A Political Economy Analysis Guide for Engaging with the Private Sector on Skills Development - Byiers and Karkare (2025)

This guide provides a practical framework for applying Political Economy Analysis (PEA) to skills development programmes that engage the private sector in complex country contexts. Developed by ECDPM for UNIDO, it shows why technical skills interventions cannot succeed on design alone — they must account for politics, power, incentives, institutions and informal systems that shape how decisions are made and resources are allocated.

The guide explains how skills initiatives inevitably create winners and losers, and how resistance, coordination failures and institutional rivalries can undermine well-intentioned programmes. It sets out a structured five-lens analytical approach — covering structural conditions, institutions, actors, sector dynamics and external forces — alongside a practical decision framework (Alter, Adapt, Avoid, Await or Abandon) to design politically feasible and sustainable interventions.

Drawing on real-world experience from Guinea’s mining and alumina sector, the guide equips policymakers, donors and investors to anticipate risks, build coalitions, navigate competing interests and broker effective public-private collaboration for industrial skills development.