Kivu provided bespoke and politically informed advice to DFID’s (now FCDO’s) Sone Sie governance programme. Our advice and support focused on options for how to conduct more focused policy influencing work. At that time, Son Sie was largely funding very local interventions and our advice proposed how best to link this community level activity to broader policy change. We provided support at two different times in the programme’s development. Kivu’s assessments covered a range of policy issues including land and forestry, extractive industries, agricultural and education policy. The advice was part of a successful evolution of the programme and the adoption of higher-impact approaches.