Yesterday, I had the opportunity to dive into an insightful podcast from the series Systems and Cybernetics on the New Books Network. The episode featured an interview with Pete Barbrook-Johnson and Alexandra (Alex) S. Penn, co-authors of the book Systems Mapping: How to Build and Use Causal Models of Systems
The design and implementation of development initiatives in support of policy and governance reforms often contends with systems of interlinked problems and non-linear and unpredictable change processes (Harry Jones 2011).
War and conflict have systemic impacts on higher education: there is physical damage as universities are attacked or occupied by armed groups; loss of life and forced displacement of academic staff and students; and institutional weakening as post-conflict financial resources are allocated to basic services first. Although this is slowly changing, higher education systems are often not a priority during post-conflict recovery.
What does it mean for a government to invest and research megatrends? How does it help to prepare the governance system of tomorrow? To what extent are megatrends taken into consideration in international development research and programming? I have met Elina Kiiski– Kataja and Tony Addison at the Oodi Library in Helsinki to discuss these questions.
Innovation is a confusing buzzword. There is no clarity and that what innovation is can be very subjective. Is the lack of a clear definition of innovation a problem in terms of evaluating innovation? What do the evaluators of innovation look for when they are called in to do their work?
How to evaluate innovation? In conversation with Jordi del Bas Read More »
Vietnam is one of 60 countries where UNDP has established Accelerator Labs. The aim is to instil innovation principles and approaches into the work of the projects that UNDP implements and into the way UNDP works. At the end of January, I went to Helsinki to participate in a two-day workshop on sensemaking and innovation
This week I read this article on EdTech published in the Guardian which asked Can computers ever replace the classroom? Here in Finland due to the coronavirus pandemic only a few schools remain open and the question is no longer whether computers can replace the classroom, during these weeks they have to. So, I talked
Every year I travel a couple of times north to the city of Oulu to give a class on development theories to the master students at the Faculty of Education at the University. The master course is part of the work of the interdisciplinary research group called Education, Diversity, Globalisation and Ethics. The group examines