Giving Compass' Take:

•  Iqbal Dhaliwal talks about his experience working with India's state governments to reduce poverty through evidence-based policies.

• Sometimes, governments are seen as barriers to effecting change. How does Dhaliwal's experience illustrate institutions as potential collaborators? Why is it important to form functional relationships with governments?

• For more information on working with local governments, here's one outlook.

When you start working with governments, initially you need to be more opportunistic than strategic.

The real barriers come when you want to work strategically. For instance, when you want to work with not just departments within a state government, but change the way that the entire government body thinks about evidence, and make evidence a regular part of decision-making.

It can be challenging to respond to policy opportunities in real time. Often, civil society organisations may give information to the government when there is no demand for it, and don’t give it when there is actual demand for it. In the process, governments don’t learn from existing knowledge. Civil society should try to build close relationships with policymakers and stay engaged in local politics so that we can share relevant best practices with the state, and do it at the right time.

There is also a perception that some governments don’t want their programmes to be evaluated and they won’t appreciate negative results, and there is some truth in it. But we have been happily surprised to find this to be a relatively small issue. There is increasingly more acceptance of rigorous evaluation among government officials—especially when we are able to show them the benefits, like designing programmes with greater impact, and saving money by ending ineffective programmes.

Our experience partnering with governments in India and around the world has shown us that there is great potential for randomised evaluations to have a huge impact on improving people’s lives. We need more partners—not only governments, but also local researchers, civil society groups, and visionary funders—to help advance this movement.

Read the full interview about working with governments to reduce poverty with Iqbal Dhaliwal at India Development Review.