Why Does Hirschmanian Development Remain Mired on the Margins? Because Implementation (and Reform) Really is ‘a Long Voyage of Discovery’

In work undertaken over the past decade with my colleagues Matt Andrews and Lant Pritchett, we have sought to address three big-picture issues pertaining to policy implementation, especially in developing countries. First, how well are the world’s (national) governments able to implement their core policy agendas, and how many of these countries are showing discernable improvement? Second, to what extent are the dominant approaches taken by international development agencies to enhancing capability for policy implementation helping or hindering this process? And third, if these dominant approaches are frequently failing, why is this, how have such consistently unhelpful approaches endured for so long, and – more constructively – what might an alternative approach seek to ‘do differently’?