Applying a Political Economy Perspective to Development
We are a network of experienced development professionals who all take a political economy perspective to development. Our Directors, Principals and Associates have specialist knowledge of particular countries and sectors. They have strong connections to government, the private sector, civil society, media and research organisations. They bring to bear their own long working experience within official agencies, academia and the private sector.
The Policy Practice applies a political economy approach to supporting positive change in developing countries. We undertake strategic and policy work in developing countries, including political economy analysis, programme designs, reviews, and evaluations. We also run a flagship training course on political economy analysis and provide bespoke training for a wide variety of clients.
April Newsletter now out
Our April newsletter features a new working paper on Yemen’s economy, resources on thinking and working politically, a climate change consultation paper, three new Associates, and details of our upcoming online course. Click to read the full update.
New Working Paper on Understanding Yemen's Economy
This working paper, authored by Richard Barltrop, TPP Associate and LSE Middle East Centre visiting senior fellow, explores how the prevailing picture of Yemen's economy is incomplete and misleading, in particular when it fails to take into account the realities on the ground.
Online library of USAID political economy documents
We have created a new USAID section on The Policy Practice online library to make accessible the most helpful USAID materials on political economy analysis and thinking&working politically. These documents and blogs used to be open access but are sadly no longer available since USAID was abolished.
New Swiss Thinking and Working Politically Network
The Policy Practice is proud to be associated with the creation of a Swiss community of practice on thinking and working politically.
Our launch event will be on Thursday 27 March from 1pm to 2:30pm. It will explore “How does political economy differ and complement other approaches?”. In addition to case studies from Burkina Faso and Bosnia-Herzegovina, TPP Director Laure-Hélène Piron will share her insights on how PEA can be combined with other approaches.
If you would like to join the community and attend the event, please contact Andreas Weber, SDC PEA lead.
The implications of Trump for climate action - latest blog from TPP Director Neil McCulloch
Trump’s rapid reversal of Biden’s climate agenda has shocked many. In one week, he dismantled decades of environmental progress by lifting oil and gas restrictions, scrapping decarbonization targets, and abandoning international commitments including the Paris Agreement. This blog explores how these moves threaten U.S. climate progress and global climate action.
Latest News from The Policy Practice - February 2025
In this month’s newsletter we discuss:
🔹The launch of the next Political Economy Analysis for Climate Action training course starting in May
🔹 Issues-Based Programming (IBP): A fresh look at mobilising stakeholders for change, with insights from TPP Director Gareth Williams.
🔹 New Work in the Francophone Sahel: Addressing governance, conflict, and development challenges in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Senegal.
🔹 Political Economy of Disaster Management & Climate Adaptation: A new collaboration with UNDP to assess governance and institutional responses to climate disasters.
Launch of our next Political Economy Analysis for Climate Action training course
Our Political Economy Analysis for Climate Action training course is an interactive 8-session online course (two sessions per week) running from 19 May - 19 June 2025. It focuses on how political economy analysis can maximise the effectiveness of action on climate change. See our flyer to register.
Policy and Practice Brief 18 - Nine lessons from Issue-based programming
This Policy and Practice brief from TPP Director Gareth Williams discusses Issues-Based Programming (IBP), a development approach which mobilises stakeholders to drive change around locally defined issues. This paper examines its application in several countries through case studies of UK-funded projects and assesses IBP's effectiveness, highlighting successes and failures.
Why ideas matter for action on climate and environment. New blog from TPP Principal Niki Palmer
This blog from TPP Principal Niki Palmer considers the importance of ideas of nature for action on climate and environment. Unlike interests, ideas are not always fully considered in political economy analysis. Yet ideas help to define action in relation to the natural world, including through global negotiations at the COPs. This blog challenges us to consider ideas more closely, suggesting that through doing so more innovative pathways forward can be found that work with and for nature, not against it.
The Policy Practice Principals Sam Bickersteth and Niki Palmer supported Mott MacDonald during the inception of the Resilience, Adaptation and Inclusion in Nepal programme, funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. They delivered political economy analysis, training, and strategy inputs.
TPP Director Laure-Hélène Piron and TPP Assocate Nisar Majid are facilitating a political economy analysis process for the Swiss Development Cooperation regional Horn of Africa programme through a series of online workshops complemented by desk and field research.
TPP Directors Laure-Hélène Piron and Neil McCulloch delivered an in-person training for the Kulmis Support Team, a third party monitoring project advising the Swiss Development Cooperation Horn of Africa programme.
Laure-Hélène Piron, TPP Director, is undertaking a political economy analysis for the British Embassy in N'Djamena to provide advice on how they can promote political inclusion of women and youth.
The Policy Practice supports Component 2 of FCDO’s Investments in Forests and Sustainable Land Use Phase 2 Programme in the Congo Basin. Led by TPP Associate Theodore Trefon, and involving TPP Principals Olly Owen and Sam Bickersteth, TPP provides political economy insights and conflict analysis to guide sustainable business models, strengthen cooperatives, and promote forest-friendly, climate-resilient development.
William Kingsmill, TPP Principal, is advising a political economy analysis process for the UK-government funded Green Cities and Infrastructure programme in Ukraine.
TPP Director Gareth Williams is developing an analytical framework covering the political economy dimensions of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. It will improve the understanding of how contextual factors affect a country’s capacity to formulate and implement effective policies in these areas.
TPP Director Laure-Hélène Piron is preparing training modules on adaptive management and thinking and working politically for a new course on Accountable and Inclusive Politics for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
This project, led by TPP Associate Theodore Trefon, provided USAID's Local Health System Sustainability Project with strategic recommendations to enhance the management of human resources for health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Policy Practice is a lead provider of training on applied political economy analysis for development practitioners.
Political economy analysis provides a deeper understanding of the contexts in which development happens – whether international, national, sectoral or local. It explores how structural factors, institutions and incentives of the key actors shape the possibilities for change in any given context – and how development partners can influence this.
Our course is designed to equip advisers and programme managers to identify the main political and institutional challenges and opportunities in the contexts in which they work, and to draw well-grounded conclusions for strategy, programme design and approaches to implementation.
We have run our flagship course for development professionals over 45 times since 2008, training over 2,000 professionals. We also offer tailored courses and bespoke advice to organisations that wish to deepen their capacity to undertake political economy analysis or manage their programmes more adaptively. Course participants come from bilateral and multilateral organisations, such as the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the US Agency for International Development, the Netherlands Foreign Ministry, Irish Aid, the Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia, the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission, or the United Nations Development Programme. Our clients also include research centres, non-governmental organisations and private companies, such as the The Elders, Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research, Save The Children, Saferworld, DAI, Palladium or Chemonics.
We also launched a new online course on the Political Economy for Climate Action in June 2023. The next course will run in the Spring of 2025 over a six weeks period.
Political economy analysis in action online training course
We will be running the next Political Economy Analysis in Action online training course in February 2025. If you would like further information on this course, or to apply, please see our flyer here.
Participants on this interactive 17-week online course:
- Learn what political economy analysis is and why it matters
- Explore political economy concepts and how to use them
- Interact with leading experts on political economy analysis and thinking and working politically on a weekly basis
- Work through real-life case studies applying political economy tools to development challenges
- Participate in regular webinars with other course participants
- Learn how to ‘think and work politically’ in their own work
- Participants work both independently and in small groups to complete weekly tasks
See our course flyer for further information on the course, or email training@thepolicypractice.com if you have any questions.