CommuniquéAsh Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation Spring 2010 Volume 6

IN THIS ISSUE

Participedia: Exploring ParticipatoryGovernance on the Web

Vietnam’s Struggle to Avoid theMiddle-Income Trap

Stephen Goldsmith Appointed DeputyMayor of NYC

Typhoons and Earthquakes Provide KeyLessons for New China Case Program

On the Bookshelf: The Power of SocialInnovation

Neighborhood Stabilization Boot Campat HKS

Summer Fellows in Innovation andVietnam Interns Announced

Ash Center Launches New Website

The Roy and Lila Ash Center for DemocraticGovernance and Innovation advances excel-lence in governance and strengthens demo-cratic institutions worldwide. Through itsresearch, education, international programs,and government innovations awards, theCenter fosters creative and effective govern-ment problem solving and serves as a catalystfor addressing many of the most pressingneeds of the world’s citizens. The FordFoundation is a founding donor of the Center.

At a Vietnamese floating market in Can Tho,farmers and fishermen stand in woodenboats stacked high with bright green water-melons, light yellow bananas, 25-poundbags of white rice, and fresh shrimp. It isfive a.m., and vendors shout out dealsabove the noises of rumbling diesel enginesand clucking chickens. Small children playalong the banks of the Mekong RiverDelta, while an older man walks the familywater buffalo.

The Mekong River Delta is home to over13 provinces in southwestern Vietnam.Called the “Nine Dragon River Delta,” afterthe Mekong’s nine tributaries, the region’srich ecosystem supports much of the coun-try’s agricultural production. Vietnam is theworld’s second largest exporter of rice

accounting for 20 percent of the world’straded 30 million tons of rice per year1;many of these rice farms depend on theDelta region’s mineral-rich silt and periodicflooding for production. “The Mekong Deltais the agricultural dynamo of the country,”said Ben Wilkinson, associate director of theCenter’s Vietnam Program. “But it is facinga potent cocktail of environmental threats.”

Potent Environmental ThreatsChina, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia haveplans to build large-scale hydroelectric proj-ects and dams in different parts of theMekong Delta. These dams threaten to dis-rupt the Delta’s delicate ecosystem andrestrict water flow during Vietnam’s dry sea-continued on page 2

Vietnam: Avoiding the ‘Middle Income Trap’Center’s Vietnam Program Explores Country’s Socioeconomic Factorsto Ensure Success

Boats bring passengers to a Vietnamese floating market

2 Communiqué Spring 2010

son. With less fresh water, sea water flowsup river, filtering into the soil and damagingcrops. Even though the largest dams haveyet to be constructed, this year’s droughtcaused a saline intrusion of upwards of 60miles upstream, something Vietnam Pro-gram Economist David Dapice predicts willbe a common occurrence. “Drought is aforetaste of what is likely to happen regular-ly once all of these dams get built, especial-ly if they divert water,” he said.

Increased salinization of the region’s fer-tile soil is also caused by a decreasingwater table. With limited, if any, governmentoversight of water resource management,rice and fish farmers simply pump water outof their own wells and dig new wells whenthese run dry. Pumping out fresh watercauses the ground to sink and allows saltywater to further filter into the ground watercreating unfriendly conditions for growingmuch of the nation’s fruits, vegetables,and rice.

These conditions are compounded bypossible future damage caused by changesto the climate. Many scientists argue thatVietnam will be one of the countries mostaffected by a potential sea rise. Short termirregular weather patterns, such as morefrequent typhoons and dramatic flooding,could damage fishery and rice pattyecosystems within the next five to ten years.Such diminished agricultural productionalong with the region’s public infrastruc-

ture—insufficient in the face of damagingtyphoons—could force an urban migration.

“For Vietnam, you have the prospect ofmillions of people having to get off the landin a relatively short period of time, and thepossibility of having to invest billions inhousing, roads, and other infrastructure totake into account the increase in typhoonsand other issues they haven’t dealt withbefore,” said Dapice.

In addition to changes to the Vietnameseway of life, deteriorating rice productioncould set off a domino effect in the globaleconomy, weakening political stabilityamong the world’s largest rice importers,primarily within Africa. According to theUSDA’s 2010 Rice Outlook, over 440 milliontons of rice are grown worldwide. “If youlose five to ten million tons of rice fromexports, it’s not catastrophic from a worldview, but the global price could double oreven triple,” said Dapice.

