Systems Practice in International Development

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Latest Episodes:

From Theory to Practice: How PMEL Nepal Strengthens a Portfolio Approach to Aid Delivery for FCDO May 06, 2025

Welcome to the final episode of Systems Practice in International Development. In this episode, Alexandra Nastase (Programme Director, PMEL Nepal) speaks with Tara Bajracharya (Team Leader, PMEL Nepal) and Ankeeta Shreshta (Deputy Team Leader, PMEL Nepal) about learnings from this 5-year pilot programme which has asked some crucial questions: How can you achieve more with less? How can a portfolio learning function help a bureaucracy think more strategically, act more coherently, and learn for better results?

Together, they reflect on what it took to set up and sustain a one-of-a-kind learning function that was embedded enough to understand the system but independent enough to challenge it.

This episode’s guests

Tara Bajracharya is a seasoned MEL professional with over 12 years of experience across development and humanitarian settings. She has held leadership and advisory positions within NGOs, INGOs, and donor agencies, where she has led MEL system design and management, conducted impact evaluations, and fostered learning and adaptation across diverse programmes. Her in-country experience spans Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.

Tara currently serves as the Team Leader for the FCDO Nepal PMEL, where she oversees technical teams comprising national and international experts. She provides high-quality advisory support to FCDO Nepal, with a strong focus on strategic learning and evidence-informed decision-making. Her work emphasizes adaptive management and the use of rigorous evidence to drive impact in complex systems.

Ankeeta Shrestha is the Deputy Team Lead for FCDO PMEL Programme. With over a decade of experience in the strategic learning space, she has contributed to several high-impact projects across health, education and inclusion sectors for several international development organizations, including USAID, UNFPA, Department for International Development (DFID), Rural Education and Development (READ) Global, among others. 

A systems thinking enthusiast, Ankeeta is passionate about translating theories and policies into actionable, real-world solutions that drive meaningful change. Outside of her professional work, she is an avid reader with an insatiable curiosity for exploring innovative ideas. 

This podcast is produced and hosted by the Portfolio Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (PMEL) programme in Nepal, funded by the British Embassy Kathmandu and implemented by Abt Global. Please note, the views expressed through this podcast reflect those
of the hosts and guests only.

From Being Influential to Useful – The Evolving Role of Think Tanks Apr 01, 2025

Welcome to Episode 8 of Systems Practice in International Development. Our guest is Enrique Mendizabal, Founder and Executive Director of On Think Tanks (OTT). In this episode, we’re tackling some big questions: What does it take for think tanks to shape policies that make a difference? How do they balance independence while meeting funders' demands? And is there a better way to think about evidence – as just one piece of a bigger, messier puzzle? We’ll explore the evolving role of think tanks in today’s challenging landscape, with a fresh perspective and real-world examples.

This episode’s guest

Enrique is OTT’s founder and executive director. He leads the development and delivery of OTT’s mission. Enrique has over 20 years of experience in the field of evidence informed policy. Before founding OTT in 2011 he worked for the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) where he headed the Research and Policy in Development programme. At ODI he co-founded the Outcome Mapping Learning Community. Enrique has co-founded various initiatives aimed at supporting better informed policymaking including Purpose & Ideas, the Peruvian Alliance for the Use of Evidence, the Latin American Evidence Week and the Premio PODER al Think Tank Peruano del Año.

From Insights to Implementation: Applying Political Economy Analysis (PEA) for Real World Impact Feb 24, 2025

Welcome to Episode 7 of Systems Practice in International Development. Our guest is Pallavi Roy, Professor of Political Economy at SOAS University of London. In this episode, we have a frank conversation about Political Economy Analyses (PEAs) in the international
development sector today. PEAs have come some way, but there’s still a long way to go – and we delve into the balance between what is good enough and how to effectively apply it.

This episode’s guest:

Pallavi Roy is a Professor of Political Economy at SOAS University of London. Her research is on the application of institutional economics and in particular the political settlements framework to governance, and the political economy of late development.

She is Co-Director of the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office’s (FCDO) £6 million Anti-Corruption Evidence (ACE) research partnership consortium working primarily in Bangladesh and Nigeria, in sectors like electricity, renewables, extractives, primary healthcare, and digital governance. She is also the Co-Principal Investigator on an FCDO-funded programme on generating evidence for fostering inclusive growth in Nepal. She has worked across developing countries and has extensive experience of working with funders and research organizations like the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, World Bank, UNESCAP, Agence Francaise de Developpement, BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (Bangladesh) and is a visiting faculty member at the International Anti-Corruption Academy in Laxenberg, Austria.

She is co-Chair of the Scaling-Up in Fragile States Working Group in the Scaling Up Community of Practice and has contributed to national media in the UK and internationally. She has also worked as a senior business journalist in India with publications like Financial Express and Businessworld from 1997 to 2007.

