Escaping Capability Traps Through Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA)

Abstract

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 policies or organizations look like rather than what they actually do. In addition, the flow of development resources and legitimacy without demonstrated improvements in performance undermines the impetus for effective action to build state capability or improve performance. This dynamic facilitates "capability traps" in which state capability stagnates, or even deteriorates, over long periods of time even though governments remain engaged in developmental rhetoric and continue to receive development resources. How can countries escape capability traps? We propose an approach, Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA), based on four core principles, each of which stands in sharp contrast with the standard approaches. First, PDIA focuses on solving locally nominated and defined problems in performance (as opposed to transplanting preconceived and packaged "best practice" solutions). Second, it seeks to create an authorizing environment for decision-making that encourages positive deviance and experimentation (as opposed to designing projects and programs and then requiring agents to implement them exactly as designed). Third, it embeds this experimentation in tight feedback loops that facilitate rapid experiential learning (as opposed to enduring long lag times in learning from ex post "evaluation"). Fourth, it actively engages broad sets of agents to ensure that reforms are viable, legitimate, relevant, and supportable (as opposed to a narrow set of external experts promoting the top-down diffusion of innovation).

Public Sector Management Reform in Developing Countries: Perspectives Beyond NPM Orthodoxy

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“…The key arguments are set out in Andrews (2013) and Andrews et al (2012). Their argument is that the response to many intended public sector reforms in low-income countries, especially those reforms driven by external aid agencies, is that "governments and organisations pretend to reform by changing what policies or organisations look like rather than what they actually do" (Andrews et al 2012, i).…”

Case study on sexual and reproductive health and education: reflections on interlinkage and governance

“…• Developing a 'problem-driven iterative adaptive approach' (Andrews, Pritchett & Woolcock 2013); • Devolution and inter-sectoral planning is probably useful for achieving this.…”