Dapice recommends that the Vietnamesegovernment take an integrated approach tothe Mekong Delta’s water threats by creat-ing a water market for enforcing stricterwater resource management policies andresearching crop varieties that can betteradapt to the longer-term effects of a chang-ing climate.

Avoiding the Middle-Income TrapThe challenges facing the Mekong regionare just one issue that could hinder Viet-nam’s continued economic success. Over

the last 20 years, Vietnam’s economy hasimproved: the country has tripled its percapita income and opened its economy toforeign investment while encouragingdomestic private enterprise. Yet, mostindustry remains concentrated in low-valueitems such as apparel and footwear. “Butthe margins are wafer thin, and you don’tget rich selling t-shirts and windbreakers,”said Wilkinson.

Foreign investors continue to gainground in the country—Intel and Foxconn,a Taiwanese contract manufacturing com-pany, have set up plants. In addition,the country has been able to attract ForeignDirect Investment (FDI) as well as OfficialDevelopment Assistance over the past 20years. Once among the 50 poorest coun-tries in the world, based on purchasingpower parity (ppp), Vietnam is now consid-ered a “middle-income country,” definedby the World Bank as a country with a GDPper capita ranging from $1000 to $3700.But such a classification carries a new setof challenges.

Thomas Vallely, director of the VietnamProgram, explains that middle-incomecountries often fall into the “middle-incometrap” whereby lagging institutional and polit-ical development slows fair distributionaleconomic growth. Current rapid growthrates become unsustainable in the longterm unless such countries improve gover-nance policies and build infrastructure tosupport a growing economy. In Vietnam’scase, relatively weak public and mediaengagement, corruption, and inadequategovernment regulation2 along with poorinfrastructure are strong hints of a weaken-ing future economy. Moreover, Vietnam’sgrowing private sector strains to competeagainst a powerful state sector. “The dilem-ma is the country still has a Jurassic statesector that continues to absorb a lion shareof investment,” said Wilkinson. Yet, thestate sector creates few jobs and does littleto support the country’s economic growth.

Dapice argues that Vietnam suffers from“crony socialism,” whereby powerful stateenterprises unfairly win the majority of gov-ernment contracts, gain easier access tocheap capital, and monopolize market share.Vietnam’s shipping industry exemplifiessuch ingrained practices.

continued from cover

In the News

Rice farmer in Vietnam

In the News

Center Unveils New Website

In late March, the Ash Center launched its newwebsite. The enhanced site now reflects the inte-gration and program development that the Centerhas accomplished over the past two years.Detailed content and rich graphics and photosbetter illustrate the wealth of research, program-ming, and academic support the Center offers toadvance excellence in governance and strength-en democratic institutions worldwide. Visitors cannow gain an enriched understanding of the Cen-ter’s core initiatives: Democratic Governance,Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia, and Inno-vations in Government. Students will find this siteto be a much easier to use resource for their ownresearch and scholarship. The site includes a fulllisting of opportunities for funding support fromresearch grants and summer internships acrossthe U.S., Indonesia, and Vietnam, to the tuitionsupport provided by the Ford Foundation MasonFellowship and the Roy and Lila Ash Fellowship.

Visit the new website at www.ash.harvard.edu.

www.ash.harvard.edu 3

In 2006, Vietnam announced an ambi-tious plan to become one of the nation’s topplayers in the shipbuilding industry. HuynhThe Du, MPA 2010 at HKS and professor atthe Fulbright School in Vietnam, evaluatedthis plan in a comprehensive report andconcluded that the country’s dearth of high-ly-skilled nautical engineers and relative lackof competitive advantage would handicapsuch lofty goals. He suggested such planswere more politically motivated rather thangrounded in sound business judgment. Du’sprojections proved accurate: the largeststate-owned shipbuilder Vinashin reportedover US$18.8 million in losses in 2009 andhas completed only half its contractedbuilding projects for the year. Plans havebeen further hindered by the global collapseof the already volatile shipping industry andan 18:1 debt to equity ratio.

In order to escape the middle-incometrap, Wilkinson argues that Vietnam mustcurtail such costly state sector projects andintegrate the private and state sectors.China’s solution to this challenge couldprove a valuable model for Vietnam: Chinahas successfully used outside internationalenterprises to pressure state firms intobecoming more globally competitive.

