Events

Event Spotlight

Headshots of Matt Andrews, Salimah Samji, Peter Harrington, Danny Barjum, Anisha Poobalan, Awa Touray

Reflecting on a Decade of Building State Capability around the World

October 19, 2023
Harvard Kennedy School

Over the past decade, Building State Capability (BSC) has engaged with over 3,500 practitioners in 148 countries. In this session, the BSC team discusses the evolution of PDIA and its pedagogical methods, as well as shares reflections on their journey of building capability and igniting change. It also features voices of global practitioners who have used BSC’s tools and approaches.

Past Events

Zoom screenshot of speakers Salimah Samji, Amber Thacher, Shanequa Moore, Jori Zeneli, and Agustin Filippo

Implementation Doesn’t Happen by Edict: Learning from IPP Alumni

March 15, 2023
Online

Are you tasked with implementing policy, but frustrated when you and your team can’t get it across the finish line? Are you wondering why your policy is not delivering results? This session features the IPP program team and program alumni who share how this program can help you and your organization achieve better policy outcomes.

Daniel Agbiboa and Salimah Samji seated in the front of Malkin Penthouse speaking to a group of seated students

They Eat Our Sweat: Transport Labor, Corruption, and Survival in Nigeria

February 6, 2023
Harvard Kennedy School

In Lagos, drivers are constantly threatened and forced to pay bribes; they suffer health problems like hypertension and partial blindness, and accidents are common. Fear is a form of governance. In this book talk, the author shares his experience as a minibus conductor in Lagos to better understand the culture and complexity of corruption.

Steve Kadish presenting in front of seated students

From Elections to Governing: Getting Beyond Politics to Get Things Done

November 30, 2022
Harvard Kennedy School

In government, the focus is often on policy, legislative wins, and budget dollars. However, the key components often missing are successful execution and implementation. In this book talk, Steve Kadish shares a methodology developed by Governor Charlie Baker and himself to move from identifying problems to achieving results.

4 seated panelists from right to left: Sasha Segal, Olga Yulikova, Zhenya Leonov, Rita Vinokur

Agile Responses to the Ukrainian Crisis: The Power of Cell Phones

November 16, 2022
Harvard Kennedy School

Nobody was prepared for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, especially the refugees. This event features three organizations that leveraged the networking power of cell phones to gather resources, organize people, and mobilize hope amid confusion and despair, stepping in when larger organizations would not or could not.

Yamini Aiyar presenting

The Curious Case of the Powerful Yet Powerless Bureaucrat

October 31, 2022
Harvard Kennedy School

Drawing on over a decade of studying and active practice of “building” state capability in India, this talk, featuring Yamini Aiyar, offers a deep dive into the dynamics of capability gaps at the frontlines of the Indian State and offer a provocation on why current frameworks often fail to address the roots of the problem.

Panelists Matt Andrews, Lant Pritchett, Dan Honig, and Salimah Samji speaking to a room of HKS students

Learning, Failure, and Blame in the Public Sector

September 22, 2022
Harvard Kennedy School

Problems in the public sector are numerous. It is an arena where critique is constant, mistakes are magnified, success is taken for granted, and the risk of failure has public consequences. In this complex landscape, how do you pivot from finger-pointing positions of ‘winner-loser’ and ‘we-they’ to creating a learning environment of “us?” Is failure without blame possible?

Matt Andrews, Salimah Samji, and Allison Pingree on zoom

Learning and Working Together: Effective Strategies for Team Projects

September, 2022
Online

Team projects can build real-world collaboration skills and deepen learning, but also bring added complexity and challenge. Matt Andrews and Salimah Samji shared strategies for engaging students effectively in team projects at the Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching (HILT) 2022 Conference.

PDIA in Action students on zoom for their final presentation

PDIA in Action Event Series

April – June, 2021
Online

This virtual event series features presentations from a field-lab class where students learn a research-oriented version of PDIA by working on public problems – they learn by doing. In Spring 2021, 37 students across Harvard worked in teams on real-world problems nominated by 8 IPP alumni who served as their clients.

Peter Harrington presenting online with white background

Message in a Battle

October 8, 2020
Harvard Kennedy School

As part of Harvard’s Worldwide Week, Peter Harrington, who worked with the Government of Liberia to craft their communications strategy during the Ebola crisis, shared lessons in crisis communications that can be applied to the COVID-19 pandemic. He prioritized simplicity, conciseness, and truth.

3 panelists seated in the front of the room with hanging portraits behind them

PDIA Conversation with Anisha Poobalan, Alieu Nyei and Ganga Palakatiya

June 18, 2019
Harvard Kennedy School

As part of the programming for the inaugural on campus phase of the Implementing Public Policy (IPP) program, Anisha Poobalan leads a discussion with Alieu Nyei and Ganga Palakatiya about their experiences working on PDIA teams in their countries of Liberia and Sri Lanka.

From left to right: Jorrit de Jong, Salimah Samji, and Matt Andrews sitting on a panel in a conference room

How Can Governments Better Implement Policies?

April 9 – 10, 2019
Harvard Kennedy School

At CID’s Global Empowerment Meeting in 2019, Matt Andrews, Jorrit de Jong, and Salimah Samji discussed how city, regional, and national governments can better implement policies by working in teams, collaborating across boundaries, iterating, and learning.

Salimah Samji listens as Lily Tsai presents

How Do You Mobilize Political Elites and Citizens

October 30, 2018
Harvard Kennedy School

There are a lot of important agendas at the global, regional, and local level that don’t get implemented. During this event, panelists Lily Tsai, Rakesh Rajani, and Alice Evans discuss how to mobilize citizens and political elites to get these agendas off the ground and progressing forward.

Matt Andrews, Salimah Samji, and Tim McNaught presenting the new PDIA toolkit with slide of toolkit behind them

Toolkit Launch

October 26, 2018
Harvard Kennedy School

As part of Harvard’s Worldwide Week, Matt Andrews and Salimah Samji launch the newly published PDIA Toolkit, a comprehensive resource to solving complex problems.

Matt Andrews presenting

PDIA for Economic Diversification in Sri Lanka

April 19, 2017
Harvard Kennedy School

At CID’s Global Empowerment Meeting in 2017, Matt Andrews led an interactive session entitled PDIA for Economic Diversification to showcase how we work with governments to find and fit solutions to complex problems that are specific to local context using the case of Sri Lanka as an example.

Salimah Samji and Peter Harrington sitting and speaking on a panel with ODI logo behind them

Doing Development Differently (DDD) – London

November 28, 2016
London, UK

ODI in collaboration with Building State Capability at Harvard Kennedy School, convened a private workshop to look at how the adaptive development agenda has been put into practice throughout the world.

Salimah Samji pointing at a chalkboard with notes about building a community of practice

Doing Development Differently (DDD)

October 22-23, 2014
Harvard Kennedy School

BSC co-hosted the DDD workshop with the Overseas Development Institute (ODI). The aim of the event was to build a shared community of practice, and to crystallize what we are learning about doing development differently from practical experience. The workshop ended with a strong call for developing a DDD Manifesto.

Matt Andrews sitting with two panelists and speaking in front of audience. A table and laptop is in front of them

Untying Development

October 23, 2013
Harvard Kennedy School

This workshop hosted by BSC brought together several voices, including: Francis Fukuyama, Merilee Grindle, Jennifer Brinkerhoff and Jennifer Widner, to discuss the challenge of creating a governance agenda focused on solving country-specific problems, involving local people and emphasizing learning in the process.