The Black Box of Governmental Learning - 9780821384534

There are more poor people around the world than ever before. One of the missing factors in efforts to address poverty and increase sustainable development is adequate governmental capacity development. One effective means to improve the quality of democratic governance is by learning from the past and from others' experiences. The Black Box of Governmental Learning introduces the Learning Spiral---a new concept for organizing effective learning events for governments in the 21st century. It helps governments to learn from each other. This theory-based concept has been applied successfully over the past decade in numerous conferences, training, and e-learning events all over the world. The book is directed toward practitioners in governments, such as members of cabinets, parliaments, and courts; civil servants and politicians; civil society organizations; and international organizations. It will help them understand the challenges of learning in governments and offers a concept for organizing effective learning events

"This event [which featured the Learning Spiral] offered my delegation a golden opportunity to obtain answers through detailed discussions with eminent politicians, civil servants, judges from the state and federal level as well as scholars....After examining the experiences of the judiciaries in Swiss, Brazilian, Indian, and Nigerian federations, I can say that we benefit from these and use some of their rules when forming the federal and regional judiciary in Iraq."---Medhat Al Mahmoud, Chief Justice of the Federal Supreme Court and President of the Higher Judicial Council of Iraq

"The workshop was helpful in shedding light on questions of public sector reform by providing the opportunity to discuss experiences of other countries in Africa....I was very much impressed by the management of the workshop process, where an enormous number of lessons and future actions were covered only within the two days. The workshop discussions and resulting materials will remain valuable for me and other practitioners of public sector reform in the Ethiopian government."---Ato Ahmed Mohammed Ali, Director of Planning and Programming Directorate, Ministry of Capacity Building, Government of Ethiopia

"It is not surprising that the [Learning Spiral] has become a useful tool for practitioners and academics alike to acquire a comparative view of a variety of solutions federal governments typically encounter. It encourages participating practitioners and scholars to use the knowledge they gained to inspire new solutions, thereby improving democratic governance."---Arnold Koller, Former President of Switzerland