Training Tomorrow’s Skilled Workers NowIn his 2006 report, Du noted that “Vietnam’shipbuilding industry does not have the ben-efit of high technology emerging from itshigher education system...to compete forinternational market share.” While the coun-try demonstrates a respect for educationwith a successful primary and secondarysystem, Wilkinson argues that Vietnameseuniversities are inadequate for training thenext generation of highly-skilled workers.

According to the 2008 PopulationChange, Labor Force, and Family PlanningSurvey of Vietnam’s General StatisticsOffice, the literacy rate of Vietnamese overthe age of 15 is 93.6 percent, but the samereport notes that only 1.9 percent of thepopulation has attained a college degree.Vietnam’s central government has offeredsubstantial financial support to highereducation institutions, but has made littleheadway in improving governance process-es in these institutions.

“Many of the problems in creating astrong education system are reflective of asystemic problem that transcends educa-tion,” said Wilkinson. The challenges of aninefficient state sector plagued by cronycontinued on page 11

Street life in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam

New York City MayorBloomberg Appoints StephenGoldsmith as Deputy Mayor

On April 30, 2010, Mayor Michael Bloombergannounced the appointment of Stephen Gold-smith, one of the nation’s premier experts oninnovation in government and the former mayorof Indianapolis, as deputy mayor for Operations.Deputy Mayor Goldsmith currently serves as theCenter’s director of the Innovations in Govern-ment Program and the Daniel Paul Professor ofGovernment at HKS.

“In every aspect of city government, we havefound innovative new ways to serve New Yorkers,and with more fiscal challenges ahead, that mis-sion is more important than ever,” said MayorBloomberg. “In Steve Goldsmith, we have foundsomeone who—perhaps better than anyone elsein the nation—understands the power of innova-tion. Lots of people talk about ‘reinventing gov-ernment’—Steve Goldsmith has actually done it,leading the storied turnaround of Indianapolis.”

Read more at www.nyc.gov.

4 Communiqué Spring 2010

The neighborhood-level impacts of concen-trated foreclosures can be devastating:blight, depressed property values, dimin-ished property tax collections, and a reduc-tion in municipal services—a negativefeedback loop that repeats and worsens. In2009 alone, foreclosures have reducedproperty values of nearby homes—mostowned by families paying their mortgage ontime—by more than $500 billion, accordingto the Center for Responsible Lending.

On March 14–16, 2010, local officialsfrom 12 of the regions hit hardest by thehousing crisis met at Harvard KennedySchool to develop new strategies for stabi-lizing neighborhoods that are experiencinglarge numbers of foreclosures. The “Neigh-borhood Stabilization Boot Camp” wassponsored by Living Cities together with theAsh Center.

This intensive two-day session wasdesigned to dramatically increase the speedand scale of smarter, more sustainableneighborhood stabilization by• Helping to define new strategies that will

have a material impact on targetedneighborhoods; and

• Sharing “game changing” practices thatwill accelerate keeping units occupiedand putting property vacant units backinto productive use.

“It’s important that government at everylevel, along with the private sector and non-profit community, ramp up our collectiveeffort to confront the foreclosure crisis headon,” said U.S. Housing and Urban Develop-ment Secretary Shaun Donovan. “The scaleof this challenge demands that we redoubleour efforts to stabilize neighborhoods andrestore a real sense of sustainability to ourAmerican Dream.”

“Our neighborhoods are struggling tostay afloat and need help in thinking aboutcreative solutions,” said Stephen Goldsmith,director of the Innovations in GovernmentProgram at the Ash Center. “This eventfacilitated discussions about strategies andmodels of collaboration to support stableneighborhoods in our cities.”

“Everyone, from government agenciesand nonprofits to financial institutions andfoundations, is frustrated by our collectiveinability to get stabilization efforts to scale.This Boot Camp was a direct response tothat frustration,” said Ben Hecht, presidentand CEO of Living Cities, an innovative phil-anthropic collaborative of 22 of the world’slargest foundations and financial institutions.

