The design space of actual development projects is complex, granular, and nuanced. In this video, Lant Pritchett, uses a simple example of a design space for teacher training to illustrate this point. You can watch the video below or on YouTube. If you are interested in learning more, read It’s All About MeE: Using Structured…Continue Reading BSC Video 10: Specifying the Design Space
PDIA and Obamacare
written by Matt Andrews Governments often face unenviable tasks that border on the impossible, given particularly thorny political and administrative complexities. Commentators typically deride governments when they fail in their initial attempts to address such tasks. They pen new laws that are less than many had hoped for, and call public agencies inefficient (or worse)…Continue Reading PDIA and Obamacare
BSC Video 9: Constructing Problems to Drive Change
Problems are key to driving change. In this video, Matt Andrews, uses two examples about HIV in Pakistan, to illustrate how constructing local problems using data can be used to mobilize stakeholders to search for solutions that ultimately drive change. You can watch the video below or on YouTube. If you are interested in learning…Continue Reading BSC Video 9: Constructing Problems to Drive Change
Tales (and Tells) of a Development Amateur
written by Lant Pritchett Nina Munk’s new book The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty is a great read. The book itself has been reviewed by development luminaries Bill Easterly, Angus Deaton, and Duncan Green and is on various “Best Book of 2013” lists. One of my children required extremely complicated heart…Continue Reading Tales (and Tells) of a Development Amateur
BSC Video 8: What is PDIA?
Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) is an approach we have developed to help escape capability traps. PDIA rests on four core principles: Local Solutions for Local Problems: Transitioning from promoting solutions (pre-determined by external experts) to allowing the local nomination and articulation of concrete problems to be solved. Pushing Problem Driven Positive Deviance: Creating environments…Continue Reading BSC Video 8: What is PDIA?
BSC Video 7: Understanding your Authorizing Environment
In the systems we operate within, who identifies problems? who identifies solutions? and how do these people mobilize the ones who have power and authority? In our research we find that leadership is about multi-agent groups and not single-agent autocrats. In this video, Matt Andrews, contrasts examples of anti-corruption reforms in Malawi and Botswana to…Continue Reading BSC Video 7: Understanding your Authorizing Environment
BSC Video 6: Understanding your Eco-system
The process of building state capability involves people, who are the ultimate complex phenomena; embedded within organizations, which are complex; and organizations are embedded in rules systems (e.g. institutions, cultures, norms), which are themselves complex. In this video, Michael Woolcock, highlights the fact that reforms do not take place in a vacuum. You can watch…Continue Reading BSC Video 6: Understanding your Eco-system
BSC Video 5: Typology of Tasks by Capability Intensity needed for Implementation
It is important when thinking about building state capability, to first ask, what is the “type of problem” you are trying to solve? In this video, Lant Pritchett, provides a framework to determine the capability required for implementing development projects. He begins by asking whether your task is transaction intensive, followed by whether it is…Continue Reading BSC Video 5: Typology of Tasks by Capability Intensity needed for Implementation
BSC Video 4: Capability for Policy Implementation
Policy implementation requires agents of organizations who are responsible for implementation, to do the right thing, at the right time, and in the right place. In this video, Lant Pritchett, uses an example of delivering the mail and issuing driver’s licenses to illustrate this point. You can watch the video below or on YouTube. If…Continue Reading BSC Video 4: Capability for Policy Implementation
BSC Video 3: Form ≠ Function
Development involves change, and change always happens within a context. The focus in development however, is on transplanting successes and adopting ambitious “best practice” modes of governance and public administration, which emphasize form (what organizations look like) and not function (what they actually do). This often provides the financing and legitimacy which allows continued dysfunction,…Continue Reading BSC Video 3: Form ≠ Function