While there is something to be said for initiative such a system is arguably imperfect, being dependent as it is on student insight, often lacking in poor performers.
The Safe Motherhood Initiative provides a system in which local doctors are part of a holistic network that links homes with tertiary care hospitals, ensuring that the appropriate level of care is available to rural mothers.
It's hard to imagine ferry service expanding very far unless it becomes a public initiative, an integrated system with coordinated schedules and MetroCard access.
We studied a community empowerment initiative, using a systems approach, to see whether any ensuing diversity of implementation could be used as an advantage rather than be a problem for an evaluation design.
In 2010 voters in California, which had earlier also been forced to abandon its blanket primary, endorsed a ballot initiative that established a system similar to that in Washington.
In the three decades since Mr Brown's last reign, voters had created, through the cumulative effect of ballot initiatives, a Byzantine system of governance, taxation and budgeting that left California helpless when the Great Recession hit.
The report, due to be published on Monday to coincide with an announcement by the prime minister on funding and new initiatives, lays bare a system that is routinely failing people from every walk of life.
It is understandable therefore, that tensions arise when attempting to introduce new initiatives into such a system.
The Starshot initiative seeks to develop a system that could beat those odds by flying at unprecedented speeds.
The consultants were accused of concocting an $80 million corruption scheme related to another technological initiative, an automated payroll system called CityTime.
A government so keen on enterprise and initiative should not be recreating a system that makes it difficult for people to change their lives.
