Governments worldwide increasingly use external consultants to devise and deliver on growing range of public functions, from policy advice, program design to service delivery. Yet to this day, very few have strategies to manage this growing dependency, or know how to identify when outside expertise is genuinely needed versus when needs are better served by internal capacity.
In 2023, six European governments (Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Greece and Latvia) approached the European Commission with the request for support. The Commission mandated UNESCO with a simple but challenging mission: develop practical reforms to address this issue.
Over three years of research, analysis, and concrete reform work with governments, UNESCO developed the Blueprint for Government Consulting Reform, a strategic and practical framework which enables governments, oversight institutions and procurement authorities to diagnose their consultancy dependency, assess its risks and benefits, and design and run reforms that help restore government agency without abandoning the benefits external providers can offer. As the project concludes this month, the Blueprint is now available to any government facing the same challenge.
Diagnosing the level of dependency
The problem is not that governments use external consultants, it’s rather that they sometimes do so without a clear strategy on the purpose, the scale, and conditions of use. In such cases, the consequences of overreliance compounds across engagements and over time: Consulting spending grows, decision-making drifts toward external actors, government capacity erodes and vendor lock-in takes hold. Yet until now, governments had little concrete tools to diagnose the problem or how to fix it.
What stood out across countries was that the challenge goes well beyond individual contracts or spending. Overreliance and risks accumulate across government and over time. The benefits of external expertise are also not fully captured. The critical reform question is not whether to use external consultants, but for what purposes, at what scale and under what conditions. That means buying external expertise better where it is needed, while building in-house consulting capacity for strategic and recurrent needs.
Iulia Sevciuc
Head of the UNESCO Inclusive Policy Lab, UNESCOÂ
The Blueprint addresses this by giving governments tools to assess their own situation: How much are they spending? Which functions are being outsourced? Where are the risks and benefits? What internal capacity exists or could be built?
The framework isn’t one-size-fits-all. Instead, it presents three complementary approaches that governments can adapt based on their own maturity and priorities: stewardship of government-wide consultancy spending, direct provision of in-house consulting services, and governance of associated risks.
More importantly, the Blueprint reframes the conversation. External expertise and internal capacity are not trade-offs. It’s not about rejecting external consultancies. The real challenge is structural: how do governments keep strategic control, build and maintain the expertise they need, and stop relying on outside providers for core work that should rest with the public sector?
Results already in motion
The results have not waited for the project to end. Greece has ratified new legislation on government consulting and established Reform Greece, a dedicated government consulting entity. Belgium has integrated the findings into its Coalition Government Programme (2025–2029), while Austria has committed to minimizing outsourcing and better utilizing internal expertise through its Federal Chancellery.
Beyond individual countries, the EU Government Consulting Network was established to share capacity and lessons across Member States, preventing the problem from being solved in isolation.
Why this matters beyond Europe
The underlying challenge knows no borders. Governments from Asia to Latin America face the same structural pressures: budgetary pressure, technical skill gaps, and the perceived speed and flexibility of private consulting. Without frameworks like this, the pattern repeats: rising spending, eroding capacity, and a growing sense that governments may be losing control of decisions that should be theirs to make.
As challenges increase in complexity, governments worldwide face the need to enhance their capacity to design policy, deliver programmes and reform themselves from within. We have the tools and practical experience to help them build that.
Gustavo Merino
Director for Social Policies and Inclusion, UNESCOÂ
UNESCO’s role here reflects its fundamental mandate: serving as a neutral convenor where governments can diagnose shared problems and build shared solutions. Rather than impose a single answer, the Blueprint gives governments the tools to find their own.
Disclaimer
This project is funded by the European Union via the Technical Support Instrument, and implemented by UNESCO, in cooperation with the European Commission. This article was produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union.
