This paper builds on the Nepal Gender and Social Exclusion Assessment (GSEA), a collaborative policy research study undertaken by World Bank and DFID. The paper examines the GSEA – which will be followed by further joint work supported by a three year DFID Social Exclusion Action Programme (SEAP) – as an on-going effort to influence the formal policy making process and the messier, longer term process of supporting the implementation of these policies and trying to make them a reality on the ground. It confronts the fact that policy reform, if it takes hold, is actually culture change – especially when the policy issue examined is how to overcome the persistent legacy of caste, ethnic and gender-base exclusion. The paper is divided into four parts. The first briefly presents the historical background of exclusion in Nepal and the conceptual framework used in the study. The second part presents the main findings of the GSEA research – including poverty outcomes by gender, caste and ethnicity, an analysis of government and civil society responses to gender, caste and ethnic discrimination, a review of legal issues, access to health and education, an analysis of group based approaches and efforts to evolve an affirmative action policy. Part three offers the GSEA key policy recommendations and the final part looks ahead to the next stage of the GSEA process. It examines some of the considerations that must be taken into account by the GSEA team as it moves more fully from policy analysis to supporting the Nepalis in government and civil society who want to make Nepal a more inclusive state – and trying to influence those who do not.