governance

Reference societies and adaptive development: a conversation with Daniel Suryadarma about Indonesia’s participation in the PISA educational assessment

Leave a Comment / adaptdev, decentralisation, demand for evidence, development, development partners, doing development differently, education, evidence-informed policy, Finland, governance, Indonesia, policy, policy research, research /

During a seminar organised by the EduKnow research group at the University of Tampere on comparative education, I came across the interesting concept of reference society. In a nutshell, countries which, like Finland, find themselves at the top of the PISA ranking may become models or references for countries looking for ways to improve their education policies […]

Reference societies and adaptive development: a conversation with Daniel Suryadarma about Indonesia’s participation in the PISA educational assessment Read More »

Knowledge, policy, and adaptive development in Indonesia. A discussion at UNICEF’s Office of Research-Innocenti

Leave a Comment / adaptdev, demand for evidence, doing development differently, education, evidence-informed policy, governance, policy research /

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

Knowledge, policy, and adaptive development in Indonesia. A discussion at UNICEF’s Office of Research-Innocenti Read More »

MLE or MEL in adaptive programming?

2 Comments / adaptdev, demand for evidence, development, development partners, doing development differently, governance, monitoring evaluation, monitoring evaluation learning, southeast asia /

I was in Manila last week to attend the practitioners’ forum organised by the Asia Foundation on Adaptive Programming and Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning. A really good workshop where to share of experiences about tailoring MEL systems to fit the accountability demands from funders and support the adaptation and iteration of programmes. In attendance there

MLE or MEL in adaptive programming? Read More »

Serbia’s long journey to joining the EU and what the implications are for evidence informed policy making. A conversation with Nenad Čelarević

1 Comment / academia, demand for evidence, democracy, development, economy, evidence-informed policy, governance, higher education, policy, political economy, research, Serbia /

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

Serbia’s long journey to joining the EU and what the implications are for evidence informed policy making. A conversation with Nenad Čelarević Read More »

Articles and papers I liked

Leave a Comment / adaptdev, democracy, doing development differently, evidence-informed policy, governance, policy, policy experiment /

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 »

A conversation about policy experiments

Leave a Comment / adaptdev, adaptive development, complexity, demand for evidence, development partners, doing development differently, evidence-informed policy, Finland, governance, knowledge management, monitoring evaluation, monitoring evaluation learning, PDIA, policy research, think tank /

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 »

Policy content change is one of the types of policy change, but not the only one

2 Comments / academia, demand for evidence, doing development differently, evidence-informed policy, governance, policy, policy making, political economy /

There is an interesting exchange mid-way through David Letterman’s interview to President Barack Obama on Netflix.  Letterman asks President Obama about his reflection on policymaking and the role and power that the president actually has.  Obama answer is quite illuminating in terms of the nature of policy change. Yes, he says, a lot of his time

Policy content change is one of the types of policy change, but not the only one Read More »