Despite increased prominence and funding of global health initiatives, attempts to scale up health services in developing countries are failing, with serious implications for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. A new paper argues that a key first step is to get a more realistic understanding of health systems, using the lens of complex adaptive systems. [...]
Archive for the ‘Leadership’ Category
The Complexity of Scaling Up
Posted in Accountability, Evaluation, Evolution, Healthcare, Innovation, Leadership, Malaria, Public Policy, Reports and Studies, Strategy on October 3, 2011 | 4 Comments »
Results 2.0: Towards a portfolio-based approach
Posted in Accountability, Evaluation, Healthcare, Innovation, Institutions, Knowledge and learning, Leadership, Malaria, Meetings, Organisations, Public Policy, Strategy on June 30, 2011 | 7 Comments »
The international development sector has been in a tug of war around the ‘results agenda’ for the past few months. This post explores the tensions and suggests a way to bring the sides together by focusing on the relevance and appropriateness of different approaches.* I: The Results Tug of War Development results is one of many [...]
Success, failure and what lies between
Posted in Accountability, Economics, Evolution, Innovation, Institutions, Knowledge and learning, Leadership, Meetings, Public Policy, Strategy on June 17, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Earlier this week Tim Harford, also known as the Undercover Economist, gave a fantastic talk at ODI on the topic of ‘Development as Trial and Error’. Drawing on his latest book, Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure, Tim provided the audience with a compelling account of the need for a different way of thinking [...]
Gender bias as an emergent property in international agencies
Posted in Gender, Institutions, Leadership, Organisations on June 1, 2011 | 12 Comments »
UPDATE 03/05/2011 – Shotgunshack has posted a great piece on this issue as it plays out in INGOs – check out ‘Gender and NGOs – Pretty on Paper’ Most international agencies backed International Women’s Day in March, and – some valid concerns about the political appropriation of the gender movement aside – this is right and [...]
How do aid agencies deal with wicked problems?
Posted in Innovation, Institutions, Knowledge and learning, Leadership, Public Policy, Strategy on April 5, 2011 | 5 Comments »
The term ‘wicked problem’ was used here last week to describe the challenges of humanitarian coordination. This post is a response to a number of requests to explain a little more about this concept. The term ‘wicked problem’ was originally proposed by two American urban planners, Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber, in the 1970s. The term [...]
The Humanitarian Groundhog Day
Posted in Chaos, Evolution, Innovation, Institutions, Knowledge and learning, Leadership, Meetings, Natural disasters, Networks, Organisations, Public Policy, Self organisation on March 24, 2011 | 14 Comments »
Humanitarian coordination has been described in a new ODI paper as a ‘wicked problem’ which demands new and radical solutions. This post explores the longstanding incentive issues underlying the lack of effective coordination and suggests possible ways forward. In a paper published last year, Michael Barnett and I argued that the humanitarian system was stuck in much the [...]
Whose Paradigm Counts? Guest Post 2 of 2 By Robert Chambers
Posted in Accountability, Evolution, Facilitation, Innovation, Institutions, Knowledge and learning, Leadership, Networks, Organisations, Public Policy, Strategy, Technology on February 15, 2011 | 9 Comments »
Expanding Paradigms In my first post in this two part guest series, I presented an account of the contrast between ‘things’ and ‘people’ as it was framed in my 1997 book Whose Reality Counts? and as many people in the development sector still perceive it. As numerous responses – both here and on other fora [...]
A Q&A on Positive Deviance, Innovation and Complexity
Posted in Evaluation, Evolution, Facilitation, Innovation, Knowledge and learning, Leadership, Public Policy, Resilience, Self organisation, Strategy on February 8, 2011 | 12 Comments »
Positive deviance (PD) is a fascinating approach, a decade and a half old, and the focus of growing interest in health, education and numerous other sectors in domestic public policy. Interestingly, given PD saw first widespread application in an aid programme, it is still less well known than it should be across the international community. This post [...]
Complexity with a human face
Posted in Campaigns, Financial crisis, Leadership, Networks, Resilience, Self organisation on February 4, 2011 | 5 Comments »
A piece in yesterday’s New Scientist titled ‘Can Complexity Theory Explain Egypt’s Crisis?’ explores ideas of complexity in the context of the ongoing events in Egypt. It draws on the insights of two noted complexity thinkers – Yaneer Bar-Yam and Thomas Homer-Dixon. Excerpts are reproduced below with permission: Egyptians are the world’s biggest wheat importers and consumers, and [...]
Scan HIV-AIDS Globally, Reinvent Approaches Locally
Posted in Evolution, Healthcare, Innovation, Knowledge and learning, Leadership, Public Policy, Strategy on December 2, 2010 | 7 Comments »
Huge thanks to Alanna Shaikh for peer review comments and edits Back in 1997, Robert Chambers argued that top-down attempts to manage complex processes of change have not worked in development aid. …Development projects can be paralysed by overloads at their centres of control…[generating] dependency, resentment, high costs, low morale and actions which cannot be sustained’ [...]
