When you get talking to people in positions of power, you find that often their worldview is framed either in terms of their disciplinary studies at university and/or the country where they first got interest in development.

To be effective at selling ideas, at being a lobbyist, influencing other people, you have to be very sure of yourself.

People think there's a single solution to complex problems, and the solution is often making an enemy of a group of people - pulling back and rejecting the other.

We should look at how "the enemy" - people that you wouldn't necessarily agree with - have done change and see whether there's bits in there that we could learn from.

What you don't do is just say, "I've got all the ideas and all the knowledge, and listen to me."

Lots of people in the open system are very determined to try and strengthen evidence-based policy.

Somewhere like Russia or China, decision-makers have far fewer constraints on acting than in more open systems.