I was recently in Florence to meet the team at the UNICEF’s Office of Research-Innocenti and present & discuss some of the experiences of the Knowledge Sector Initiative in Indonesia. I was part of the implementing team during phase 1 from 2013-2017 leading the research and learning work of the programme. The Knowledge Sector Initiative is […]
Eighteen years have passed since the big demonstrations that took place in the streets of Belgrade and which ultimately led to the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević on 5th October 2000. Today Serbia is on a new journey which is not without challenges. Ten years ago, the government applied for membership to the EU and in
The Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade has a long history. It was established in 1838 and today it is located in a modern building in downtown Belgrade. I went there to meet Dragan Stanojević, Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology. I wanted to meet him because he led the initiative that resulted
Growing up in Italy during the 1970s and 1980s, I remember Albania being geographically very close, just 150 kilometres across the sea from the harbour city of Brindisi. At the same time, closed and isolated by its communist regime, it seemed very far away. Many fleeing Albanians used small boats for the dangerous crossing to
Lately, I have been reading more about the challenges that the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is bringing to policy making and governance. The pace of the changes is what is challenging governance institutions. It is like policy makers are catching up with the consequences and impact of the new technologies and as the pace of change
Can policy makers catch up with the 4IR? Read More »
Here is an image of the beautiful winter we are having in Tampere to accompany the articles and papers I enjoyed reading last week. Duncan Green published When does Tech → Innovation? Here’s what 178 projects tell us. The blog is about a study of the the results of 178 small grants to tech projects
Articles and papers I liked Read More »
The search for ways to design policies that help to solve societal problems is continuously evolving. The traditional evidence-based approach to policy making involves generating research results and using these to inform policy decisions. This blog post is based on an interview with Mikko Annala, Head of Governance Innovation at Demos Helsinki. It was originally posted on
A conversation about policy experiments Read More »
Last week I attended the Development Days Conference 2018 in Helsinki. This is a yearly event organised by the Finnish Society for Development Research. This year\’s topic was: The Politics of Sustainability: Re-thinking resources, values and justice. It is a nice and informal event which brings together researchers, activists, and practitioners from all over Finland
Looking at evidence-informed policymaking through the \’dissonance\’ lens Read More »