Graham Teskey, Principal Lead for Governance, Abt Global 1 “The ideas of economists and philosophers… are more powerful than is commonly understood. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority… are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler… I …
Moving from theory to practice: How PMEL Nepal strengthens a portfolio approach to aid delivery for FCDO
By Tara Bajracharya, Federica Di Battista and Craig Irwin. This blog explores how the Portfolio Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (PMEL) Nepal function supports the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) Nepal –the British Embassy Kathmandu (BEK) more broadly – to apply a portfolio approach to aid delivery. The origin story: Why PMEL in Nepal? …
What is Abt’s approach to governance?
By Graham Teskey This blog can be downloaded as a pdf at the bottom of this post. ‘Good’ governance—a mix of liberal democracy and free market institutions—is often claimed to be necessary for poverty reduction, growth and development1. Abt Associates does not subscribe to this view for the reason that there is no evidence to support …
Leadership and localisation: How Australia could support local women to exercise influence and drive change
By Dr Annemarie Reerink Although there has been much talk about women’s representation in Australia’s 47th Parliament, we have yet to hear how this government would prioritise local women’s leadership in our region. Yet, the political transition in Canberra and the new government’s aspirations for a “reset” with the Indo-Pacific region present a significant opportunity …
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We are always looking for exciting guest content. We publish commentary on official development assistance, foreign aid, governance, economics, corruption, foreign policy, and all things relating to developing countries. Perhaps you have some research that you’d like to share, or an opinion piece on the politics of development? Maybe you were inspired by a book …
Keeping Universal Health Coverage Centre Stage
By Jane Pepperall, Principal Health Lead For those of us invested in the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) journey over recent years, the UN High Level (HLM) Meeting on UHC in New York on 21 September is a much anticipated opportunity to review progress since the inaugural UHC HLM in 2019, as well as a clarion …
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Digital Solutions in Health: why Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning should be a critical part of Pacific countries’ investment
Didar Ali, Technical Advisor – Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning The unrecognizeable medical staff uses digital tablet to review medical chart. I was pleased to attend the three-day Indo-Pacific Digital Health Users Forum in Fiji last week, where I learned about the increased use of technology in the health sector, the Pacific context and the …
Responding to the COVID-19 crisis in Indonesia
Why Adaptive Management is more important than ever. Lessons from an Indonesian Governance program. Maliki, Graham Teskey, Anna Winoto, and Michael Woolcock. In recent years, the term ‘adaptive management’ has lost some of its gravitas. As can often happen in the development sector, terminology can come in and out of fashion. However, adaptive management in …
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Grappling with localisation
By Graham Teskey My colleague Dr Priya Chattier and I have just published a working paper on the Abt Governance Soapbox Website, entitled “Localisation: what could it mean for contractors?”. We wrote this paper due to our increasing frustration with the sheer unreality of the literature (and speeches) emerging within the development community on the …
What does ‘inclusive growth’ mean for women with disabilities?
By Dulce Natividade Fátima da Cunha and Rebecca Devitt Magdalena Soares, a Timor Leste woman with a disability, knows how to be resourceful. Self-taught to read and write, she has never been to school. Yet Magdalena is determined to be the best version of herself. In Magdalena’s words, ‘people stare at me often because of …
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Yu Tru’: The scheme that could cut poverty in PNG, how industry ‘insiders’ tried to stop it and how a team of ‘outsiders’ used TWP to push back
by Tara Davda Why do ‘insiders’ resist new technologies? A new paper, Working Politically and Adaptively in Practice: The Case Study of ‘YuTru’, examines this question. Drawn from a series of interviews and key reports, it examines the ‘Yu Tru’ scheme (an Australian Government funded, now private sector-led, digital trust framework), and explores the obstacles …
Advancing the UK’s new aid agenda
By Graham Teskey FCDO/Flickr There has been much disgruntlement over the past year regarding the demise of UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), its take-over by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), and the savage cuts in the aid budget. As distant but interested observers, what can we be optimistic about? Before his ignominious …
In praise of…. Logframes
by Graham Teskey My friend and colleague Lavinia Tyrell recently posted a note on LinkedIn, highlighting a recent World Bank Independent Evaluation Group report, which reflected on various methods of monitoring and evaluation currently used in development.[1] In so doing, Lavinia referenced this diagram: As a fan of diagrams, as well as a long-time user …
Governance and Development Soapbox 