From Learning to Adaptation: Lessons Learned from Adaptive Programming and Use of Strategy Testing. A conversation with The Asia Foundation (Part 2) Feb 04, 2025

Welcome to Episode 6 of Systems Practice in International Development. This is episode 2 of a 2-part series with guests from The Asia Foundation, Nicola Nixon (Senior Director of Governance) and Gopa Kumar Thampi (Senior Governance Advisor at The Asia Foundation in Sri Lanka).

In this episode, we zoom into the practical experiences in adaptive programming. We discuss learning from failure to the type of teams required to deliver this work, use of evidence for decision making and adaptation, and addressing the most important currency in this type of work – trust.

This episode’s guests

Nicola Nixon is the Senior Director of Governance at The Asia Foundation (TAF). She specialises in inclusive and participatory governance with over 25 years’ practical and research experience in Eastern Europe and South and Southeast Asia. She has worked with universities, private foundations, donor and UN agencies, and NGOs. She has published widely and has presented research to government, development and academic audiences in numerous international forums, often looking at the politics and practices of international development cooperation. In her current role, she supports TAF programs across the Asia Pacific in areas such as subnational governance, public-sector reform, knowledge-to-policy, civil society strengthening and law and justice.

Gopa Kumar K Thampi is a Senior Governance Advisor at The Asia Foundation in Sri Lanka. Over his career, he has worked across 25 countries in Africa, Central Asia, East Asia, South Asia, West Asia, and Eastern Europe, collaborating with development partners, state institutions, public agencies, and CSOs to address governance reforms, public accountability, and capacity building. He played a key role in establishing the Global and South Asia hubs of the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability (ANSA) based at BRAC University in Dhaka, where he managed both from 2009 to 2011. Currently, Gopa co-chairs the Steering Committee of the World Bank’s Global Partnership for Social Accountability (GPSA), fostering collaboration between civil society and governments to address critical governance challenges. He is a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Peace and Justice at BRAC University, and serves on the Advisory Board of ARUTHA, a Colombo-based policy think tank focused on economic research, public debt, and taxation.

From Learning to Adaptation: Lessons Learned from Adaptive Programming and Use of Strategy Testing. A conversation with The Asia Foundation (Part 1) Jan 28, 2025

Welcome to Episode 5 of Systems Practice in International Development. This is episode 1 of a 2-part series with guests from The Asia Foundation, Nicola Nixon (Senior Director of Governance) and Gopa Kumar Thampi (Senior Governance Advisor at The Asia Foundation in Sri Lanka).

We discuss the state of adaptive programming in our sector today, their newly launched strategy testing workbook, lessons learned from ten years of implementing adaptive programming across geographies and technical sectors, and we’re going to bust some myths about adaptive management towards the end.

This episode’s guests

From Systems Thinking to Practice: How USAID is Embracing Humility and Relationships to Do Aid Differently (Part 2) Dec 19, 2024

Welcome to Episode 04 of Systems Practice in International Development. We are delighted to introduce this limited series produced by the Portfolio MEL (PMEL) programme in Nepal, funded by the British Embassy Kathmandu and implemented by Abt Global. We hope you enjoyed the first part of our conversation with USAID colleagues on their recently launched Local Systems Position paper. If you haven’t listened to it already, it is available on Apple and Spotify.

In part two of this series, we’ll dive deeper into the practical side of systems thinking—exploring how USAID missions bring the Local Systems Position Paper to life, tackle practical implementation challenges, and rethink the role of donors to truly embrace systems practice.

This Episode's Guests
David Jacobstein has been with USAID for 12 years. He serves as a Political Economy and Localization Specialist in the Policy Learning and Integration Office of the Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance Bureau, where he focuses on issues of capacity strengthening, systems thinking, political economy, locally-led development, and cross-sectoral integration. He leads work that has promulgated measurement and programming recommendations through the Local Capacity Strengthening Policy, and served as a co-author of the Local Systems Framework.

Monalisa Salib is the Chief of Party of the USAID/Vietnam Learns Activity implemented by Social Impact. Her nearly 20 years of experience in international development includes long-term, field-based senior management and technical positions in Washington, D.C., Palestine, Yemen, and Vietnam. Monalisa was a co-creator of USAID’s Collaborating, Learning & Adapting (CLA) Framework and Maturity Tool and several other CLA resources on behalf of USAID.

Rachel Leeds is a Strategy Analyst in USAID's Bureau for Planning, Learning, and Resource Management and a member of USAID's Local Systems Community of Practice. She led the consultation and drafting process for the Agency's new Local Systems Position Paper. She received her Bachelor's in Anthropology and Global Development Studies from the University of Virginia and her Master's of International Development Policy from Georgetown University.

From Systems Thinking to Practice: How USAID is Embracing Humility and Relationships to Do Aid Differently (Part 1) Dec 17, 2024

System work is not about solutions; it’s about discovering and steering local pathways for change at a pace appropriate for our ability to learn and for what local communities can enact and absorb.” - Stanford Social Innovation Review

This quote perfectly sets the tone for part one of our two-part series on USAID's Local Systems Position Paper. This paper isn’t just another framework—it’s a bold vision for reimagining development by prioritizing local actors within the system and locally-led solutions.

