The Ehsaas programme was launched to create a holistic and wide-ranging approach to poverty alleviation in Pakistan. One year on, Delivery Associates has reviewed the progress it has made to date, the use of data and technology to improve delivery and transparency, and how the team quickly pivoted to successfully respond to the COVID-19 crisis.
Delivery Associates has partnered with Over Zero, a leading non-profit in violence prevention, to support
city leaders ahead of the forthcoming U.S. election.
Mayors will play a critical role in creating a positive, peaceful, inclusive, and informative election environment. City governments still have time to build community resilience ahead of Election Day and this new guide gives advice on how to prepare and create plans to address any potential or emerging tensions.
Delivery Associates has partnered with Over Zero, a leading non-profit in violence prevention, to support city leaders ahead of the forthcoming U.S. election.
The vaccine race is well and truly on. Billions of investment and the excellence of global scientists give us confidence that it’s a race we will win. The development of the vaccine is a huge challenge in itself; the delivery of it, at speed, around the world is even greater. Developing a vaccine normally takes a decade; getting to 80 per cent global coverage generally takes about 30 years. For example, the Rotavirus vaccine was first made available in 2006; 15 years later, global coverage is at 37 per cent. We are now attempting to deliver a vaccine ten times faster, to ten times more people, with ten times the complexity of any previous vaccination programme.
Britain has begun work on its programme and is playing a leading role in vaccine development. But we and others should follow three key principles. First, planning. The logistics of delivering the vaccine will be mind-boggling; it’s estimated that the equivalent of 8,000 jumbo jets will be needed to distribute it. There will also be huge refrigeration challenges in many developing countries. Moreover, a vaccine delivered in an ongoing pandemic poses new levels of complexity. The World Health Organisation and the Gates Foundation are already working on solutions.
Second, prioritisation. We have to ensure that those most at risk get it first. Next month’s G20 summit should agree an approach based on need rather than leaving it to a free-for-all in which nations such as China hoard supplies.
Third, protection. Monitoring the various vaccines during their introduction around the world will have to happen at unprecedented scale and speed. It will therefore need an unprecedented level of surveillance and sharing of data that governments must consider now.
Finally, public support. We cannot rely on universal enthusiasm for a vaccine. In an age of social media misinformation, there needs to be a global communication strategy to win over sceptics to ensure herd immunity. Governments should start thinking about this now, not later.
It’s in all our interests that every country starts to prepare and that we co-operate with other nations. The international community will not be forgiven by citizens if the need to deliver a vaccine at scale and speed seems to take it by surprise.
Sir Michael Barber is chairman of Delivery Associates and author of How to Run a Government
The vaccine race is well and truly on. Billions of investment and the excellence of global scientists give us confidence that it’s a race we will win.
Sir Michael Barber and Idris Jala discuss the key learnings from our new in-depth report and share insight into the successful practices of the top 20 countries that have maintained a strong recovery in the fight against COVID-19.
Sir Michael Barber and Idris Jala were joined by Dr. Rifat Atun, professor of global health systems at Harvard University, and Dr. Jemilah Mehmood, Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia, to discuss the opportunities for global collaboration and learning.
Sir Michael Barber and Idris Jala discuss the key learnings from our new in-depth report and share insight into the successful practices of the top 20 countries that have maintained a strong recovery in the fight against COVID-19.
The effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic look likely to remain with us for some time to come. While some countries are through their initial peak, many are still in the midst of their critical response to the health crisis.
As countries have taken varied responses to manage COVID-19, Delivery Associates and PEMANDU Associates have collected the practices of 20 countries that have maintained a strong recovery index in the fight against COVID-19. These early insights could prove critical as countries look to learn what works in response to the pandemic.
The effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic look likely to remain with us for some time to come. While some countries are through their initial peak, many are still in the midst of their critical response to the health crisis.
Being whisked from one meeting to the next, overloaded with updates, calls, and video conferences can leave one feeling exhausted, and perhaps wondering if they were truly worth all the time and effort. This may be even more true as much of the work in the public sector increasingly takes place in remote, virtual meetings amid the COVID pandemic.
And yet, the meeting, when done well as part of a routine, can be one of the single most powerful ways to make progress on priorities. The key is to change the culture around meetings to make them feel truly different.
Just ask a group of leaders what characteristics of the few meetings they actually look forward to… those rare, exceptional meetings that really feel like they move everything forward. Their answers are likely to yield something like the below list.
Insufficient planning can lead to unsatisfactory outcomes: too much time on unimportant items, rushing through the items that matter, a rambling unfocused debate on the data or the latest updates and so on.
Too much planning can kill a meeting too: participants read from their scripts, everything is orderly and smooth, any potential ‘scene’ is avoided, yet there is no genuine exchange of ideas and no real progress.