The Boot Camp convened teams of gov-ernment officials, nonprofits, and real estatefirms from Baltimore, Chicago, CuyahogaCounty (OH), Denver, Los Angeles, Michi-gan, Massachusetts, New Orleans, Philadel-phia, Phoenix, South Florida, and the TwinCities where promising approaches are tak-

In the News

Ash Center Hosts "Neighborhood Stabilization Boot Camp”Draws Top Officials from 12 Cities and the Obama Administration

ing hold, along with the largest nationalmortgage lenders, servicers, and trusteessuch as Deutsche Bank, Bank of America,JP Morgan Chase, and Citigroup. Seniorofficials from the U.S. Department of Hous-ing and Urban Development, U.S. Depart-ment of Treasury, FHA, Fannie Mae, andFreddie Mac also participated.

Philadelphia Mayor Nutter and Director Goldsmith Neighborhood Stabilization Boot Camp

Jayson White leading a discussion

Tom Ciano, Restore Neighborhoods LA with Doug Swoger,

Los Angeles Housing Department

www.ash.harvard.edu 5

By Jessica Engelman, Ash Center

As the Ash Center’s Ford Foundation Pro-fessor of Democracy and Citizenship,Archon Fung spends his time thinking aboutthe impacts of civic participation, publicdeliberation, and transparency upon publicand private governance. Now, he is turningresearch into action by actively promotingcitizen participation with his new website,Participedia (www.participedia.net). Devel-oped with Mark Warren of the University ofBritish Columbia, Participedia’s goal is noth-ing less than strengthening democracy withits user-generated library of examples andmethods of participatory governance, publicdeliberation, and collaborative public action.From citizen involvement in budgeting tooversight groups that ensure better healthcare and social service delivery, governmentinitiatives that encourage democratic partic-ipation demonstrate powerful results.

Launched in September 2009, Partici-pedia uses the same wiki platform asWikipedia to tell stories about efforts suchas participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre,Brazil; municipal evaluation meetings inChina; and the CaliforniaSpeaks health caredialogue with citizens. Participedia’s openplatform allows any user to contribute oredit content. This offers researchers andpractitioners a unique one-stop source forinformation that is normally maintained, tovarying degrees, by government agenciesand individual funders. In this way, Profes-sor Fung hopes to connect theory withpractice. In addition, there are articles onparticipatory methods, including deliberativepolling, citizens’ assemblies, and participa-tory budgeting, as well as articles about theorganizations that sponsor, implement, andstudy participatory governance. Over time,the project directors anticipate that Partici-pedia will garner hundreds and perhapsthousands of articles.

By employing a semantic wiki extensionthat enables the organization of articles intodatabases, Participedia becomes a muchmore powerful tool, allowing users to con-duct comparative and trend analyses. Arti-

cles are associated with properties throughsimple form-based templates that authorspopulate. These properties include, forexample, geocoded location, number ofparticipants, sponsoring organization orgovernment, and methods of selection, par-ticipation, and deliberation. The propertiesidentify key contextual and design variablesin order to provide comparability amongcases and methods. This allows researchinto their strengths and limitations andenables users to identify the processes thatfit particular challenges and interests.

But Participedia is not just about suc-cess stories. Failures also belong in Partici-pedia. Failures include processes that areinappropriate for particular issues, contexts,or goals. Cases of participation that involvepatron-client relationships, governmentattempts to co-opt opposition, or processeswhich are merely labeled “participatory” or“democratic” are an important part of Par-ticipedia. To know what kinds of processes

In the News

Professor Archon Fung Launches ParticipediaNew Website Explores Participatory Governance

work best, it is imperative to know as muchas possible about missteps, and inappro-priate and ideological uses of participatoryprocesses. Therefore, Participedia isdesigned to systematically collect informa-tion about the original intentions and func-tions of processes to distinguish whichare more and less inclusive, deliberative,and effective.

Currently, Participedia’s project directorsare focused on generating content. Oneway that Professor Fung is tackling thischallenge is by recruiting professors to inte-grate Participedia into their own curricula.By assigning students to write a Partici-pedia entry, professors will help to expandits coverage while giving students theopportunity to methodically evaluate a par-ticipatory governance project and have theirwork widely disseminated.

