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Begin New Search Topic International Affairs Content Type Commentary and Analysis Publishing Institution Center for Global Development Publication Year within 10 Years Publication Year within 25 Years

1. Joint Humanitarian Operations

Author:
Jeremy Konyndyk
Publication Date:
12-2018
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
The Government Reform and Reorganization Plan released earlier this year by the White House calls for substantial reform of US humanitarian institutions. The plan mandates that the State Department and USAID produce a “specific reorganization proposal” to “optimize” humanitarian assistance and “eliminate duplication of efforts and fragmentation of decision-making.” This policy note lays out guidance for how an ambitious but feasible optimization could be achieved. It is informed by two high-level private roundtables convened by the Center for Global Development to solicit expert input, as well as a desk review of documents, expert interviews, and the author’s own experiences serving in the humanitarian arms of both USAID and the State Department. While numerous experts contributed thoughts and feedback, the author takes sole responsibility for the views represented herein.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. It’s Like That and That’s the Way It Is? Evaluating Education Policy

Author:
Susannah Hares
Publication Date:
12-2018
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
It’s tricky to evaluate government education policies. They’re not implemented in NGO-like laboratory conditions, and political motivation and public sector capacity constraints play as much of a role in their success or failure as policy design. Using the examples of three rigorous studies of three different education policies, this note aims to shed some light from the perspective of someone on the policy side on how, why, and when to evaluate government-led reforms. A government education policy is not an abstract theory that can easily be replicated in a different place. In each new context, it is effectively a brand-new programme and needs to be evaluated as that. None of the three examples presented was “new” as a policy: school inspections, school vouchers, and charter schools have all been tried and evaluated elsewhere. But the evaluations of these policies—when implemented in new contexts—illuminated a new set of challenges and lessons and generated a different set of results.
Topic:
Education and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus