political economy

What bees have to do with the Fourth Industrial Revolution? Quite a lot, it turns out.

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Bees and the genetic technology that underpins research on bees is an illuminating window on our future and the complexity, politics, and uncertainty of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, has defined the 4IR as “the confluence of technological breakthroughs, covering wide-ranging fields such as […]

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

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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

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

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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

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

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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

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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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Tolkien\’s words from the past are still today\’s words.

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In the evenings I am reading few pages of J.R.R. Tokien\’s Lord of the Rings to my daughters. We are into Book  I: The Fellowship of the Ring. Frodo and his friends have just arrived at the village of Bree and are spending the night at the Prancing Pony. Tonight they have joined other travellers in the pub to hear their stories.

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