support (Part 2/4)
PDIA: International organizations have flexible instruments (Part 1/4)
written by Matt Andrews Almost every time I give a presentation on PDIA (and I have given many), I hear excuses about why PDIA cannot be done in development. So, I’ve decided to set the record straight. I am writing a blog post and drawing a picture for each of the four most common excuses…Continue Reading PDIA: International organizations have flexible instruments (Part 1/4)
PDIA in Cameroon
written by Salimah Samji In a recent paper entitled, Behavioral Economics and Public Sector Reform: An Accidental Experiment and Lessons from Cameroon, Gael Raballand and Anand Rajaram compare two World Bank projects in Cameroon: a $15 million, 5 year, Transparency and Accountability Capacity Development Project (TACD), and a $300,000, low-profile technical assistance project to improve…Continue Reading PDIA in Cameroon
Untying Development
Yesterday, we hosted a one-day workshop entitled, Untying Development: Promoting Governance and Government with Impact. The day brought together different voices to discuss the challenge of creating a governance agenda that focuses on solving country-specific problems, involves local people through flexible and context-fitted processes, and emphasizes learning in the reform process. In the first session,…Continue Reading Untying Development
Hirschman told us that implementation involves a journey
written by Matt Andrews I ran across the following quote from Hirschman today. A reminder that implementation is neither easy nor prone to scientific certainty. Rather, it requires journeys, of finding, fitting, and discovering. Do we promote such journeys in development? Are we open to the destinations we might end up reaching? ” The term…Continue Reading Hirschman told us that implementation involves a journey