A new paper by Gareth Williams, The Policy Practice Director, and the Thinking and Working Politically Community of Practice, reflects on the political economy and governance factors that have affected health systems resilience during COVID-19.

We are delighted to welcome Alina Rocha Menocal to The Policy Practice family as our newest Principal. Originally from Mexico, Alina joins us after a long career at ODI, where she was Principal Research Fellow in the Politics and Governance Programme and where she remains affiliated as a Senior Research Associate. Alina is Director of the global Thinking and Working Community of Practice.
 

Laure-Hélène Piron, The Policy Practice Director, is leading a review of the UK aid's approach to democracy and human rights since 2015 on behalf of the UK Independent Commission for Aid Impact.

The review examines the relevance, coherence and effectiveness of UK approach and includes case studies of UK aid for democracy and human rights in Pakistan, Serbia and Tanzania; centrally-managed programmes; a policy review; a literature review; and consultations with citizens affected by UK aid. 

In recent years, dozens of countries have been rocked by riots, often associated with popular demand for fuel.  A paper, published today in World Development, by The Policy Practice Director Neil McCulloch (and co-authors Davide Natalini, Noami Hossain and Patricia Justino) uses a new international dataset on fuel riots to explore the effects of fuel prices and price regimes on fuel riots.

TPP is assisting the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) design a multi-donor governance programme in Somaliland on inclusive governance, and to consider the need for any complementary support to strengthening core state functions.

TPP Principal Alex Duncan, TPP Associate Mohamed Hersi, and researcher Sahra Hassan undertook fieldwork in Somaliland and Kenya in April 2022. They met key stakeholders in government and donor agencies in Hargeisa and Nairobi. The team will return to Kenya in May to present their initial findings to a core reference group of international donors.

TPP Associate, Susie Alegre’s book “Freedom to Think: The Long Struggle to Liberate our Minds” out 7th April with Atlantic Books (available to pre-order now) explores the history of the right to freedom of thought and the threats it faces in the digital age.

On 17 February 2022, Gareth Williams organised a webinar on thinking politically about health systems resilience. The webinar recording is now available.

Yemen’s electricity sector is in a state of crisis.  This blog by TPP Director Neil McCulloch outlines how a new approach is needed to fix it with a focus on restoring livelihoods.

On 2 December 2021, Chemonics, in partnership with The Policy Practice, organised a webinar entitled “Power shift: politics and the energy transition in emerging markets.” 

This webinar brought together leading thinkers on the political economy of the energy transition to discuss the factors that slow down, but also those that might speed up the energy transition.  Experts from South Africa, Sri Lanka and Lebanon shared their knowledge about how the political economy context affected the nature and speed of transition and the implications for the implementation of programs.