Event Snapshots

6 Communiqué Spring 2010

Democracy SeminarsSpring 2010The Democracy Seminar Series brings leading academics to theKennedy School to speak about key issues and questions related tothe research of the Democratic Governance program, one of theCenter’s major initiatives exploring the connections between prac-tices of democratic governance and key social challenges aroundthe world. This semester’s weekly seminars were organized aroundthe following research areas: democracy in former authoritarianregimes, innovations in civic participation, and immigration issuesrelated to democracy. Spring semester seminars included• “The Politics of Citizenship in Europe,” Marc Howard, George-

town University• “What Happens in Legislative Debates? A Deliberative Analysis

of Two Contrasting Examples,” André Bächtiger, University ofBern, Switzerland

• “A Theory of State Formation and the Origins of Inequality,”Carles Boix, Princeton University

• “Public Policies and Private Behaviors: Achieving Policy GoalsThrough the Tapping of ‘Moral Resources,’” Claus Offe, HertieSchool of Governance, Berlin

• “Can Immigration Policy be Both Liberal and Democratic?” GaryFreeman, University of Texas, Austin

• “Democratic Deepening in Brazil, India, and South Africa:Towards a Comparative Framework,” Patrick Heller, BrownUniversity

• “How One Authoritarian State (Germany 1871–1914) Made theTransition to Democracy—Or Did It?” Margaret Anderson,University of California, Berkeley

• “Does Women’s Proportional Strength Affect Their Participation?Governing Local Forests in South Asia,” Bina Agarwal, DelhiUniversity, India

• “Small Talk, Unobtrusive Protest, and Authoritarian Withdrawal,”Hank Johnston, San Diego State University

• “A Paper Trail to Citizenship,” Kamal Sadiq, University ofCalifornia, Irvine

• “Citizen Compliance and State Legitimacy in Rural China,” LilyTsai, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Innovations in Government SeminarsSpring 2010Designed to inform the next generation of public practitioners, theInnovations in Government Seminar Series hosts frequent seminarsthroughout the academic year led by scholars and public sectorinnovators. Sessions address unique government initiatives—manyof which are past winners of the Innovations in American Govern-ment Awards—as well as questions of replication and disseminationof such innovative practices. This semester’s seminars included• “Improving Education Through School Leadership,” Jon Schnur,

New Leaders for New Schools• “Increasing Civic Participation Through Democratization of

Data,” Julia Bezgacheva and David Strigel, Data Feeds,Washington, D.C.

Carles Boix

André Bächtiger and Jane Mansbridge

Guy Stuart

Event Snapshots

www.ash.harvard.edu 7

• “Transforming Affordable Housing Through Innovation,” RafaelCestero and John Rhea, Acquisition Fund, New York City

• “Water Scarcity: How Technology Can Help Solve the Problem,”Richard Allen and William Kramber, Mapping Evapotranspiration,Idaho

• “Revitalizing a Community Through Education,” Higher Educa-tion Program, Kingsport, Tennessee

• “Why Replication Rarely Happens,” Robert Behn, HarvardKennedy School

Laboratories of Innovation: Powering Social Change in Our CitiesApril 6, 2010Failure is inevitable and important if true social change is to takeplace. These were the sentiments of Louisiana Lieutenant GovernorMitchell Landrieu, United Negro College Fund President andCEO Michael Lomax, White House Senior Advisor for Social Innova-tion Michele Jolin, and New York City Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs atthe recent JFK Jr. Forum moderated by Stephen Goldsmith, directorof the Center’s Innovations in Government Program. Panelists elab-orated on past experiences in implementing programming, somesupported by the Obama Administration’s new Social InnovationFund, and the necessity of taking risks.

Creating Collaborative Solutions: Innovations in GovernanceApril 12–16, 2010The Creating Collaborative Solutions executive education programexplored new methods for working across traditional jurisdictionsand sectors to identify, understand, and address emerging socialproblems. Topics included strategic management in the public sec-tor, adaptive leadership, principled negotiation, and public sectorinnovation. During this week-long session at Harvard KennedySchool, Professors John Donahue, Archon Fung, Herman “Dutch”Leonard, Mark Moore, and Center Visiting Fellow Jorrit de Jong leddiscussions on civic engagement and forms of governance withrepresentatives from Tilburg University’s TiasNimbas BusinessSchool in The Netherlands.

