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. […]
Tolkien\’s words from the past are still today\’s words. Read More »
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.
Tolkien\’s words from the past are still today\’s words. Read More »
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
The Productivity Commission is one of Australia’s most prolific and influential government advisory bodies, providing evidence-based policy advice on a wide spectrum of social and economic issues aimed at raising living standards across society. The paper aims to show how the Commission has become such a prominent actor in Australian policy making, highlighting its origins
Australia\’s Productivity Commission some interesting insights for Indonesia Read More »
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
Establishing Government Think Tanks Read More »
Jaime Faustino of The Asia Foundation in the Philippines features with two policy local activists in a 10 minutes video documentary produced by ODI\’s Politics and Governance programme. This very well made video documentary describes their development entrepreneurship approach and how they decided to do something about the fact that 12ml Filipino do not have a land title that proves that they own the land where they have built their homes.
Doing Development Differently in practice from the Philippines Read More »
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.
Doing Development Differently, 30 years ago Read More »
Indonesia\’s 7th President, Joko Widodo, or Jokowi, was inaugurated just two weeks ago. Last weekend he presented his new cabinet, which includes eight women in the post—the highest representation of women in the cabinet so far in Indonesia’s history. This is a time of fast change. There is a positive mood and many expectations. I watched some of the the images broadcasted