The challenge

Improving governance and solving governance-related problems are complex and fundamentally political processes. Cookie-cutter solutions rarely work across different contexts. Instead, effective solutions emerge – and change happens – through locally led innovation, learning, and adaptation. The challenge for organizations committed to supporting progress toward more open, accountable, and effective governance is how to best support local stakeholders as they navigate and shape the political dynamics and patterns of incentives that are at the heart of governance-related problems.

Our approach

Our work addresses this challenge head-on. We support local partners – governments and civil society organizations – in countries and communities around the world as they craft, implement, and refine solutions to the complex problems they face. We then use the insights and evidence that emerge from our innovative work with local partners to engage with multilateral and bilateral development agencies and other external actors as we encourage them to operate in ways that prioritize the locally led innovation, learning, and adaptation that is key to solving governance-related problems.

We put this approach into practice across our work on integrity and anti-corruption, fiscal governance, and multistakeholder initiatives, as well as through our stewardship of the Open Gov Hub.