Promoting 'good governance' is an overarching strategy of many government and donor agencies. To daye, the focus of most governance programmes has been on public sector reform, aiming to improve accountability and management of public resources. Development is, however, fundamentally a political process; a concept that underlies the Drivers of Change analysis undertaken in Vanuatu to assess the interaction among structural features (economic, social and cultural systems), institutions (formal and informal rules and incentives) and actors (individuals and organisations). 

At PiPP we understand civic engagement to be a central component of improving governance. In doing so we seek to engage political actors in a systematic partnership. Investing in such an understanding of the nuances of the political context is a relatively new approach to development in the Pacific. It paves the way to build on existing public sector reform to foster a stronger and broader culture of democracy by supporting the functioning of robust and accountable political parties.