Bridging the Implementation Gap: Behavioral Science as a Tool for System Reform

Reflections from a discussion convened by the Queen Rania Foundation and the Van Leer Foundation during the 2026 United Nations General Assembly.

As global leaders gathered in New York for the United Nations General Assembly to evaluate progress on international development goals, a recurring challenge overshadowed the discussions: why good intentions and serious effort so often fail to translate into real-world impact.

When a program does not achieve its expected results, our instinct is often to communicate more, train more, or remind people more frequently. We assume that if people simply understand the value of an action, they will take it.

But awareness is not the same as action, and motivation is not always the problem.

People often want to do the right thing, but daily realities get in the way. Parents may be too tired or busy to read with their children, while service providers may face heavy workloads and limited resources. Good intentions are not enough when programs are not designed around these realities.

This is the implementation gap, and closing it requires us to stop asking only, “How do we persuade people to act?” and begin asking, “What is making the action difficult?”

Start with behavior, not assumptions

Behavioral science offers a disciplined way to answer that question. It helps us examine the space between what people know, what they intend to do, and what they actually do.

Instead of beginning with a preferred solution, such as an awareness campaign or training program, we begin by defining the behavior we hope to influence:

• Who needs to act?
• What are they doing now?
• What pressures shape their decisions?
• What makes the desired behavior difficult?

Asking these questions requires research, listening, and humility. The objective is not to judge people for failing to follow through, but to make the desired action easier and more realistic within their daily lives. Being non-judgemental really is a powerful tool to identify what will truly work.

Design around people’s lives

At the Queen Rania Foundation (QRF), this thinking has shaped Iqrali, a program that encourages and enables parents to read with their children from birth. The Van Leer Foundation has partnered with QRF throughout this journey, supporting the evolution of Iqrali from an evidence-informed intervention into a model that can be integrated into existing public systems. This has included creating space to test, learn and adapt the approach as it moves closer to scale.  

Parents already want their children to thrive. Simply telling them that reading is important will not address the fatigue, competing responsibilities, and limited time they face every day.

As Iqrali scales, it is reaching families through Ministry of Health vaccination centers, a point of contact that 95 percent of parents and children already visit. Rather than creating an entirely new journey for families, the program integrates seamlessly into an existing and trusted healthcare routine.

The principle is simple: fit the intervention into people’s routines instead of expecting people to reorganize their lives around it. As programs expand, we must preserve their core purpose while continuing to listen, learn, and adapt delivery to each unique context.

Move beyond individual behavior

Behavioral science is often thought of as reminders and nudges. But behavior is also shaped by the systems and circumstances around us, including family responsibilities, cultural expectations, work demands, competing obligations, incentives and available resources. Focusing only on individuals can overlook the wider changes needed to make action easier.

Governments can use this same behavioral lens to examine how public policies are implemented on the ground:

• Where do administrative processes create friction?
• What competing pressures do frontline workers face?
• Do officials have the necessary authority and clear information to make decisions?

For funders, this also means looking beyond individual programs and investing in the capabilities, relationships and systems that allow effective approaches to be adopted and sustained. 

To build this capability at scale, QRF is delivering behavioral science training across all public ministries in Jordan, aiming to strengthen how public programs are conceptualized, designed, and delivered.

Fund the learning process

Closing the implementation gap also requires a different understanding of what funders support.

Good program design takes time. Organizations need space to listen to communities, involve frontline actors, test early ideas, and revise their approach based on real usage data. Funding only rapid delivery often pushes organizations toward rigid solutions before they truly understand the underlying problem.

Accountability must expand to include accountability for learning. Discovering that an initial assumption was wrong is not a failure when that insight directly strengthens the intervention. Funders can ask not only what was delivered, but what was learned and adapted along the way.

The Van Leer Foundation’s partnership with QRF reflects this learning-first approach. Its support has helped QRF apply behavioral science directly through Iqrali while simultaneously building long-term organizational capacity. Together with the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), this collective learning has been translated into a practical behavioral guide for practitioners and funders looking to embed these approaches into their own programs.

Know when behavior is not the problem

Behavioral science is not a magic wand. It cannot replace missing services, inadequate staffing, institutional commitment, or financial investment. Crucially, it should never be used to shift responsibility for systemic failures onto individuals.

A reminder cannot solve the absence of a clinic. A better message cannot overcome severe economic or political constraints. Sometimes, a thorough behavioral diagnosis will reveal that the system itself must be fundamentally restructured.

Responsible practice begins by asking whether the barrier is behavioral, structural, or both. The purpose is to understand the problem deeply enough to choose the right tool for the job.

From intention to implementation

During our discussion at UNGA 2026, one clear message emerged: start with the behavior, understand what is getting in the way, and design around people’s real lives.

Closing the implementation gap does not always require a more complex or expensive solution. Often, it requires better questions, closer listening, and the humility to redesign our programs and systems around reality rather than assumptions.

Evidence tells us what can work. Behavioral science helps us understand what it will take for that evidence to become a sustained part of everyday life.