This Working Paper, written by TPP Principal Wilfred Mwamba, calls for a major shift in how international actors support governance. With governance aid expected to decline sharply, the central question becomes whether reforms would continue if donor funding ended. Evidence from Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe shows a consistent pattern: reforms last when domestic reformers control design and implementation; they collapse when donors dominate the agenda. Lasting reform relies on political realism, reform agency, and partnership humility.

The paper argues that too much governance aid still produces “performance theatre”: busy programmes, dashboards and workshops that generate impressive activity but little durable change. To counter this, it outlines five shifts external partners must adopt: 

1. Build platforms governed by domestic reformers
2. Underwrite political and financial risk without taking control
3. Fund data that meets citizen demand
4. support coalitions rather than direct them
5. Plan institutionalisation from the outset rather than at exit

A five-part “Partnership Test” helps distinguish genuine partnership from donor-driven substitution, emphasising mutual benefit, power transparency, risk-sharing, design authority and early domestic ownership.

As non-Official Development Assistance finance (such as climate funds, private capital and South–South cooperation) grows in importance, governance capability determines access to this new funding.