We are driven by development impact and our belief that policy can make a real difference to people’s lives – it is why we exist.
What do we mean by impact? It’s not simply the point at which people’s lives are changed – though it does include that. We know that impact can start from the initial discussions with policymakers; the first diagnostics and studies and the first outlines of strategy and policy. Impact can also mean the first attempts to devise an actionable and transparent budget or the first performance reports and evaluations from a project aiming to reduce poverty.
Partnership
Having meaningful impact is a collective endeavour. We work in partnership with others, including governments and funders, academic institutions, private sector partners, practitioners, and project teams. Together, we shape projects in a way that maximises lasting, positive change and builds local capabilities over the long term. One of the ways in which we have sought to increase our collaborative work is through growing our network of offices across the globe, reflecting our ambition to work with stakeholders in countries where we can have the most meaningful impact.
Oxford Policy Fellowship
Our partnership with low- and middle-income countries extends through to the Oxford Policy Fellowship. Our desire to support long-term, context-specific policymaking was behind the creation of our Fellowship in 2015, a not-for-profit subsidiary of Oxford Policy Management. We are the first and only international development consultancy to create, fund, and underwrite such a programme. The Fellowship provides high-calibre, early-career legal professionals to government ministries of lower-income countries for two years. The support needed is identified by the governments themselves, and delivered to their needs. The Annual Meeting, which brings Fellows and their line managers together each year, is a powerful complement to posting Fellows, and helps ensure maximum value and impact for both the ministries and our Fellows.
Internal learning and continuous improvement
We measure the impact of our work internally, to learn from it and to remain true to our mission of enabling practical public policy in low- and middle-income countries. Our project work forms the building blocks of our overall impact and we continuously monitor and evaluate this impact, drawing on the expertise of our in-house monitoring and evaluation specialists through our impact monitoring working group.