In this episode, we’ll delve into the thinking behind the paper, explore its key ideas, and discuss how it fosters local ownership, trust, and sustainable systems. What inspired this shift, and what could it mean for the future of development? Let’s dive in!

This Episode's Guests

David Jacobstein has been with USAID for 12 years. He serves as a Political Economy and Localization Specialist in the Policy Learning and Integration Office of the Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance Bureau, where he focuses on issues of capacity strengthening, systems thinking, political economy, locally-led development, and cross-sectoral integration. He leads work that has promulgated measurement and programming recommendations through the Local Capacity Strengthening Policy, and served as a co-author of the Local Systems Framework.

From Projects to Portfolios: How FCDO is Shaping Collective Learning and Coherence (Part 2) Nov 27, 2024

We hope you enjoyed the first part of our deep dive into portfolio practices in the British Embassy Kathmandu in Nepal and the British High Commission in Nigeria. If you haven’t listened to it already, it is available here:

This episode is a continuation of our conversation with Federica and Craig, this time exploring how to work at the portfolio level beyond ODA, how to support a learning culture and the role of external facilitators in systems practice.

Bios Guests

Dr Craig Irwin

Data, Evidence and Learning Lead for the British High Commission, Nigeria

Dr. Craig Irwin has dedicated over 15 years to advancing the use of statistics, data and evidence for the UK government with experience ranging from Defra, UK department of health, Department for International Development (DFID) Bangladesh and the Foreign Commonwealth and Development office Nepal. He was pivotal in shaping the innovative Portfolio Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (PMEL) programme in Nepal its initial years and now serves as the lead for the British High Commission in Nigeria.

Dr. Federica Di Battista

Evidence and Knowledge Team Leader, BEK, FCDO

And as our second guest, we have Federica Di Battista.

After obtaining her PhD in economics from the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, Federica worked on research projects at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations and poverty estimation at the World Bank. She joined Innovations for Poverty Action as research manager for a portfolio of impact evaluation projects focusing on rural and agricultural development in Ghana. And from 2018 she joined the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office of the UK as evaluation expert for the evaluation unit first and then for the Middle East and North Africa regional department. She is currently the evidence and Knowledge team leader at the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office Nepal also known as the British Embassy Kathmandu.

Your hosts are:

Alexandra Nastase is the Lead Technical Director for Abt Global Britain, and the Programme Director for the FCDO-funded Portfolio MEL (PMEL) programme in Nepal.

Ankeeta Shreshta

Ankeeta Shrestha is the Deputy Team Lead for FCDO Portfolio Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (PMEL) Programme implemented by Abt Global.

From Projects to Portfolios: How FCDO is Shaping Collective Learning and Coherence (Part 1) Nov 21, 2024

We all know development challenges are complex and interconnected, and that’s where the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has taken a refreshingly practical approach to systems thinking by first getting its house in order. They’ve embraced a portfolio approach -At the heart of it is to learn from portfolio evidence, leverage synergies through coherence to maximize impact in a complex and fast-changing world.
FCDO's Portfolio Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (PMEL) programme was established to do just that. While several countries have adopted the concept, today we’re spotlighting two in particular—Nepal and Nigeria.
In this episode, we’ll dive into the merits and challenges of a portfolio approach, explore the pre-requisites for becoming a learning organization and, at the end, we’ll bust a few myths around evidence-informed learning and decision-making.
This podcast is produced and hosted by the Portfolio Monitoring Evaluation and
Learning (PMEL) programme in Nepal, funded by the British Embassy Kathmandu and implemented by Abt Global. Please note, the views expressed through this podcast reflect those of the hosts and guests only.
Bios Guests
Dr Craig Irwin
Data, Evidence and Learning Lead for the British High Commission, Nigeria
Dr. Craig Irwin has dedicated over 15 years to advancing the use of statistics, data and evidence for the UK government with experience ranging from Defra, UK department of health, Department for International Development (DFID) Bangladesh and the Foreign Commonwealth and Development office Nepal. He was pivotal in shaping the innovative Portfolio Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (PMEL) programme in Nepal its initial years and now serves as the lead for the British High Commission in Nigeria.
Dr. Federica Di Battista
Evidence and Knowledge Team Leader, BEK, FCDO

And as our second guest, we have Federica Di Battista.
After obtaining her PhD in economics from the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, Federica worked on research projects at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations and poverty estimation at the World Bank. She joined Innovations for Poverty Action as research manager for a portfolio of impact evaluation projects focusing on rural and agricultural development in Ghana. And from 2018 she joined the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office of the UK as evaluation expert for the evaluation unit first and then for the Middle East and North Africa regional department. She is currently the evidence and
Knowledge team leader at the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office Nepal also known as the British Embassy Kathmandu.