policy

Adaptive programming at scale: a discussion at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

I was in Helsinki last week for a presentation and discussion at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. This was part of the yearly Studia Generalia, a series of seminars organised by the Ministry and the Finnish Society for Development Research where researchers have the opportunity to meet staff of the Ministry and discuss various aspects

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A conversation about policy experiments

The search for ways to design policies that help to solve societal problems is continuously evolving. The traditional evidence-based approach to policy making involves generating research results and using these to inform policy decisions. This blog post is based on an interview with Mikko Annala, Head of Governance Innovation at Demos Helsinki. It was originally posted on

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Learning about learning in an adaptive programme

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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What does data innovation mean for traditional social science 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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Searching for Indonesia’s Amartya Sen

Together with my colleagues Zack Petersen we have written down some thoughts about  researchers and the future of research and development in Indonesia. Our article has been published by the Jakarta Globe last week: Commentary: Searching for Indonesia’s Amartya Sen \’Indonesia’s ability to compete at a global level when it comes to research and development depends on

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Workshops are a good way to manage the demand and use of evidence in policy making institutions

In 2009, the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) embarked on a nine-month strategy to improve the way it sourced, handled and used evidence to make policy. It had seen how another government department, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), had developed a strategic approach to managing its evidence base and decided to

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