International experts conduct course in Chile on the implementation of social programs

The course focused on one of the main challenges of public policy: how to translate good ideas and evidence into practice. To this end, the activity addressed concrete tools to improve the implementation of social programs and brought together nearly 60 participants from civil society, the public sector, and the education field. Participants included professionals from the Directorate of Public Education (DEP), the Ministry of Education, and administrators of subsidized private schools.

“When an initiative works, the challenge is to scale it and reach more people. But for it to truly improve the lives of families and communities, it is essential to focus on implementation, because impact does not depend solely on design, but especially on the capacities of teams, the local context, and the experience of those involved once initiatives are underway,” explained Macarena Cea, Executive Director of Fundación Luksic.

The course was delivered by researcher Dr. Robyn Mildon, CEO of CEI, and Jane Lewis, Associate Director of CEI, who shared tools and reflections aimed at narrowing the gap between program design and implementation.

“Learning how to close the gap between design and execution not only strengthens our professional work, but also reminds us that good ideas only transform realities when they are implemented with quality and rigor,” said Andrés Goñi, co-founder of +Deporte.

For Javiera Silva from Fundación Naturalizar — which promotes nature-based learning for children — the course was an invitation to “take a deeper look” at the challenges of implementation, noting that “it is not enough to have good ideas or evidence if careful thought is not given to how they will be put into practice in real-world contexts.”

“I’m leaving full of learnings, such as the importance of designing simple processes, strengthening local capacities, and providing sustained support to those implementing programs so that initiatives can truly endure and generate impact,” she added.

Robyn Mildon’s visit to Chile took place within the framework of the conference “Global Paths 2026: Quality Implementation to Make a Difference,” which brought together more than 300 participants. In addition to the workshop, the researcher held meetings with the Undersecretariat for Children and with the Office of the President-Elect, reinforcing quality implementation as a key pillar for strengthening social policies and programs in Chile.