Transformation & Reform


How regions, countries, and localities have confronted and overcome their own challenges is instructive for leaders and citizens facing challenges today. Drawing on both historical analysis and lessons from its work advising leaders, ISE continues to document a diverse set of cases of transformation and reforms. These cases provide insight into how leaders and citizens developed a reform agenda, the policies and institutions advanced reforms, how the market and citizens were engaged, and what communications strategies were employed. Explore the Country Transition and Transformation paper series for our analysis of successful transformations.

Country Transitions and Transformations


The Country Transitions and Transformations series charts how regions, countries, and localities have confronted and overcome the challenges of statebuilding. The case studies explore the economic, social, and political dynamics of large-scale transformations, offering key insights into “what works” for tackling the pressing issues of today. Cases range from the making of Turkey’s modern state to state-level reform in India and Finland’s consensus-building citizenship model. View the entire series here.

Country Stocktakings


ISE’s country stocktakings evaluate opportunities for reform during pivotal periods in a country’s development trajectory. Stocktakings diagnose countries’ open moments and pathways for reform by assessing the performance and capability of various state functions and citizens’ view of the state while mapping the various international partners operating in the country and the alignment of key stakeholders around a potential reform agenda. View the Country Stocktaking series here.

Gujarat: The Transition to a West Indian Tiger

Stagnating agriculture and a declining textiles sector characterized the Gujarati economy on its 1960 creation. Poor quality infrastructure compounded the challenge. We look at the five major market-building strategies it adopted to combine investment focus…

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Nobody Owes Us Anything: Self-Destruction to Self-Reliance in Rwanda (2010)

How has Rwanda generated uniquely Rwandan solutions through leveraging its assets to national regeneration? What were the key elements of the Rwandan government’s reform program, and how did it balance robust economic growth with reconciling…

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Statecraft for the 21st Century: Learning from Success - from the Commonwealth Ministers Reference Book

Billions of dollars are being spent on development of the poorest countries by the taxpayers of the wealthiest, but the outcomes often fall short of the goals. A renewed approach to securing peace, security and…

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Guinea-Bissau: Translating Potential into Reality

Current approaches in the Guinea-Bissau reached an impasse as the government struggled to balance competing urgent needs, the population’s desire for tangible change, and longer term institutional reform. This paper suggests a new approach whose…

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Karnataka: Understanding State Level Transition in India

We explain why Karnataka is an instructive case study, containing both positive and negative lessons. In the last decade income growth has been spectacular; self-interested policy making have led it to be branded India’s most…

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Nepal: From Stalemate to State-Building

This paper considers how to resolve Nepalese political stalemate. It argues that progress on constitution-making requires agreement on core constitutional principles to underpin it. It then sets out recommendations to catalyze positive change, overcoming narrow…

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