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 towards 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 multi-stakeholder initiatives, as well as through our stewardship of at the Open Gov Hub.
Cookie-cutter approaches to tackling corruption and enhancing integrity through the standard application of “best practice” solutions rarely deliver. Our work on integrity and anti-corruption takes a different tack. We collaborate with local partners working to tackle corruption, and help them to develop and apply innovative, problem-driven, and learning-centered approaches to improving governance and reducing corruption. We then use the evidence and insights generated to inform the evolution of the broader anti-corruption agenda. Learn more
Improvements in the availability of data about public resources have not led to a commensurate improvement in the ability of citizens to follow and shape the use of those resources. Our work on fiscal governance addresses this challenge. We support local stakeholders’ efforts to use data about resources and results to address particular service delivery challenges, for instance in the health, education, or water sectors. We then use the evidence and insights generated to support the emergence of a more problem-focused, user-centric, and effective fiscal governance agenda. Learn more
Multistakeholder initiatives (MSIs) such as the Open Government Partnership are an increasingly prominent feature of the development landscape. As MSIs have become more prevalent, so too have questions about their impact. To help close this impact gap, we support in-country reformers as they try to leverage MSIs to solve locally-prioritized challenges, and achieve impact. We use the evidence and insights generated to help MSIs strengthen their effectiveness, by making learning more central to their ways of working. Learn more
Many organizations supporting progress towards more open, accountable and effective governance work in silos. As a result, potential complementarities are missed, collaboration is elusive, and collective impact is constrained. We’re changing that through our stewardship of the Open Gov Hub, a collaborative community of open governance innovators from more than 40 organizations, in Washington, DC. We foster a sense of community and drive collaboration to break down silos, in order to help our members, and others, deliver impact, all over the globe. Learn more