Comments

I found this to be so true in indigenous programs, mistakenly blamed program intent/design, when it is actually operational rigidity and focus on the process, that is stifling progress. Work needs to be done on impact measuring and accountability, to push through old and poor delivery routines, to achieve licence (for field workers), to work on suitable adaptation. Adaptation requires dialogue and all players to believe in equality of contribution. Where top down systems are working well, (for some) adaptation will be considered risky.

Hi David, Thanks for your comment. I agree. It's worth noting, however, that this fact is true of any evaluation method, and -- for that matter -- any research method in social sciences. Thanks again for your comment. Terence

Hi Terrence. I came to this article via google, and so a little late to the party. Something I notice about the RCT debate and the issue of non-transferability is that non-transferability is almost always taken to mean geographic / cultural transferability. But there is also temporal transferability: societies change over time, and the findings of an RCT from last year may not be applicable in the same place this year. An example of this is the current Samoan measles crisis, due in part to a medical error in vaccination made by two nurses (later jailed for negligence) radically altered public attitudes towards vaccination. It seems almost certain, to me, that the applicability of any RCT conducted on incentivisation vaccination conducted before the medical error, would be highly dubious after the error. The change in population perception between before and after might in fact be greater than that any geographic / cultural difference between Samoa and, say, Afghanistan.

Thanks for the feedback. It was the most amazing place to live as a child. No doubt it is challenging but the future will be great!

What a captivating and insightful blog. I loved your story at the beginning - got me in! Always appreciate opportunity to understand more about PNG it’s past, present and possible futures.

Thanks for the review. Pretty much sums up realities on the ground in Fiji. Being born out of a military coup, the government in power centralised governance under its unitary and dictatorial control which involved the subjugation of oversight and regulatory institutions. Media decree, public order act and crimes act are part of package to enforce complete dominance and control. Fiji citizens have never really felt free to express themselves, assemble in peaceful protest or voice criticism against government. Question is - how can one person representing Fiji and serving in the UN Human Rights Council Geneva body be so blind and deaf to all that has been happening over these past 10-13 years? Is it that the person is a well-known sympathiser of the 2006 coup and close relative of Minister of Economy and Attorney General amongst other things who has been creating all such laws and decrees that suppress citizens and hold them hostage to their rule?

Well said Nicola, as with every endeavour, you can have a perfect strategy and vision, but if the machinery is not connected and responsive you will not reach the goal. It’s all about the contracting - that, and having the right people who can actually work flexibly.

Parliamentary committees should be accorded some form of prosecuting powers or recommendations to sanction politicians and public servants who arbitrarily abuse public and state laws.

Great post Theresa, thanks. I wondered when reading Terence's post about the financial side as well -- women candidates tend to have less financial resources, so perhaps it becomes more of a struggle to mobilise money on each subsequent campaign, reducing chances of success? Soso doesn't seem to have this issue but it could be an issue for other women candidates.

Nicola, many thanks for your valuable assessment of the state of adaptive programming and what needs to be done to deliver the goods. I immersed myself in this literature when I was on the design team for the APTC Stage 3 which became the Australia Pacific Training Coalition to reflect its new approach. However, from my arms length engagement with APTC since then, I fear that little has changed on the ground. The pressures and incentives to continue to reply on 'rigid, traditional systems-based operation' are too strong to try more flexible ways of solving the problems we identified.

Thanks Nicola - challenging but very timely. For my part, there are highly relevant tools out there: e.g. results-based budgeting; portfolio management techniques; probabilistic (rather deterministic) planning approaches; and better-suited performance management frameworks (i.e. better than tools developed for engineering projects). The challenge is to actually apply them (not just the terminology). And rigorous application means quite major changes in both the systems and thinking of donors and partner governments alike. On a positive note, I know DFAT is giving serious thought to this. Hopefully, they will find answers to at least some of your questions some time soon.

Hey Cory. Thanks, it is very helpful for speech.