Doing Complex Reform Through PDIA: Judicial Sector Change in Mozambique
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.1740 |
| Date | 01 October 2015 |
| Author | Matt Andrews |
| Published date | 01 October 2015 |
DOING COMPLEX REFORM THROUGH PDIA: JUDICIAL SECTOR
CHANGE IN MOZAMBIQUE
MATT ANDREWS*
Harvard Kennedy School, USA
SUMMARY
Many public sector reforms change governmental forms without improving functionality. Recent work suggests this is because
countries adopt mechanisms that do not fit their contexts, without an effective adaptation strategy. The work posits that reforms
could be more effective if they were introduced through more adaptive processes, like problem-driven iterative adaptation
(PDIA). This approach has deep roots in various literatures but many observers still ask how it actually works in practice. This
paper responds to such question by describing an action research study where PDIA was used to facilitate process reform in
Mozambique’s judicial sector. It shows how the approach (i) revealed contextual factors that often limit reform success and
(ii) fostered adaptive progress around these factors, towards a functional solution. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
key words—capability traps; problem-driven; iterative adaptation; judicial sector; Mozambique
INTRODUCTION
Many public sector reforms in developing countries fail to make governments more functional. This is typically
because reforms introduce new solutions that do not fit the contexts in which they are being placed. Project pro-
cesses that structure such reforms do not help reformers see or respond to contextual factors that ultimately under-
mine reform success (like political resistance or capacity constraints, which are hidden from sight or
underestimated when projects are prepared). As a result, such projects either fail outright or produce new forms—
like laws or management systems—that are not used or useful. The problems that initially warranted reform re-
main unsolved, and the governments involved are no more capable than they were before reform.
This situation reflects what has recently been called the “capability trap”in development (Andrews, 2013a;
Andrews et al., 2013; Pritchett et al., 2013). The work on capability traps suggests that reforms can yield more
functional influence in even the most complex states, however, if reformers adopt non-traditional approaches to
doing reform. In particular, the work suggests that reforms will tend to be more contextually fitted if (i) they are
driven by problems that agents in the context care about and (ii) they are introduced iteratively—through a stepwise
process where ideas are tried and lessons are learned and used to adapt (or fit) ideas to context. Iteration is a means
to reveal contextual factors (like political influences and capacity constraints) and allow the emergence of solutions
within the context, given contextual realities.
The capability traps work embeds these ideas into an approach to doing reform called problem-driven iterative
adaptation (PDIA), which builds on previous literature and extensive empirical evidence showing that successful
reforms often emerge through such processes, especially when the challenges are complex in nature (Andrews,
2013a, 2013b). However, many observers still ask how PDIA-type reforms could work to foster successful reform
in hierarchical developing country government bureaucracies, and whether these approaches really help to advance
*Correspondence to: M. Andrews, Room 117 Rubenstein Building, 79 JFK Drive, Cambridge, MA, USA. E-mail: Matt_andrews@hks.
harvard.edu
public administration and development
Public Admin. Dev. 35, 288–300 (20152015)
Published online in Wiley Online Library
(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/pad.1740
Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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