FYI: What We're Reading

[David Jacobstein]

Hi all,

A lovely late summer has given way to some gray and rainy weeks - good for the trees, and good for those who want to curl up and read! If you also have weather conducive to reading, here are some good things to consider:

On Systems Thinking:

• An article from the UNDP Sandbox on dual transitions with some good reflections from various people - I particularly liked Eshban Kwesiga's comment that “We come to this work with the premise that communities are co-investors in this work, and that they also have a right to determine how monitoring and evaluation is done and how success is defined, but to do that, we have to use our imagination to collectively develop new approaches.”
• A fascinating metaphorical article on systems perspectives arguing that donors interchangeably tend to use two different models of systems practice, one where we are adjusting to navigate toward a fixed destination and one where we are fully reacting to emergent situations. I think the disparity is a bit overstated - we do embed elements of both - but it is a really good heuristic to think about which approaches fit to which of these modes. 
• A fantastic article around how narrative practices relate to democratic decline and renewal - looks at competing narratives and how actors use them to lay claim to legitimacy and power. It mirrors much work we've done internally around narratives, and more broadly is helping to elevate the focus on the way we describe our work, and even further, how our work should be oriented to further particular aspects that relate to how people hold fast to democracy. I also really loved their take on the dilemma that building a coalition around a single shared narrative was a common but potentially challenging practice - that "Seeking a shared narrative as a starting point for convening allies that then drives collective action also runs the risk of developing overly simplified narratives among those who already think alike and who can become “stuck in their story” without the benefit of being pushed to see beyond their own blind spots. Instead, complexifying narratives can be a movement-building tool, allowing both people and stories of lived experience to have layers, nuance, with multiple identities and contexts that can be woven together."
• These discussions on narrative and how it relates to outcomes is something we can take further as we move forward with our USAID Local Systems Position Paper (should be published next month!). Around that topic, here are some personal reflections on the Local Systems Framework on its 10 year anniversary.
• Perhaps relatedly, a very practical and user friendly tool from JASS helps activists and changemakers to navigate their situations and build strategies for long-term change, and includes a significant focus on issues of narrative, diversity of perspectives, and other material. Really useful, please share with anyone who can take advantage of it!

On TWP:

• An interesting book based on first-hand experience from numerous contexts on how the thinking of politicians is an important and rational driver of outcomes, but often neglected in development work. It's a fantastic read, and if you like it, you will have two chances in October (one in DC, one virtual) to hear from author Greg Power - stay tuned to your TWP lists to find the invitations.
• A blog post USAID authored featuring Governance Action Hub's use of political settlements work by climate and governance programming in Colombia - not USAID supported, but so fascinating that we had to write it up! They applied political settlements literature to identify entry points and then built their work product to not only take advantage of existing space, but think about how to anticipate the need to defend that progress as enabling conditions shift.
• An interesting article by Carothers that somewhat spans the TWP/systems gap, and relates to the narratives articles above, on the ways people misunderstand democratic backsliding. The article notes that 'Backsliding is less a result of democracies failing to deliver than of democracies failing to constrain the predatory political ambitions and methods of certain elected leaders. Policymakers and aid providers seeking to limit backsliding should tailor their diplomatic and aid interventions accordingly." In other words, you have to know the narrative bases on which the battle for democracy is being fought if you want your words and your programming to prove effective - assumptions (especially paternalistic ones that believe people want to "get things" more than they want to "be free to be themselves") may lead programs to fall into authoritarian traps or to prove less effective than it might otherwise be.

On Measurement:

• The wonderfully named On the Fall of Icarus is a good review of the hype cycle around RCTs and the effort to ensure they are appropriately used, which (years later) is still encountering the challenge of how alluring they can seem on paper. As I look at the emphasis on cost effectiveness now being rolled out, I hope that we have thoroughly absorbed these lessons - it is all too easy to pay lip service to "my statistical technique isn't good for everything" and then still largely divide the world based on a particular statistical technique.
• On precisely that topic, hoping not to make too many people who fly regularly for their jobs too nervous, here's a great article looking at What Went Wrong with Boeing that points to exactly this kind of emphasis on clear, countable metrics. Specifically, when Boeing bought McDonnell-Douglas, they were larger and more successful, but the culture of McDonnell-Douglas became mainstream at Boeing, leading to many of the problems they now face. As the author notes, "the McDonnell-Douglas executives were the ones who could back up their business cases with a ream of hard data.  The legacy Boeing executives were left talking about culture and best practice and all sorts of soft-sounding things that were hard to put into a model...the disastrous decisions turned out to have been made without anyone realising they were making them, when they decided to use the financial reporting system as a tool of management."

Finally, some quick hits, mostly around LLD:

• A robust review of the multidimensional nature of poverty, using visualizations to try to capture connectedness between issues and how this causes issues to move together (h/t Flor Guerzovich).
• An excellent article from the thoughtful Moses Isooba on the use of language in development.
• A thorough review of how work combatting child labor under CLARISSA connected learning, effectiveness, and stakeholder empowerment
• An article on encouraging citizen participation in government audits
• A discussion on whether mental models are the most significant part of systemic change, or just one among many
• An article about locally-driven change in the Philippines, flagging how international actors can properly take a back seat and still contribute
• A simple but useful tool from USAID around Making the Shift, based on robust feedback, on how to put more mutuality into our partnerships.
• In case you missed them, links to DRG-supported webinars on local capacity strengthening in DRG programming, lessons learned and important takeaways
• Some amazing stories of individual defenders of democracy around the world.

And if you haven't signed up by now, what better time to join some sessions at the LCS Forum! There will be sector-specific sessions, sessions around particular principles, listening sessions, and a conversation around local systems; available in several languages and with remarkable speakers!

Best,

David

David Jacobstein 

DRG Policy, Learning and Integration Office

United States Agency for International Development

T: (202) 390-1333

djaco...@usaid.gov

Context-Driven Adaptation Collection:

https://usaidlearninglab.org/context-driven-adaptation-overview

https://www.drglinks.org/resources/context-driven-adaptation-overview

https://programnet.usaid.gov/collection/context-driven-adaptation (Internal only) 

[David Jacobstein]

Hi all,

Apologies, I included a broken link, the corrected link to the USAID stories of defenders of democracy is here: https://medium.com/usaid-2030/5-democracy-human-rights-and-governance-heroes-a0894454b2e6

Best,

David

David Jacobstein 

DRG Policy, Learning and Integration Office

United States Agency for International Development

T: (202) 390-1333

djaco...@usaid.gov

Context-Driven Adaptation Collection:

https://usaidlearninglab.org/context-driven-adaptation-overview

https://www.drglinks.org/resources/context-driven-adaptation-overview

https://programnet.usaid.gov/collection/context-driven-adaptation (Internal only) 

[Katherine Bain]

Hello everyone,

Thanks to David for the mention of our political settlement work in Colombia as a prelude to finding feasible and impactful entry points to support a Just Energy Transition using a systems-thinking lens. Please find here the full piece, if of interest:

Copied here my co-author Jorge Florez.

All the best,

Kathy 

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