Finding the right combination, being conscious of how meetings unfold, planning them carefully in advance—while making space for genuine deliberation—can unlock the true power of the routine meeting to advance progress. If you can replace bad meeting habits with the good habits outlined above, leaders will be able to look forward to the next meeting as a real chance to solve problems and get important work done.
Strengthen meetings on COVID-response with these resources
Build your teams' capacity with the Delivery Institute
Many leaders cringe at the prospect of another meeting. And yet, the meeting, when done well as part of a routine, can be one of the single most powerful ways to make progress on priorities. The key is to change the culture around meetings to make them feel truly different.
Delivery Associates is pleased to announce that its Board of Directors have appointed Nick Rodriguez as its new Chief Executive Officer.
Our outgoing CEO, Leigh Sandals, will continue his important contributions to Delivery Associates and our partners as a non-executive director. We are grateful for his years of leadership of Delivery Associates and are pleased that he will continue to work with us as a trusted member of the team moving forward.
Delivery Associates Founder and Chairman, Sir Michael Barber, shared these reflections on Leigh's tenure: "Leigh’s leadership has been truly remarkable. He has turned a young start up into a major organisation working across every continent to assist governments in delivering for their people. He has built our organisation and our reputation through his consistent focus on outcomes, through his wisdom and his hard work and through his absolute commitment to our values. I am delighted that, now he has chosen to step down from the chief exec role, he will continue to make a huge contribution to our work and to ensuring that our work improves people’s lives around the world."
Nick Rodriguez assumes the role of CEO effective 1st July 2020. Nick has been a leader at Delivery Associates since 2016, building our North America practice and playing a pivotal role in helping governments, NGOs, and philanthropies deliver public value in the United States, Canada, and beyond. "I know Nick is excited at the prospect of leading Delivery Associates," Sir Michael Barber said. "He has demonstrated his leadership talent across the length and breadth of the Americas and will now bring that talent to bear on the whole organisation. I very much look forward to working with him in his new role."
"It's an honor to step into this role," said Nick. "The times we're living in are unprecedented, and they ask all of us to rise to new challenges. Every government and society on earth has the same task ahead: to manage through the current moment, to lead the way to recovery, and to rebuild in a way that is more just, more equitable, and more inclusive. Our mission is as important as it's ever been. I'm grateful for the foundation that Leigh and the whole team at Delivery Associates have built that will make it possible to deliver on that mission."
Delivery Associates is pleased to announce that its Board of Directors have appointed Nick Rodriguez as its new Chief Executive Officer.
The comprehensive set of evidence-based COVID-19 management metrics have been designed specifically for cities and will help with data-driven decision making.
To effectively respond to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, Mayors and local leaders will need to continuously collect, monitor, analyze, and share a wide range of key metrics. The new resource provides a framework to support this and will be regularly refined as understanding of the COVID-19 crisis evolves.
Click here to find out more:
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/from-our-experts/management-metrics-for-cities-in-the-covid-19-crisis
Delivery Associates has worked with Bloomberg Philanthropies and Johns Hopkins University to launch a new resource to help American city leaders respond to COVID-19.
As governments around the world begin to reopen their societies during the COVID-19 pandemic, contact tracing becomes increasingly important. Identifying those who have been potentially exposed to the disease and ensuring they isolate is critical to controlling the spread of the disease and preventing new outbreaks (see more here).
The Kingdom of Jordan recently rolled out a new app - called “Aman” which means “safety” – as part of the strategy to slow and eventually stop the spread of the disease. Delivery Associates Digital partnered with Jordan’s Ministry of Health, the Prime Minister’s Office and Jotech, a youth tech volunteer organisation, to develop the app to identify those who might be infected and ensure they are quarantined, monitored and tested.
The Ministry of Health launched the app on 21st May and have been promoting it across their channels through including their daily COVID-19 updates, the news media, and digitally.
In the first week since the app launched, it reached 200,000 downloads and was ranked the number one app for downloads in Jordan that week. The team’s ultimate goal is to reach 4 million downloads, which would amount to 40% of the population.
Crucially, initial evidence show people are using the app as intended. User retention for the app remains high in its first weeks at over 70%. And although the overall COVID-19 case count in Jordan is low, the app has already begun to identify and flag some potential cases of exposure.
A comment from one Aman user (translated to English from Arabic): "Aman application is an excellent one, it protects me, protects my family and those around me.”
In reflecting on the app development and rollout, the team identified a few key lessons:
Most importantly, the team was driven by a common mission - saving lives. This helped unite key stakeholders around a shared goal and ensured quick execution. The government noted that using the app is “a humanitarian and moral obligation.” That guiding principle helped the team move with ambition and urgency.
