Relationships are at the center of good policymaking and accelerating positive change.

1. Policy is about people

Policy isn’t created in a void. At its best, policies are developed in collaboration with the people most affected by an issue and implemented by the people with the greatest power to codify the changes.

We hope these insights below from our work with governments, the private sector, consumer groups, and development partners will help you build strong relationships and create a smoother policymaking process.

Your technical assistance is only as good as its delivery.

No matter how evidence-based your policymaking, people make the decisions. While you are contextualizing policy options to the market in question, you will also need to finesse your presentation of the options to the individual(s) who will champion these changes.

CGAP’s work on “policymaker personals” provide a useful short-hand of the types of policymakers you might work with:

When thinking about your counterparts and colleagues, reflect on how they can contribute to your shared objectives. It takes all of these personas to develop workable policy options.

2. Work as a team

Sometimes you won’t be the right person to deliver information — and that’s okay.

Self-awareness, team-awareness, and situational awareness can help you navigate cultural differences and determine who is best positioned to deliver information and how to present it in a way that connects with the audience. When you keep your objectives front and center, you can be creative with how to proceed.

A few quick examples from our work:

• If a team member has a longstanding relationship with a partner or is a content expert in the area we are trying to build credibility, we try to tap into their existing relationships and expertise.

• In countries where development partners have existing good relations with a policymaker or regulator, we look for opportunities to support them in their work with the government rather than stepping on toes or reinventing the wheel.

• If internal stakeholders are well-positioned to advocate for an issue that’s important to them, we try to provide technical support and then take a step back so they lead the charge.

3. Be a convener

Sometimes you just need to bring the right people together.

For example, if your organisation or unit has “convening power,” you can leverage your connections to help key players work through a thorny situation. Sometimes just getting folks to sit down together and then mediating a conversation as a relative outsider is enough to get a project back on track.

You can also put your convening power to use to bring people together who may be affected by a potential policy change as part of stakeholder consultations. You can address high priority issues, develop coalitions, and build trust among a wide variety of actors. (See our guide on stakeholder consultation for more on this topic.)

Don’t forget to celebrate wins

A commissioner at a Ministry of Finance once gave me this advice: “Fifty percent technical buy-in with 100% recognition of need for change is a win.”

We know that when we present policy options, sometimes only a portion of the proposal will work for our partners. Focusing on the positive, including how the policy benefits vulnerable populations or how your collaborative process strengthened relationships, can help set the stage for future change.

Authors

Seharish Gillani

Alexis Ditkowsky