Asia

Experimenting with innovation and accelerating development in Vietnam. In conversation with UNDP’s Ida Uusikylä

Vietnam is one of 60 countries where UNDP has established Accelerator Labs. The aim is to instil innovation principles and approaches into the work of the projects that UNDP implements and into the way UNDP works. At the end of January, I went to Helsinki to participate in a two-day workshop on sensemaking and innovation […]

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The struggle of bringing research into climate change policy

I read a vey interesting article in the Guardian Weekly about the struggle of science research in the United States following the election of Donald Trump as president (The climate change battle dividing trump’s America). Funding for climate change research is being cut. A climate change sceptic has been appointed as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.  A

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Doing Development Differently means Doing Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning Differently too

Recently, we attended a two-day workshop on ‘Implementing the New Development Agenda: Doing Development Differently (DDD), Thinking and Working Politically (TWP) and Problem Driven Iterative Adaption (PDIA).’ The event was co-organised by the Knowledge Sector Initiative, the KOMPAK programme, and The World Bank in Indonesia and attended by practitioners, researchers, government and other partners –

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Learning about learning in an adaptive programme

I am re-posting here the blog published last week by Better Evaluation where Fred Carden and I discuss about learning in an adaptive programme. Better Evaluation has started a conversation to answer questions such as: How relevant are these ideas for our work? How different is learning in an adaptive programme compared to what we already do? What are some challenges in

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The latest World University Rankings is out: how are Indonesia Universities doing?

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2016-2017 has been published this week. The rankings have been produced for 12 years and list the top 980 universities in the world. The rankings are produced looking at 13 performance indicators grouped in are grouped into five areas: – Teaching (the learning environment) – Research (volume,

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Traffic congestion in Jakarta: a logistical problem or a \’wicked\’ one?

Here is an interesting article published in the Guardian Weekly for bicycle commuters struggling with traffic congestion as I do in Jakarta: Return of the Bicycle Kingdom? How pavement cycling is transforming Taipei. It mentions that  ‘In Taipei authorities have taken the unusual step of legalising cycling on almost 400km of city centre sidewalks …. Taipei is also tripling its

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‘Are We Policy Analysts?’. Evidence, Policy Analysis and the Knowledge Sector in Indonesia

There are many ways for knowledge and research evidence to reach policy makers and inform policy decisions. One important channel is the analysis by policy analysts in government organizations. In January 2014, the Indonesian Parliament passed a landmark law to modernize the civil service on principles of merit and professionalism (Law No. 5 on Civil

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Just published: Establishing Government Think Tanks

I contributed with Widya Sutiyo to this review written  by Jessica Mackenzie of different models of government think tanks. Key points from the paper: Government think tanks have several benefits over external think tanks, including their strong understanding of government programs and priorities (which helps them to tailor advice to actual needs) and an ability to coordinate across government departments. There is

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