LocationsUnlocking Delivery:
Governance That Makes Change Happen
By Sam Waldock | Development Director, British High Commission, Islamabad
Today in Pakistan, the most transformational change to get behind is the move from reform design to reform delivery, ensuring that policy intent converts into improved development outcomes for people.
The world of development is changing, fundamentally and rapidly. Everyone involved–from country governments, to development partners (including bilateral partners, multilaterals and NGOs), and communities themselves–must today navigate the effects of a geopolitically far more turbulent world that has direct impacts on what we do and how we do it.
These changes aren’t easy, but they do present an opportunity to reorient ourselves away from a project-based view of the world towards a different understanding of development. For us at the British High Commission (BHC) in Islamabad, this new approach is centred on the recognition that development partners are not the centre of the story. Real progress depends on understanding what change is already happening in Pakistan, and how we can get behind it with our support. In other words, it’s not about us.
Today in Pakistan, the most transformational change to get behind is the move from reform design to reform delivery, ensuring that policy intent converts into improved development outcomes for people. Pakistan’s governance systems present structural weaknesses that include complex and opaque regulatory systems, weak internal controls, and fragmented accountability. And, as Pakistan positions 2026 as the National Reforms Year, the central task is to reinforce the systems, coordination mechanisms, and accountability frameworks that tackle these weaknesses and make delivery possible. For this, we need governance–i.e. the systems, institutions, coordination mechanisms, and accountability frameworks that enable the Government of Pakistan to translate policy intent into real delivery for citizens.
Governance reform in Pakistan has always been challenging: a federal state with vastly different geographic and institutional contexts; an unfinished devolution process that has left local government–those closest to delivery–in limbo; multiple competing demands on limited public finances; and a turbulent political landscape. Whatever problem you’re seeking to tackle in Pakistan, strengthening capable, accountable and responsive governance will be part of the answer.
This is why at the BHC, we view governance not as a standalone sector but as an enabling foundation for all our development work. Effective governance partnerships determine whether energy sector reforms reduce fiscal pressures on government and households; whether climate finance translates into stronger protections for vulnerable households; whether regulatory or tariff reforms make for a better environment for business; or whether public financial management mechanisms can safeguard scarce resources.
No single actor can deliver systemic change alone. For countries navigating complex economic, demographic, and climate transitions, sustained partnerships provide continuity across political cycles, agility to respond to changing needs and priorities, and technical depth that makes the most of domestic and international expertise.
The partnership between BHC Islamabad and UNDP–via the National Governance Programme–is an example of this. It has multiple focus sectors, and responds to the priorities of reformers in the Pakistan system, solving governance and delivery problems that also embed systems of enhanced transparency and performance. A central pillar of this partnership has been strategic engagement with the Prime Minister’s Office which has improved cross-government coordination on vital economic reforms, and strengthened executive oversight and monitoring of the reform process.
Partnerships are at the heart of this programme because reform is inherently political, institutional, and long term. No single actor can deliver systemic change alone. For countries navigating complex economic, demographic, and climate transitions, sustained partnerships provide continuity across political cycles, agility to respond to changing needs and priorities, and technical depth that makes the most of domestic and international expertise.
When we put these ingredients together, reform moves from policy intent to lasting institutional delivery. And in the end, delivery is the real test, and the real opportunity.
