A student's notes and fishbone diagram along with a copy of the PDIA toolkit and the BSC book

Publications

BSC faculty, fellows, and affiliates regularly publish research in a wide range of academic and policy venues. These include books, book chapters, working papers, articles, cases, and reports. In addition, we have hundreds of blog posts that you can read.

  • Featured

    Building State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action

    Matt Andrews, Lant Pritchett and Michael Woolcock

    This book provides evidence of the capability shortfalls that currently exist in many countries, identifies capability traps that hold many governments back, and describes a process that can be used to escape these traps called PDIA (Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation).

Featured Publications

  • Tackling Learning Poverty in Sierra Leone’s Education System through the Lens of the PDIA

    Tackling Learning Poverty in Sierra Leone’s Education System through the Lens of the PDIA

    Guest blog by Irina Bilyalova, Orlando Carvajal, Vaiba Flomo, and Sonali Verma We were four students brought together by a shared interest in solving real-world problems. Three from the Harvard Kennedy School and one from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. One of us was from the United States; three of us were…

  • Case: Using PDIA to Transform Waste Management in Amman

    Case: Using PDIA to Transform Waste Management in Amman

    In early 2022, the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) faced a growing waste crisis. Given its population of 4.5 million people generating approximately 3,000 tons of solid municipal waste daily, half of Jordan’s total, the city’s rapid growth had significantly outpaced its waste management infrastructure. In response to this challenge, a remarkable two-year transformation using Problem-Driven…

  • Can Outsiders Help Build State Capability? Lessons from Ted Lasso

    Can Outsiders Help Build State Capability? Lessons from Ted Lasso

    Gaps between potential and performance are common in states across the globe. This paper argues that these gaps represent differences in state capability, and compares Ted Lasso to how outside actors can impact that capability.

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  • Finding Entry Points and Sequencing Adaptive Work

    Matt Andrews

    The mayor of Blueville implemented a new recycling policy initiative after being elected, however, the amount of plastic waste on city streets remained, partly because few constituents collected and delivered recyclables. This case details the team’s response to this issue and their process in identifying entry points and sequencing the work.

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  • Using PDIA to Improve Waste Management in Amman

    Tim Lukas Kornprobst, Michael Roll, Adin Becker, Omar Arabiyat, Muhannad Khaled Al-jadeed Al-majali, Manar Nabeeh Haddaden, Osama Abu Rumman, Salsabil Saif Al-din Muhammad Obeidat, Esraa Saieed Hajjawi, Rama Mohammad Al-adwan, Rawan Zeyad Abu Hussein, Wafa Abdul Karim Al Ghurair, Feras Fahed Al Husami, Mohannad Abuazizieh, Basem Al Souliman, Omar Alhadban, And Hala Al-adwan

    In 2022, the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) faced a growing waste crisis. The city’s rapid growth and population size had significantly outpaced its waste management infrastructure. In response to this challenge, a remarkable two-year transformation using PDIA took place that not only improved waste collection efficiency, but fundamentally changed how departments collaborated across GAM’s large…

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  • An Adaptive Recycling Policy in Blueville

    Matt Andrews

    The mayor of Blueville was elected on the basis of a strong environmental message. She promised, especially, to promote recycling in the city, reducing the amount of plastic goods on city streets. A year after implementing a new recycling policy initiative, however, the amount of plastic waste on city streets remained, partly because few constituents…

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