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.
TPP Associate appointed Education Minister in Nigeria
Congratulations to TPP Associate Dr Suwaiba Ahmad who has been appointed by Nigeria's President as the new Federal Minister of State Education.
Suwaiba is an education expert, gender advocate, and the Director of Bayero University's Centre for Gender Studies in Kano, Northern Nigeria. She has been working with TPP to provide advice to the UK's Partnership for Learning for All in Nigeria education programme.
We wish her all possible success. From our experience of working closely with her, we know that she will bring a combination of hard work, personal integrity, passion for education and political realism to her new role.
The politics of electric vehicles in Indonesia - latest blog from TPP Director Neil McCulloch
Photo credit: ANTARA / Mudaffar Fauzan
On Sunday 20 October, Prabowo Subianto was inaugurated as the President of Indonesia. This blog explores the implications for the drive for electric vehicles (EV). Indonesia has made bold strides in developing an EV value chain. But the sector now faces major constraints including: reputational damage due to the environmental harm of mining and processing; challenges in accessing major Western markets; fiscal constraints and competing priorities under the new government; and the active promotion of a different model by manufacturers. The blog suggests ways in which external partners could work with Indonesia to support the resolution of these issues.
Latest Political Economy Analysis in Action online training course launched
We are pleased to announce the launch of our next Political Economy Analysis in Action online training course, starting 3 February and running until 5 June 2025.
The course is designed to equip participants to identify the challenges arising from political economy features of the contexts in which they work, and to draw well-grounded conclusions for policy, strategy, or programme design and implementation.
If you or your colleagues are interested in participating in this course or a tailored one in the future, please see our course flyer or email training@thepolicypractice.com for further details.
New Sudan political economy case study out now
This paper examines the impact of Political Economy Analysis (PEA) training in Sudan, focusing on the Kullana Liltanmia Contextual Analysis course. It underscores three key lessons: the importance of deepening understanding of complex, unstable environments like Sudan for informed decision-making; the underutilised potential of PEA in supporting individuals and key political actors; and the need for adaptive, participant-driven PEA training, especially in fragile, conflict-affected settings, requiring creativity and courage from all involved.
TPP welcomes two new Associates
TPP are pleased to welcome Steve Fraser and Theodore Trefon as our two new Associates.
Steve Fraser has over 30 years of experience living, studying and working in Nigeria as a development practitioner, including as Technical Director for the Engaged Citizens pillar of the UK's flagship governance programme in Nigeria.
Theodore Trefon is a senior researcher at the Belgian Royal Museum for Central Africa. He has devoted his career to studying environmental governance in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and elsewhere in Central Africa.
Artificial intelligence will turbocharge the spread of disinformation – and development organisations need to respond
The development sector has been too slow to invest in the healthy news media and “information ecosystems” on which healthy societies depend. Nick Benequista (Center for International Media Assistance), Laure-Hélène Piron (The Policy Practice), and Cristina Ordóñez (Trust, Accountability and Inclusion Collaborative) say new OECD principles on supporting media integrity should be a prompt to act in the face of growing manipulation and suppression.
An event was held to discuss the report on 11th June - the full recording can be seen here.
Webinar 11 June 2024: Funding for Information and Media: Government, Private Philanthropy, and Beyond
This event aims to explore the crucial role of information ecosystems in development and governance, discuss key findings on the flow of official development assistance and philanthropic funds from three recent funding mappings, and foster a dialogue on addressing funding gaps.
Laure-Hélène Piron, TPP Director, will share findings of the study she has completed for the OECD Governance Network analysing official development assistance to media and the information environment since 2002.
The full recording of the 11 June 2024 event can be seen here.
Outlawing metal mining in El Salvador - Policy Brief 18
This Policy Brief from TTP Associate Clare Cummings describes how a community-led campaign for ‘water over gold’ succeeded in banning metal mining in El Salvador. The case study sets out the political economy factors which explain why environmental mining did not follow business interests.
As part of the UK Partnership for Accelerated Climate Transitions programme, TPP Principal Olly Owen and Ochuko Obido are leading a scoping study on nature in Nigeria to prepare a list of projects that the programme could invest in.
TPP Director Laure-Hélène Piron continues her collaboration with the Swiss Development Cooperation office in Burundi by conducting a political economy analysis of the potential for forensic medicine and scientific policing. The new Swiss programme could contribute to reducing impunity and improve responses to gender-based violence.
Samantha Wade (TPP Principal) and Neil McCulloch (TPP Director) are working with The Elders staff to deliver three bespoke workshops and ongoing mentoring between August and October 2024. The aim is to develop a flexible, light-touch set of Political Economy Analysis guiding questions and to create space to discuss embedding politically-smart ways of thinking and working with the team.
Led by TPP Principal Olly Owen together with TPP Associates Suwaiba Ahmad and Sa'eed Hussaini, the project provided advice to the Children's Investment Fund Foundation's sexual reproduction and health rights team’s around the future direction of their funding linked to data and advocacy in Nigeria.
This political economy analysis focuses on the industrial and artisanal timber sectors in Central Africa. It was undertaken by TPP Principal Olly Owen and new TPP Associate Theodore Trefon, together with a local team.
TPP Director Neil McCulloch worked with the international climate change think tank E3G and the Indonesian think thank the Institute for Essential Services Reform to explore the political economy of the electric vehicle sector in Indonesia.
Andrii Biletskyi (TPP Associate) and Laure-Hélène Piron (TPP Director) are assessing the current state of judicial reforms in Ukraine in order to advise the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Laure-Hélène Piron (TPP Director) is helping the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation review their approach to decentralisation and local governance in Mali.
This bespoke workshop, run by TPP Director Neil McCulloch and Alex Duncan, was designed for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) staff to gain a better understanding of Political Economy Analysis and how it might help them to identify the challenges arising from political economy features of the contexts in which they work.
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.