Since 2022, the GIZ project ‘Solid Waste Management in Jordan’ (SoWas) has been working with the adaptive reform approach ‘Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation’ (PDIA) in the country’s two largest cities, Amman and Irbid. The project’s success is now drawing nationwide attention.
Representatives of Jordanian authorities and development organisations after a discussion on the role of PDIA in Jordan’s governance reform at the King Abdullah II Centre for Excellence (KACE).
©KACE (use permitted)
Advised by IDOS’s Michael Roll, this approach was used to reform urban waste management and recycling in Amman and Irbid. Due to the success of these reform measures, which were recently published in a case study by the Harvard Kennedy School, other Jordanian authorities have become aware of PDIA. Invited by the King Abdullah II Centre for Excellence (KACE), Michael Roll was therefore in Amman from 13 to 17 April to present the approach.
PDIA is a learning-by-doing approach to solving complex development problems and is particularly suitable for implementing sustainable institutional reforms. The approach involves local teams analysing the causes of their own implementation problems and developing locally adapted solutions using existing capacities and resources. These solutions are then tested in parallel implementation loops lasting only a few weeks. If they prove successful, they are scaled up. If not, the reasons are analysed and taken into account when developing alternative approaches.
Following presentations of the approach to organisations such as the Crown Prince Foundation, the King Abdullah II Fund for Development, KACE and GIZ, as well as during a public Management Innovation Lab in Amman, discussions developed on the potential of PDIA to advance governance reform in Jordan at various levels. Although Jordan has set itself the goal of making governance and public administration more participatory, effective and efficient, as of yet there is no approach for implementing this.
On behalf of the Prime Minister, a team of Jordanian public sector experts working with KACE is now developing an approach for implementing governance reform. Inspired by the successes in Amman and Irbid and the discussions during the visit, PDIA and the general principles of adaptive reform approaches are to play a central role in this process.
