The Policy Practice undertakes policy work in developing countries, and advises and trains governments, development agencies, civil society organisations and companies.  We provide practical, innovative solutions based on realistic assessments of the challenges and opportunities facing developing countries.  Our multi- disciplinary approach uses the political economy perspective to understand the processes of socio-economic change and their effect on the implementation of development programmes. Learn more about us.

Newsnews archive     join mailing list
Online course: Political Economy Analysis in Action – opportunity to apply for April to July 2018

(1/03/2018)  Our successful online training course on Political Economy Analysis in Action is currently under way and will come to an end later in March. A small number of places remain available for the next iteration, from April 16th to July 10th 2018. In addition we invite expressions of interest for a further course in late 2018 or early 2019. The course tutors will again be David Booth (ODI) and Alex Duncan (The Policy Practice). The closing date for applications for the April course is March 7th. Please see here for more detail and here for an application form.

Political economy analysis 10 years on

(22/05/2017)  Reflecting on the major shifts in the development context over the last decade, this latest policy brief discusses how the agenda has changed since The Policy Practice wrote its original briefs on the political economy of development. Download our latest policy brief here.

Political Economy of Africa’s Power Sector

(2/06/2016)  This policy brief examines what we mean by political economy, how it influences performance in the African power sector, and what guidance political economy analysis can give in the design of interventions aimed at improving that performance.Download here.

Sue Unsworth

(18/03/2016)  It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Sue Unsworth. Sue has been a terrific colleague for the past decade, always stimulating and always challenging in the best way, with her incisive mind. She has led the development within the Policy Practice of a lot of our best thinking.

Sue’s legacy in being the person who initially brought political economy into DFID's way of thinking about international development, and helping to make it more realistic and less prone to the sort of wishful thinking that she had little time for, is clear to see. Her approach is now embedded pretty thoroughly. And though she started with DFID, her influence can also been seen across many if not most of the official development agencies worldwide.

Managing Developmental Civil Society Organizations

(12/11/2015)  Richard Holloway's new book provides practical tools, advice and personal experience on working with civil society organisations. Further details can be found here.