governance

Are partnership agreements a way forward for Doing Development Differently?

Leave a Comment / adaptive development /

There are different angles and dimensions to the Doing Development Differently debate. With Nicola Nixon, we are interested in  the \’doing\’ of Doing Development Differently. We have written a post about one of those angles and dimensions: Partnerships Agreements between funders and programme implementation teams. ‘Partnership’ is a buzzword in international aid and development. But, arguably, it’s often overused and tokenistic. So […]

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The elusive search for a knowledge to policy framework

Leave a Comment / systems thinking /

Last week I published a blog on Research2Action where I discuss whether a Knowledge-to-Policy framework to better inform  policies actually exists. \’Knowledge to policy (K2P) is a popular term to describe the way research and other types of knowledge inform policy-making. K2P processes and systems aim to support decision-makers to create good policies that make

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Establishing Government Think Tanks

Leave a Comment / knowledge to policy /

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 / adaptive development /

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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#data4policy conference in Bali: two days about pushing the boundaries of data innovation and policy making

Leave a Comment / knowledge to policy /

In 2004 the Overseas Development Institute organized a seminar in London to discuss the following question: Does Evidence Matter? One of the speakers was Vince Cable, at that time the shadow minister for trade and industry with the Lib Dem party. Cable spoke at that workshop about some of the gaps that separate the political and

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Into the future? The rise of President Jokowi and the expectations about reforming the research sector in Indonesia

1 Comment / political economy /

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

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Indonesia Etc.: complexity and development amongst cultural and temporal diversity

Leave a Comment / political economy /

Is it possible to build a nation as complex as Indonesia before fully understanding its complexity? What is holding Indonesia together despite its diversity? Is decentralization good for Indonesia? These are some of the questions that were asked last week at the Habibie and Ainun Library in South Jakarta during the presentation of the new

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