Can a politicians resign from public office because of insufficient use of evidence in policy making? Apparently yes. This is what Norman Baker has done by leaving his Home Office minister post in early November: Norman Baker resigns as Home Office minister with parting shot at May. Norman Baker is a Liberal Democrat. His party […]
The unbearable lightness of research evidence Read More »
Indonesia\’s 7th President, Joko Widodo, or Jokowi, was inaugurated just two weeks ago. Last weekend he presented his new cabinet, which includes eight women in the post—the highest representation of women in the cabinet so far in Indonesia’s history. This is a time of fast change. There is a positive mood and many expectations. I watched some of the the images broadcasted
Yesterday evening was my turn to be with our daughters and read the good night book. We are making progress in Harry Potter N.1 in Italian. However both my daughters are currently very much into Wimpy Kids and preferred to read on their own. So I sat on the floor next to their beds and
Doing Development Differently: mission impossible? Read More »
Is it possible to build a nation as complex as Indonesia before fully understanding its complexity? What is holding Indonesia together despite its diversity? Is decentralization good for Indonesia? These are some of the questions that were asked last week at the Habibie and Ainun Library in South Jakarta during the presentation of the new
Indonesia Etc.: complexity and development amongst cultural and temporal diversity Read More »
Italians like to talk about politics. Political talk shows have been popular but they seem to have reached a saturation point. Too many of them. In the morning. Later afternoon. Evening. Some shows are better than others but they also start to all look alike. The same politicians and journalists as guests. Not always
Article 18: political language, media and the shrinking space for evidence in Italy Read More »
On a regular basis programs working in the area of governance and decentralisation come together here in Jakarta to share and discuss the results of a research, studies and analysis. Yesterday I attended a presentation about the findings from an econometric analysis that looked at trends derived from 12 years (2001-2011) of secondary data on
Access and equity in local services in Indonesia: some interesting evidence Read More »
This morning I jumped on the TransJakarta bus N 1 and travelled to Central Jakarta to the modern and cozy office of PulseLab. JonneCatshoek of Elva.org was presenting about digital citizen engagement strategies for making programmes more effective and accountable. Jonne has been working for the last few years in Georgia and his presentation was about his
Community knowledge + mobile phones = evidence for policy response Read More »
Today is the day. 4.3 million residents in Scotland and aged 16 or over have the right to cast their ballot to answer a straight forward question with big implications: ‘Should Scotland be an independent country?.’ A simple majority is required by the Yes campaign to win the referendum and leave the United Kingdom after