Building State Capability Podcast
The “Decade of Building State Capability” podcast series features interviews with practitioners who reflect on their experience using the PDIA approach and their engagement with Building State Capability over the past 10 years.
On today’s episode, BSC Director Salimah Samji interviews Sampath Kumar. Sampath is presently the Health Secretary and the Development Commissioner of the government of Meghalaya in northeast India. Over a career addressing rural poverty reduction, women’s empowerment, natural resource management, early childhood education, and healthcare, he has grown deeply familiar with both the challenges of extending public services to the poor and vulnerable, and the immense potential of last mile development. Mr. Kumar has also conceptualized the innovative State Capability Enhancement Project (SCEP) as a means of strengthening state capacity, while progressively tackling complex development challenges. The SCEP framework has now been institutionalized as the Government Innovation Lab (GIL) with the Government of Meghalaya. He is Edward S. Mason Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and holds a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University.
Rebecca and Prateek conducting their first PDIA session with District Collectors in December 2020
District Collectors expanding upon a draft fishbone analysis of maternal mortality during the PDIA session, December 2020.
Michael Woolcock during a PDIA + Adaptive Evaluation workshop in Shillong, Meghalaya in July 2022
Sampath on a health field visit
Sampath on a health field visit
Source: Harvard Kennedy School
