We launched Growth Teams!

We’re excited to share that we’ve launched Growth Teams!

Historical experience shows that economic growth is essential to reduce poverty and improve human well-being. It also tells us that governments have a critical role in economic transformation: to attract (and nurture) investment and spur diversification into new industries that create higher-productivity jobs.

Developing country governments receive an abundance of policy advice on growth. Both of us — Jonathan and Kartik — have worked inside governments alongside policymakers, and seen firsthand that there is no shortage of recommendations buried in reports and strategy decks…that are themselves buried in file drawers. Where governments often struggle is translating these on-paper policy ideas into action. Traditional technical assistance approaches don't help them do this; they focus on externally-driven policy prescriptions and hived-off projects that rarely change how the system works.

Growth Teams aims to fill this gap. We synthesize and prioritize existing analysis and facilitate government teams to problem-solve around growth constraints. We want governments to “build the muscle” to get things done for growth, and we believe they can learn how to do so by…well, actually doing the work (rather than being bypassed by traditional TA).

We’re starting our first engagement in Rwanda with the Rwanda Development Board, where we’ll work with senior teams and their staff to prioritize sectors, identify key constraints, and then take concrete actions–bit by bit–to unlock these constraints to enable investment and jobs to materialize. More to come soon.

We’re lucky to receive an ACX Grant (from the popular blogger Scott Alexander) to get started, but are still looking for early-stage funders to take a bet on a new idea. Encouraging friends and professors have served as initial advisors, and we continue to look for like-minded big thinkers to guide and support us. And of course, we are keen to connect with motivated, progressive policymakers and officials who want to “build the muscle” of their government agencies to drive investment and economic diversification.

Let us know, we’d love to hear your thoughts. Now, back to the real work.