China’s Leaders in DevelopmentApril 19–June 15, 2010Established in 2001, China’s Leaders in Development program iswidely recognized by the Chinese government as a leading over-seas training program for senior government officials. The 2010 pro-gram was launched at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, withtwo weeks of lecture and policy discussion led by Chinese faculty.During the final week in China, HKS Professors Saich, Leonard, andHowitt lectured on emergency management and China’s status inthe world economy. The second portion of the training programtook place at HKS with four weeks of lectures led by School facultyon public management, policy reform, health care, and globaliza-tion. Throughout their visit to the U.S., senior officials participated inpolicy field trips to the Alticor headquarters in Grand Rapids, MI,Washington, D.C., New York City, and Boston.

Rafael Cestero

John Rhea

Stephen Goldsmith, Michele Jolin, Michael Lomax, Mitchell Landrieu, and Linda Gibbs

8 Communiqué Spring 2010

The Ash Center recently launched the ChinaCase Study Program to address pertinentpolicy areas in China and Taiwan. Taughtboth at Harvard Kennedy School and at theCenter’s partner academic institutions inChina, cases are designed to educatescholars, policymakers, and the next gener-ation of public sector leaders on best prac-tices in emergency management,environmental regulation, health care sys-tem reform, and infrastructure development.

“These cases will be extremely valuablefor courses on public policy in China byillustrating the complexity and variety ofgovernment institutional responses to rapidchange,” said Arnold Howitt, executivedirector of the Ash Center.

Cases under development include:• 2008 Blizzards: In 2008, Southern China

experienced unusually heavy snow-storms that caused a cascading series ofcrises: transport by car and rail came toa halt at the peak of the Lunar New Yearholiday, the country’s largest spring travelseason; many suffered from food andfuel shortages; and the country experi-enced multiple power blackouts. Thiscase details emergency managementresponse to the crisis.

• Typhoon Morakot: Typhoon Morakot struckin August of 2009, overwhelming Taiwanwith over 100 inches of rain causingmudslides and the country’s worst flood-ing in over 50 years. Many criticized thegovernment for inadequate and slowresponse action. This case describes thegovernment response.

• China’s Energy Boom: In under a decade,China has become one of the world’stop energy producers. This feat wasaccomplished through significant coordi-nation with a number of central and localgovernment actors, as well as domesticand foreign corporate entities. This casedemonstrates how a seemingly top-downcentralized initiative was in fact imple-mented through local governmententrepreneurs.

• Housing Redevelopment in Shanghai: Shang-hai authorities recently renovated an

Research Brief

China Case Study Program Explores Emergency Management andEconomic Development in China

A pedestrian wearing a mask walks amid a sandstorm in Beijing. Air pollution in Beijing reached its highest level as

a sandstorm from the north shrouded the capital in dust in March of 2008.

People gather in floodwater in southern Taiwan after Typhoon Morakot struck in August of 2009.

www.ash.harvard.edu 9

The Power of Social Innovation: HowCivic Entrepreneurs Ignite CommunityNetworks for Good

Stephen Goldsmith Examines Principles forImproving Social Service Delivery

With deficits soaring and job losses mount-ing, Innovations in Government DirectorStephen Goldsmith argues that now is thetime to focus public and philanthropicefforts to overcome obstacles that too oftenseal the doors of opportunity. His new book,The Power of Social Innovation: How CivicEntrepreneurs Ignite Community Networksfor Good, authored with Gigi Georges andTim Glynn Burke, spotlights a new waveof civic-minded entrepreneurship sweepingthe nation.

"Although government continues to investbillions of dollars in social and human servic-es, stubborn societal problems persist," saidGoldsmith. "At a time of great economic dis-tress for the nation, we clearly need to findmore effective and innovative solutions tothese problems. The entire delivery systemneeds to be re-imagined to be more respon-sive to people's needs, more performancedriven, and more receptive to the innovativeideas of engaged citizens."

The book is based on Goldsmith’s expe-rience as two-term mayor of Indianapolis(1995–2001) and as the chair of the Corpo-ration for National and Community Serviceunder Presidents Bush and Obama, a two-year executive session at Harvard Kennedy

School, and interviews with over 100 inno-vators representing the philanthropic, gov-ernment, business, and nonprofit sectors.Featuring illustrative case studies of the cat-alyzing role civic leaders and entrepreneursplay in transforming social systems, thebook proposes a social innovation agendafor communities that is both ambitious andgrounded in practical action steps.

