governance

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

Leave a Comment / academia, Asia, data innovation, demand for evidence, economy, education, governance, higher education, Indonesia, policy, policy research, research, science /

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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What does data innovation mean for traditional social science research?

Leave a Comment / complexity, data innovation, decentralisation, demand for evidence, digital technology, doing development differently, education, evidence-informed policy, governance, Indonesia, policy research /

Pulse Lab Jakarta posted today on Medium a blog I have written with Andrew Thornley about the implication for social science research of data innovation. Hope you enjoy reading it. Data innovation and data analytics offer an unprecedented opportunity for expanding the sources of evidence that can inform policy-making. But is data innovation threatening traditional

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

Leave a Comment / Asia, decentralisation, democracy, digital technology, doing development differently, economy, governance, Indonesia, politics, project, research /

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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Floods are wicked problems

Leave a Comment / climate change, complexity, data innovation, demand for evidence, digital technology, economy, evidence-informed policy, governance, Indonesia, policy, policy making, research /

I went for a walk in a kampung near Kemang Timur, in Jakarta, last Sunday. After few minutes it started to rain quite hard. I sat under the roof of a school and waited for the rain to stop. It rained for about 15-20 minutes.

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

Leave a Comment / academia, Asia, communication, demand for evidence, democracy, development partners, doing development differently, evidence-informed policy, governance, Indonesia, Jakarta, knowledge management, policy, policy making, policy research, political economy, project, research, southeast asia, taxonomy, think tank /

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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Blog post on Doing Development Differently

Leave a Comment / complexity, evidence-informed policy, governance, management, project /

DDD and large programmes: possible? Posted with Budiati Prasetiamartati a blog that discusses how approaches to complex social problems often start on the wrong foot, because they prescribe solutions and promise results. The Doing Development Differently (DDD) community instead advocates for something slightly different: to be problem driven, to try to work with conveners who

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Just published: Establishing Government Think Tanks

Leave a Comment / Asia, evidence-informed policy, governance, policy, research, southeast asia, think tank /

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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Doing Development Differently, 30 years ago

3 Comments / complexity, evidence-informed policy, governance, management, political economy, project, quotes /

I was sixteen when the excerpts I post below were published. For thirty-two years (and probably longer than that)  development practitioners, researchers, academics, experts, technocrats, civil servants, elected officials have tackled the uncertainty of development processes. The answer thirty-two years ago as well as today seems to be the same: embrace uncertainty, make the most out of it.

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