Better Govs’ story
Better Govs is a global platform to share ideas, tools, and resources for effective policy implementation. It’s a site designed for public servants and development practitioners working in or with the public sector, who want to make an impact but struggle to bring ideas into action.
When you join Better Govs, you also become part of an international network of professionals like you. People who share your values and your mission: to improve people’s lives. They also face similar difficulties. This is a space where we can learn from each other and support each other in the challenges we face when implementing policy.
Better Govs’ mission is to help public servants and development practitioners increase the probability of successful policy implementation. Better Govs in Spanish was created especially for Latin America.
Like you, I believe in the power that a competent government can have to create equal opportunities for all, especially the most vulnerable.
After working as Minister and acting Vice President in Ecuador, my country, and as a consultant for various international organizations around the world, I’ve seen the transformative power that well-designed and implemented public policies can have. However, effective policy implementation is not as easy as it sounds, and challenges are exacerbated in countries with low capacity and weak institutions.
In the public sector, the focus is often on understanding what to do, which depends on the accumulation and assimilation of knowledge. A lot of time and energy is devoted to policy and project design at the start of a government intervention, and to the evaluation of that policy or project at the end of its life cycle. Implementation, in contrast, does not get the same amount of attention; it is implicitly assumed that projects ‘will be implemented’. Reality has repeatedly proven this assumption to be incorrect. Better Govs focuses on policy implementation; on the how to do it, which generally comes through practice.
Policy implementation is already difficult, learning about it shouldn’t be. I specialized in Public Policy at Harvard University, since then I have dedicated myself to understanding the theory and finding ways to apply those valuable concepts in practice. My academic training and experience have given me a unique perspective.
One of the problems with public policy training is how impractical it can be. What works in theory, using assumptions, is not always what works in practice, in the real world. Most programs focus on what to do, on accumulating knowledge. Better Govs focuses on how to do it, using the knowledge available in practice.
To paraphrase Einstein, policy implementation (well, everything) should be made as simple as possible but not simpler. That is Better Govs’ motto!
Thanks for being part of Better Govs!