Please reach out to us at digital@deliveryassociates.com to learn more.
As governments around the world begin to reopen their societies during the COVID-19 pandemic, contact tracing becomes increasingly important.
Nearly 200 people from across Latin America, North America, and Europe joined our Delivery Associates team and guest panelists for a discussion about COVID-19 response and recovery in Latin America.
The panelists included:
Attendees from different governments, NGO’s and other organisations listened as the panelists reflected on the challenges Latin American governments have faced in responding to the pandemic and shared lessons and opportunities for the future.
Watch excerpts here:
Vice Minister of the Economy for Brazil, Marcelo Guaranys explaining how his department approached economic policy to prepare for the effects of COVID19.
Fiorella Molinelli from EsSalud explaining some of the challenges facing Peru in dealing with the COVID19 crisis.
Lea Gimenez from the Inter-American Development Bank discusses the response from different countries across Latin America.
Claudio Seebach from Generadoras de Chile describes the role of the private sector and the benefit of international companies’ involvement in Chile’s response to COVID-19.
Sir Michael Barber, founder and chairman of Delivery Associates, reflects on what the panelists have shared and his advice for government leaders managing the response to COVID-19.
Watch the whole webinar here:
Nearly 200 people from across Latin America, North America, and Europe joined our Delivery Associates team and guest panelists for a discussion about COVID-19 response and recovery in Latin America.
Sir Michael Barber joined Prof. Adil Najam, the Inaugural Dean of the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, to discuss the challenges and opportunities the world will face after coronavirus.
Watch the edited highlights below.
Over eighty representatives from four different continents joined Sir Michael Barber and Robin Alfred for a discussion on the challenges facing leaders during the COVID-19 crisis.
Representatives from different governments, NGO’s and other organisations listened to Michael and Robin give their personal experience and thoughts on leading during this crisis, before a wider discussion and Q&A session on what the lessons and opportunities could be for the future.
Watch the whole webinar below:
Over eighty representatives from four different continents joined Sir Michael Barber and Robin Alfred for a discussion on the challenges facing leaders during the COVID-19 crisis.
As we enter a new decade, what will today’s science fiction writers be writing about for the remaining decades in this century? Sir Michael Barber discusses the two big challenges facing governments in the face of rapid technological change.
Over the last decade or so, there has been a sustained loss of trust in major institutions. Sir Michael Barber argues that this context means it has never been more important for governments to deliver for their citizens.
There are big, global challenges on the horizon for governments around the world. From declining trust levels and demographic changes through to technological and climate change, this is a uniquely uncertain time for many. We look at the work of a selection of governments around the world that are adapting and delivering despite uncertainty.
In our new document, we look at the work of a selection of governments around the world that are adapting and delivering despite uncertainty. Often they use a Delivery Unit to monitor progress and drive reform.
Sir Michael Barber today gave a keynote presentation to an audience gathered at the original library of the Catholic University’s Law School in Santiago, Chile.
The Centre for Public Policy (CPP) hosted the event to mark their 17th anniversary and welcomed an audience of over 150 government authorities, civil servants, private sector leaders, educators and academics.
Entitled “How to run a government so that citizens benefit and taxpayers don't go crazy’, Sir Michael talked about the importance of focusing on implementation and delivering public value.
In an interactive panel discussion after the presentation with Senator Felipe Kast, Presidential Advisor for State Modernization Rafael Ariztía, former President Bachelet’s Chief of Staff Ana Lya Uriarte and Director of the CPP Ignacio Ararrázaval, Sir Michael also highlighted the need to focus on clearly defined priorities and establish effective routines to allow rigorous problem solving and continuous learning.
The panel also reflected on how lessons from around the world can be applied to the Chilean context, particularly in light of growing skepticism with public institutions and the crisis of liberal democracy.
Listen to Sir Michael’s interview with Tele13 in Chile here
Sir Michael Barber today gave a keynote presentation to an audience of over 150 government officials, civil servants, private sector leaders, educators and academics to mark the 17th anniversary of the Chilean Centre for Public Policy.
A new paper ‘Beyond the Mirage’ discusses the need for a pragmatic approach and a rethinking of the role governments play in education to improve current global outcomes.
Sir Michael Barber reflects on the stark report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and suggests six areas where Governments could act.
Governments around the world are facing intense pressure to deliver better public services while taxpayers, understandably, do not want to pay more tax. How can leaders respond to this bind? Sir Michael Barber outlines the UK’s Public Value Framework and how it focuses spending and performance on outputs.
What can we still learn from Gallileo’s quest for the stars? Sir Michael Barber highlights five lessons for delivery, including that "the doing alone is not enough” - you also need to convince people that you have done it.