The Power of Social Innovation highlightsthe potential for system change within lega-cy organizations United Way, United NegroCollege Fund, and NYC Department of Edu-cation; national social entrepreneur-ledorganizations Teach for America, New Lead-ers for New Schools, College Summit, andCity Year; and the less-known efforts ofAcelero Learning, Family Independence Ini-tiative, and Springfield, Ohio’s NehemiahFoundation.

The Power of Social Innovation offersconcrete strategies for aspiring civic entre-preneurs, explaining how results-basedproblem solving can be applied to areas likecriminal justice, homelessness and educa-tion. When innovators effectively engagewith government, the book makes clear thatigniting real change is possible.

Research Brief

Old Lane district made up of over 19,000mixed income housing units built in the1920s. In addition to building modernindoor plumbing where it did not alreadyexist and enhancing security, local gov-ernment officials organized civic servicesfor the elderly and improved the streetsand public spaces, fostering a renewedsense of community for the area’s60,000 residents.

• CCTV Fire: Ignited by fireworks celebratingthe 2009 Chinese New Year, one of thebuildings in the China Central Television(CCTV) complex in Beijing was complete-ly destroyed. CCTV, China’s national tele-vision network, was incomplete in itsearly reporting of the story. This casedescribes how new media was able toshare news of this event with the public.

• Reducing Air Pollution in Beijing: As the hostof the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing wel-comed over 184 million visitors fromaround the world. In advance of theevent, the city enacted multiple meas-ures to limit air pollution, includingupgrading vehicle emission controls,building new metro lines, and enforcingdriving restrictions. This case describesboth the temporary and permanenttransportation measures adopted toreduce air pollution.

Cases will be available at HKS and,through the HKS Case Study Program, forworldwide distribution this fall. The ChinaCase Study Program is funded throughAmway China and the Harvard China Fund.

On the Bookshelf

Fellows Focus

10 Communiqué Spring 2010

Summer Fellows in InnovationThe Ash Center’s Summer Fellowship inInnovation is designed to prepare studentsfor careers in the public sector. Studentswork with some of the most creative andeffective public officials and policy advisorsin the country, not only to learn but to addvalue by sharing cutting-edge trends andideas explored at the Kennedy School.Hosting public sector agencies are pastwinners of the Center’s Innovations in Amer-ican Government Awards or members of theUrban Policy Advisory Group comprised ofthe chief advisors to mayors of the 30largest U.S. cities.

The Center selected the following studentsfor 2010 Summer Fellows in Innovation:• Lindsay Berger, MPP 2011 with a con-

centration in social and urban policyBerger will work with the Mayor of SanFrancisco’s education advisor to identifystrategies for truancy reduction.

• Harini Angara, Harvard Graduate Schoolof EducationAngara will support the city of San JoséMayor’s Office and the Santa ClaraCounty Office of Education on SJ2020, anew initiative to close the achievementgap among various subpopulations ofthe city’s K–12 students.

• Jim Secreto, HKS MPP 2011 andGeorgetown Law SchoolSecreto will assist in developing Honolu-lu’s concept for community-based eco-nomic development as it relates totransit-oriented development.

• Tai Steven Sunnanon, HKS MPP 2010and Harvard Graduate School of Educa-tion Ph.D. ProgramSunnanon will work for New Leaders forNew Schools, a 2009 Innovations winnerwhich recruits and trains high-caliberprincipals to lead historically underservedand underperforming urban schools.

• Rebecca Strauss, HKS MPP 2011 with aconcentration in social and urban policyStrauss will work with Pittsburgh MayorLuke Ravenstahl’s Department of Neigh-borhood Initiatives to conduct quantita-tive and qualitative assessments ofanti-blight programs.

• Thackston Lundy, HKS MPP 2011Lundy will split his time between NewOrleans and Pittsburgh. In Pittsburgh,Lundy will focus on developing talentmanagement systems to help principalsaddress hiring needs. In New Orleans, hewill provide analytical and public policysupport as Mayor Landrieu transitions.

Vietnam Program InternshipEach summer, the Vietnam Program sup-ports students in pursuing eight-weekinternships at the Fulbright School (FETP) inHo Chi Minh City. Under the guidance ofFETP’s full-time Vietnamese faculty, eachintern selects a research topic of interest tothem and relevant to FETP’s research agen-da. FETP arranges for the interns to meetwith government officials and business peo-ple working in fields applicable to theirresearch projects and organizes multiplepolicy field trips to expand their understand-ing of the Vietnamese economy and thesocioeconomic impact of globalization. Viet-nam Program Economist David Dapice alsoprovides guidance to the interns.

