What is Development-Based Governance?
Development-Based Governance is an approach to public policy that organizes government around how people develop over time. It helps policymakers align programs, funding, agencies, and accountability around the conditions people need to progress.
Put simply, it means organizing government around human development—not only around programs and agencies.
How is this different from what government already does?
Government is typically organized by departments, programs, funding streams, and policy categories. Development-Based Governance begins with the person and asks what developmental conditions are needed for progress.
It then examines how existing agencies, policies, and resources can work together more coherently to strengthen those conditions.
What is a developmental condition?
A developmental condition is something people need in order to grow, learn, adapt, and move forward.
Examples may include:
- Safety and stability
- Supportive relationships
- Physical and mental health
- Belonging and engagement
- Literacy and meaningful learning
- Access to opportunity
The most relevant conditions will depend on the population, policy issue, and desired outcome.
Can you give a simple example?
Chronic absenteeism is often treated as an education issue. However, the underlying causes may involve transportation, housing, health, family stability, school climate, or student engagement.
Development-Based Governance helps policymakers look beneath the visible outcome, identify the conditions contributing to it, and coordinate the systems that are already involved.
Is Development-Based Governance another government program?
No. It is an approach to designing, evaluating, and implementing public policy.
The first objective is not to create a new program. It is to better align what already exists, identify gaps and duplication, clarify responsibility, and improve the ability of public systems to produce results.
What does Development-Based Governance look like in legislation?
It can be applied by asking several practical questions:
- What developmental outcome is the legislation intended to strengthen?
- What conditions influence that outcome?
- Which agencies, systems, and communities are connected to it?
- What programs and resources already exist?
- Who is responsible for coordination and implementation?
- How will progress be measured?
- How will the state learn and adjust over time?
These questions help legislators design policy that is not only capable of passing, but also capable of producing more effective governance.
How would a legislative committee use this approach?
A committee could use Development-Based Governance as a framework for reviewing legislation, conducting hearings, or examining a persistent state challenge.
Committee members might ask:
- Are we addressing the underlying condition or only the visible symptom?
- Have all relevant systems been included?
- Is responsibility clearly assigned?
- Are existing resources aligned?
- Does the legislation include meaningful measures of progress?
- Is there a process for learning and course correction?
Does this blur agency responsibility?
No. Collaboration should not mean that responsibility becomes unclear.
Development-Based Governance identifies a lead entity while also recognizing the contributions required from other agencies, systems, and community partners. The goal is shared alignment with clear accountability.
Who owns an issue when it crosses several committees or agencies?
One committee or agency may need to take the lead, but issues that cross traditional boundaries should be informed by all of the systems they affect.
The fact that a problem does not fit neatly within one committee or department is not a reason to avoid it. It may be evidence that a more coherent governing process is needed.
Is this the same as cross-agency collaboration?
Cross-agency collaboration is an important part of Development-Based Governance, but it is not the whole approach.
Development-Based Governance gives collaboration a clear organizing purpose: strengthening the developmental conditions people need to progress. It also connects collaboration to legislation, funding, accountability, measurement, and long-term public outcomes.
Is Development-Based Governance evidence-based?
Development-Based Governance is evidence-informed.
It brings together research on human development, state and local data, existing programs, public spending, community experience, and the knowledge of practitioners and residents closest to the issue.
It does not assume that one condition causes every outcome. Instead, it helps policymakers examine relationships, test assumptions, and improve policy as evidence develops.
How is success measured?
Success is measured at more than one level.
Policymakers should examine whether the targeted developmental conditions are improving, as well as whether those improvements are contributing to longer-term outcomes.
For example, a state might track student engagement, attendance, literacy, or stability alongside graduation, postsecondary participation, employment, or economic mobility.
How can this approach improve public return on investment?
Development-Based Governance can help states:
- Better align existing investments
- Identify duplication and gaps
- Address problems earlier
- Reduce fragmented service delivery
- Clarify which investments contribute to shared outcomes
- Avoid shifting costs from one public system to another
It does not promise immediate savings in every situation. It provides a stronger way to examine whether public resources are creating the conditions needed for long-term results.
Would a state have to reorganize its government?
Not necessarily.
A state can begin by asking better questions, aligning existing plans and funding, improving coordination, and clarifying accountability. Structural changes should be considered only when evidence shows that the existing operating structure is preventing progress.
Does this reduce local control?
No. States can establish shared developmental outcomes while allowing communities flexibility in how they achieve them.
Local knowledge is essential because communities differ in their needs, strengths, resources, and implementation environments. Development-Based Governance creates alignment without requiring every community to use the same strategy.
Is Development-Based Governance a partisan approach?
No. It is an operating and policy-design approach rather than a partisan agenda.
People may disagree about specific policies, funding levels, or the role of government. They can still agree that public systems should be coherent, accountable, evidence-informed, and designed to help people progress.
Where should a state begin?
A state can begin with one high-priority issue or outcome.
The first steps are to:
- Identify where people are getting stuck.
- Determine which developmental conditions may be contributing to the problem.
- Map the agencies, programs, policies, and resources already involved.
- Clarify responsibility and opportunities for alignment.
- Test a more coherent approach.
- Measure results and adjust based on what is learned.
The goal is not to redesign government all at once. It is to begin with a real challenge and demonstrate a better way of governing.
What are legislators being asked to do?
Legislators are being invited to help test a stronger approach to public policy:
- Begin with human development
- Look beneath outcomes to the conditions that influence them
- Connect the systems involved
- Align policy, funding, implementation, and accountability
- Build legislation capable of producing more coherent and effective governance
What would participation in this work involve?
Participation could begin with a conversation, a legislative briefing, a committee workshop, or the review of a current policy proposal.
The purpose is to apply Development-Based Governance to real state priorities—not simply to study it as a theory.
What if this sounds good in theory, but government does not work this way?
That is the challenge Development-Based Governance is intended to address.
Government systems were often created separately, but people experience those systems all at once. Development-Based Governance offers a practical way to begin closing that gap without assuming it can be solved overnight.
How can I learn more?
The easiest way to understand Development-Based Governance is to apply it to a real issue.
Consider this question:
What outcome is your state investing heavily in but not seeing improve as expected?
That is often the starting point for identifying the developmental conditions, system relationships, and policy changes that may produce a more effective result.