Podcast: Reimagining technical assistance over coffee: episode 4 - Finance

Naveed Aziz, a lead Governance Advisor and Provincial Representative of the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office shares his successes and learnings from delivering programmes in Pakistan.

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This podcast series comprises a set of informal conversations with experienced practitioners and development partners on the practicalities of delivering effective technical assistance, the day-to-day challenges of doing things differently, and suggestions drawn from their own experiences. It's about reimagining technical assistance over coffee, if you like.

In this episode, we discuss combining financial assistance and technical advice to drive change, with Naveed Aziz, (bio below) who shares lessons from Pakistan. Naveed provides insights from working across sectors, including governance, health, education, and at the federal, provincial and local level.

Some of the key questions we explore:

  • How can technical assistance complement financial support?
  • How can we pursue transformational changes, such as a push for a performance culture in the government?
  • What should policymakers and development practitioners consider when working to improve service delivery?
  • How can we ensure reform support is sustainable?
  • What are the advantages and the practical limitations of adaptive development programmes?
  • How can we manage risk effectively, while creating space for innovation and get things done?
  • How will technical assistance needs and delivery change in the post-pandemic world?

Enjoy the conversation! If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to get in touch with Alexandra Nastase on LinkedIn via email.

About Naveed:

Naveed Aziz is currently a lead Governance Advisor and Provincial Representative of the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office in Kyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan. He designed and supervised implementation of programmes worth more than £150 million that included supporting merger and integration of Pakistan’s border regions (formerly known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas) with rest of the country; supporting federal government’s ambitious reform agenda; and supporting provincial governments improve their planning, budgeting, and human resource management systems for improving service delivery. He led on programmes that worked with local governments for strengthening decentralization, tax reform, health systems strengthening and education reform. Naveed also worked with the Government of Pakistan, the World Bank, USAID. 

About Alexandra:

Alexandra Nastase is an experienced development professional who designed, implemented and evaluated multiple public sector change programmes in the past decade. Alexandra’s work is centred on advancing structural reforms, strengthening state capability and government performance to deliver public services in Europe, Asia, Africa. She held multiple leadership and senior advisory roles for multi-million technical assistance programmes funded by the World Bank, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the European Commission, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and UN agencies. Before joining OPM, she also worked for the World Bank, UN, and non-governmental organisations.

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