Research Brief

The Center’s Vietnam Program hasselected the following students for its sum-mer internship program:• Alex Ngo, MPA 2011 and MBA at the

Wharton School, University ofPennsylvania

• Aubrey Huynh, Candidate to A.B.Degree in Economics, Harvard College

Students at HKS

www.ash.harvard.edu 11

globalization and its relationship to develop-ment. At last year’s session, both DeputyPrime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan and ViceMinister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen QuocCuong participated in these discussions.

Fulbright Economics Training ProgramThe Vietnam Program also enhances educa-tion and key policy dialogue through theFulbright Economics Teaching Program(commonly known as the Fulbright School),a partnership with the University of Eco-nomics–Ho Chi Minh City. Founded in 1994,FETP offers senior officials public policytraining and the country’s first Master’s of

Public Policy for future leaders.“Vietnam needs to develop the institu-

tional capacity within the public sector toconfront these problems of developmentand competitiveness, and that’s what we tryto do at the Fulbright School in preparingVietnamese civil servants for careers in thepublic sector,” said Wilkinson.

1 2010 Rice Outlook, USDA, April 12, 20102 Worldwide Governance Indicators ProjectReport, 2008

socialism arguably spill over into Vietnam’seducation sector, where merit-based per-formance is not the norm. The World Bank-UNESCO Task Force on Higher Educationand Society examined the crisis and madethe following key recommendations in the2000 report Higher Education and Develop-ing Countries: Peril and Promise:

• Establish strong accreditation standardsfor both professors and students

• Create a culture of academic freedomand autonomy

• Enhance science and technology curricula• Improve resources and funding supports

to disadvantaged students

The Vietnam ProgramVietnam’s higher education sector is just oneof the strategic focus areas of the Ash Cen-ter’s Vietnam Program. In January of 2008, aVietnam Program delegation led by ThomasVallely presented Prime Minister Nguyen TanDung with the ten-year policy framework forVietnam’s socioeconomic development“Choosing Success: The Lessons of Eastand Southeast Asia and Vietnam’s Future.”This sobering assessment stated, “Key gov-ernment decisions taken now and in thenear future will set the country on a path thatwill become increasingly difficult to reverse,and will shape Vietnam’s political economyfor years to come.”

To ensure that Vietnam is on the rightpath for sustained economic growth, Viet-nam Program research, teaching, and exec-utive training address the importance ofenhancing the governance of both publicand private institutions. The Program arguesthat curbing existing crony socialism prac-tices in support of more merit-based pro-duction and innovation will prove invaluablefor the country to thrive in the global econo-my. Its Vietnam Executive Leadership Pro-gram and Fulbright School are key elementsto the Program’s focus on improving gover-nance issues.

Vietnam Executive Leadership ProgramEach year, the Program convenes the Viet-nam Executive Leadership Program (VELP)which brings together senior Vietnameseleaders with Harvard faculty and global busi-ness leaders to explore the latest thinking on

continued from page 3

Research Brief

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan and his delegation

A woman boating to a market in Hoi An, Vietnam

Hanoi

CommuniquéSpring 2010, Volume 6

Ash Centerfor Democratic Governance and InnovationHarvard Kennedy School79 John F. Kennedy StreetCambridge, Massachusetts 02138

617-495-0557www.ash.harvard.edu

DirectorAnthony Saich

Director of the Innovations in GovernmentProgramStephen Goldsmith

Executive DirectorsJulian Chang, Arnold Howitt, Marty Mauzy

EditorKate Hoagland

Designforminform

PhotographyAssociated Press–Imaginechina,Kent Dayton, Rene Drouyer,iStockphoto.com/Thomas Bradford,Martha Stewart, Kris Vandereycken,Georg Wagner

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In Focus: Vietnam

Surface area (sq. km) (thousands): 331.2

Population, total (millions): 86.21

GDP (current US$) (billions): 90.64

Literacy rate, adult total (% of people ages 15 and above): 92.5%

Mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people): 81

Internet users (per 100 people): 24.2

Roads, paved (% of total roads): 47.6%

Rail lines (total route-km): 3,147

Source: 2008 World Development Indicators Database, September 2009