Here my takeaways from two great days at the University of Oulu where I attended the Burning Questions 2019 event to discuss and challenge the status quo of education systems and education in international development.
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All posts tagged “research”
What bees have to do with the Fourth Industrial Revolution? Quite a lot, it turns out.
Bees and the genetic technology that underpins research on bees is an illuminating window on our future and the complexity, politics, and uncertainty of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, has defined the 4IR as… Read More
Reference societies and adaptive development: a conversation with Daniel Suryadarma about Indonesia’s participation in the PISA educational assessment
During a seminar organised by the EduKnow research group at the University of Tampere on comparative education, I came across the interesting concept of reference society. In a nutshell, countries which, like Finland, find themselves at the top of the PISA ranking may become models or references… Read More
Knowledge, policy, and adaptive development in Indonesia. A discussion at UNICEF’s Office of Research-Innocenti
I was recently in Florence to meet the team at the UNICEF’s Office of Research-Innocenti and present & discuss some of the experiences of the Knowledge Sector Initiative in Indonesia. I was part of the implementing team during phase 1 from 2013-2017 leading the research and… Read More
Serbia’s long journey to joining the EU and what the implications are for evidence informed policy making. A conversation with Nenad Čelarević
Eighteen years have passed since the big demonstrations that took place in the streets of Belgrade and which ultimately led to the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević on 5th October 2000. Today Serbia is on a new journey which is not without challenges. Ten years ago,… Read More
What joining the European Social Survey means for social science research and evidence-informed policy making in Serbia. In conversation with Professor Dragan Stanojević.
The Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade has a long history. It was established in 1838 and today it is located in a modern building in downtown Belgrade. I went there to meet Dragan Stanojević, Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology. I wanted… Read More
Building state capability for evidence-informed policymaking in Albania: In conversation with Abi Dodbiba
Growing up in Italy during the 1970s and 1980s, I remember Albania being geographically very close, just 150 kilometres across the sea from the harbour city of Brindisi. At the same time, closed and isolated by its communist regime, it seemed very far away. Many… Read More
Adaptive programming at scale: a discussion at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
I was in Helsinki last week for a presentation and discussion at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. This was part of the yearly Studia Generalia, a series of seminars organised by the Ministry and the Finnish Society for Development Research where researchers have the opportunity… Read More
Making research evidence count: insights from Finland’s Policy Analysis Unit
After more than a decade in Asia working to build governments’ use of evidence, I recently moved back to Finland. Here I’ve found commitment to evidence and innovation like nowhere else. Kokeileva Suomi or Experimental Finland is a great example of the nation’s ‘readiness to innovate’. Set up… Read More
Policy content change is one of the types of policy change, but not the only one
There is an interesting exchange mid-way through David Letterman’s interview to President Barack Obama on Netflix. Letterman asks President Obama about his reflection on policymaking and the role and power that the president actually has. Obama answer is quite illuminating in terms of the nature of… Read More
