New Policy Brief - Thinking and Working Politically at USAID
This paper shares an insider's perspective on the spread of Thinking and Working Politically (TWP) across the US Agency for International Development (USAID), highlighting lessons learned along the way that are relevant even beyond the dissolution of the Agency in 2025.
USAID’s experience illustrates both the opportunities and constraints of embedding political economy approaches within a large donor agency. It offers lessons for the wider development community about how to mainstream political insight, how to avoid diluting it into compliance, and how to link it to reform agendas such as localisation and systems thinking.
The main success factors that facilitated uptake of political economy analysis and TWP within USAID include:
1. Integration with existing frameworks
2. A bottom-up, peer-driven approach
3. Resonating with local knowledge
4. Connection to other reform areas
To overcome challenges in the continued adoption of PEA/TWP, the author proposes three main avenues for future work by TWP champions and allies:
1. Embrace complexity.
2. Move from a tactical to a strategic use of TWP.
3. Rethink accountability through partnership and probability.
You can find the USAID documents mentioned in this paper, and many more, in a USAID page of TPP's Online Library.
TPP supports innovative apiculture initiative in the Republic of Congo
(Photo shared by @AfricanBee)
The Policy Practice is supporting an apiculture initiative in the Republic of Congo with Palladium under the Partnerships for Forests. Led by Theodore Trefon, it aims to scale beekeeping into a market-based model, combining political economy analysis, digital tools and participatory revenue systems.
Two decades of Thinking and Working Politically in Nigeria
This blog sets out how our team of Nigeria experts helps development partners navigate Nigeria's political economy, from shaping programme design to providing just-in-time analysis during implementation. Read about our work across governance, education, climate, agriculture and conflict, and why our grounded, advisory approach matters more than ever as development budgets tighten.
New guidance on stakeholder analysis and network mapping
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