title: "Policy after the headlines: building reforms that survive the news cycle" topic: "Governance" summary: "Reforms announced in a press conference tend to die in a quiet office two years later. The work of making them last starts on day one." date: "2026-03-12" readingTime: "7 min read"
The half-life of a reform
There is a familiar arc in our work. A reform is announced. Lights, cameras, a published strategy. Three years later, you can still find the strategy on a website — but the office that owned it has been merged, the senior champion has moved, and the funding line has quietly drifted toward a different priority.
The half-life of a reform is short by default. Making it long is a design choice, not a communications choice.
Three things that extend the half-life
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Build the operating routine before the announcement. Reforms outlast their champions when there is a weekly meeting, a quarterly review, and a defined owner — all in place before the press release. We have learned not to schedule the launch event until those three things exist.
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Transfer capability inside the institution, not around it. External advisers extend the half-life only while they are in the room. The longer arc requires investing in the careers of the people who will still be there in five years.
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Make the success measurable from inside the building. If only an external evaluator can tell whether the reform is working, it will be quietly abandoned long before the next evaluation.
What we ask before we start
When a partner approaches us with a reform idea, we ask three questions first:
- Who will still be in the building two years from now?
- What is the one metric they will be judged on?
- What will it take for that metric to move?
Those answers shape every recommendation we make.