Teams from the government, church, civil society and private sector are now developing new ways to solve policy problems using an innovative approach that was developed at Harvard University and brought to PNG by The Voice Inc (TVI). The teams gathered this week for a check-in session as they near completion of their 12-week course, called Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA), offered as part of TVI’s Local Leadership for Collective Action Program (LLCAP) supported by the Australian Government. Teams include the Department for Community Development and Religion (DfCDR), the National Youth Development Authority (NYDA), the National Gender Based Violence Secretariat, the Department of Justice and Attorney General, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), the Simbu provincial government, civil society and Catholic Diocese of Kundiawa. Each team works with TVI and Harvard Kennedy School’s Building State Capability program to analyse and strategize on how best to act on a complex policy problem including youth opportunity, corruption and sorcery accusation related violence. The check-in session allowed teams to share key learnings from the last 10 weeks of their participation in the PDIA course. The session allowed them to further engage with other members of their cohort and government authorizers. Also present during the session was Department of Community Development and Religion Secretary, Jerry Ubase commended TVI on offering PDIA as a tool for developmental leaders to critically look at the root causes of problems affecting Papua New Guinea. “The PDIA has also allowed me to assess how my department operates and encouraged me to empower my team to effectively carry out their responsibilities.” “As an authorizer who has participated in the course, I hope that TVI can offer this program to more government agencies within the country.” Director of the National Gender Based Violence Secretariat, Diane Kambanei and Director General of NYDA, Joe Itaki are also leading teams in their areas of Gender Based Violence strategy implementation and youth policy reform. The PDIA program is delivered by Professor, Matt Andrews of Harvard Kennedy School, who has seen the approach work in more than 150 countries around the world, all facing similar challenges to PNG. The teams will complete the PDIA course in two weeks, the third cohort to join TVI’s Local Leadership and Collective Action Network, a growing group of reform minded leaders supporting policy reform on ten critical issues in seven provinces across PNG.