Milestone or Misstep? Corruption, Development, and Democracy After Brazil’s Lava Jato Probe

Publication Date: October 3, 2024

This case explores Brazil’s Operation Car Wash (Lava Jato in Portuguese), the largest public corruption investigation in history, which led to indictments and convictions of some 359 business executives, government officials, and...

Winning Abortion Rights in Argentina: Building Blocks of a Long, Hard Fight

Publication Date: May 31, 2024

After an uphill battle of many decades, abortion rights activists in Argentina won a stunning victory in 2020, when the National Congress approved a law that set out the legal right to free, safe, elective abortion in the first 14 weeks of...

Getting Out the (Missing) Vote: Ohio Organizers Experiment with 'Relational' Contacts

Publication Date: April 8, 2024

In the first two decades of the 21st century, community organizers were increasingly enlisted by progressive foundations to help increase voter turnout among the “low propensity” voters in their communities, especially people of...

Climate Resilience in New York City: The Battle over East River Park

Publication Date: November 28, 2023

What makes climate change different as a policy challenge? Why is it so hard to solve? And how can we balance the need for the right technical solutions with the importance of having the process be as democratic and participatory as possible?The...

Crianca Feliz: Brazil’s Ambitious Early Childhood Program

Publication Date: April 30, 2021

In October 2016, Brazil launched one of the largest home visiting programs in the world—Criança Feliz (or Happy Child). The flagship program aimed to reach the country’s most vulnerable pregnant women and young children. Even...

LaToya Cantrell, Mayor of New Orleans: A Political ‘Outsider’ Takes Charge of City Hall

Publication Date: October 28, 2019

This multimedia case blends 13 short videos, a text narrative, and assorted images to tell the story of LaToya Cantrell, the first woman elected mayor of New Orleans in 2017. A native of Los Angeles, Cantrell was also the first...

Paying to Improve Girls’ Education: India’s First Development Impact Bond

Publication Date: April 8, 2019

In 2013, Educate Girls (an Indian nonprofit working to increase the number of girls enrolled and learning in school), partnered with Instiglio, a startup specializing in financial instruments for social programs in developing countries to create...

Colombia’s Peace Negotiations: Finding Common Ground After 50 Years of Armed Conflict

Publication Date: December 4, 2017

By the time they sat down to negotiate in secret, in February of 2012, the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas had been fighting for almost 50 years. Thousands had died, millions had been displaced. Ending a conflict with such deep...

Peace and Justice in Colombia: Finding a Balance After 50 Years of War

Publication Date: December 4, 2017

The concept of transitional justice has been at the heart of many efforts to end major conflicts in nations where mass atrocities have been committed. A core element in that approach is accountability for the crimes committed by the various...

Building a Community Organizing Organization: Serbia on the Move

Publication Date: August 23, 2017

In Serbia, citizens are reluctant to become politically active but young leaders Babović and Stojicic, the case protagonists, are determined to prod their peers into taking a stronger role in the country’s government. Using community...

Cracking the Monolith: California’s Child Welfare Services Disrupts Technology Procurement (A)

Publication Date: July 10, 2017

In October 2015, two senior California officials: Marybel Batjer, Secretary for Government Operations, and Michael Wilkening, Undersecretary for the Health and Human Services Agency, seized on an idea that had the potential to turn the...

The Rise and Fall of an American City: Race and Politics in Detroit, 1910-2013 (Multimedia)

Publication Date: April 26, 2017

In 1950, Detroit was the fourth largest city in the U.S., and one of its most successful. By the time the city filed for bankruptcy six decades later, it had become a symbol of racial segregation and industrial decline. This 30-min. documentary,...