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Escaping Capability Traps through Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA)
(John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 2012)
Many reform initiatives in developing countries fail to achieve sustained improvements in performance because they are merely isomorphic mimicry—that is, governments and organizations pretend to reform by changing what ...
How Far Have Public Financial Management Reforms Come in Africa?
(John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 2010)
This paper asks how strong African Public Financial Management (PFM) has become, after a decade and more of reform. How well do African PFM systems in place now facilitate effective public financial management? Where are ...
Governance Indicators Can Make Sense: Under-five Mortality Rates are an Example
(John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 2010)
Governance indicators have come under fire in recent years, especially the World Governance Indicators (WGIs). Critics present these indicators as a-theoretical and biased. Critics of the critics counter that no better ...
Development as Leadership-led Change
(John F. Kennedy School of Government, 2010)
Development involves change, but many development initiatives produce unimpressive results. The authors ask why and consider how to close the gap between the intended change and what we actually see in the evidence. This ...
Isomorphism and the Limits to African Public Financial Management Reform
(2009)
Many reform results fall below expectations in the development arena, especially in the public sector. Do the reforms just need more time to work better, or should we adjust our expectations? In addressing this question, ...
Overcoming the limits of institutional reform in Uganda
(Center for International Development at Harvard University, 2013-10)
This paper begins by noting that Uganda has been a public sector reform leader in Africa. It has pursued reforms actively and consistently for three decades now, and has produced many laws, processes and structures that ...
This is PFM
(Center for International Development at Harvard University, 2014-07)
The acronym PFM stands for Public Financial Management: But what is public financial management? This short note tries to demystify the concept, drawing on perspectives of specialists in the area who work in different ...
Opening Adaptation Windows onto Public Financial Management Reform Gaps in Mozambique
(Center for International Development at Harvard University, 2018-05)
Governments across the world regularly pursue reforms that achieve less than was originally expected or is needed to make the state function better. The limits to reform success are often obvious in even the early days of ...
Do international organizations really shape government solutions in developing countries?
(Center for International Development at Harvard University, 2013-08)
International organizations like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank have been supporting reform initiatives in developing country governments since at least the 1980s. Various authors have criticized this ...
Who Wins in the World Economy and English Football?
(Center for International Development at Harvard University, 2019-01)
Globalization has fed significant economic gains across the world. The gains lead some policymakers in developing countries to believe in the potential of ‘catch up’—where they leverage the gains of an open world economy ...