From dysfunctional to functional corruption: The politics of reform in Lebanon’s electricity sector
The SOAS-University of London Anti-Corruption Evidence Research Programme, together with The Policy Practice, has published a new report entitled: From dysfunctional to functional corruption: the politics of reform in Lebanon’s electricity sector. The study explores how it has been possible to establish Electricité de Zahlé’s functional, but problematic, electricity service provision within the complex sectarian political context of Lebanon.
The World Bank discovers power in the power sector - Policy Brief 14
The World Bank’s 2019 report on Rethinking Power Sector Reform recognises that many of the key challenges in power sector reform result from the political economy of the sector.
Barnett and McCulloch state that the report is weak in four areas and make recommendation to the World Bank and other development partners on how these could be tackled.
Rwanda's Electricity Boom and the Danger of Too Much Power - Working Paper 1
Our new Working Paper from TPP - Rwanda's Electricity Boom and the Danger of Too Much Power written by Dr Barnaby Joseph Dye. This discusses Rwandas energy production capacity and whether it's success is actually a problem.
FCDO governance programming in Nigeria: What difference has thinking and working politically made in practice? Working Paper 2
The UK’s engagements in Nigeria are a showcase for the gradual integration of a thinking and working politically (TWP) approach into development practice. This new Working Paper from the Policy Practice provides an overview of these nearly two decades of TWP mainstreaming - both successes and failures.
The political economy of pandemic prevention and preparedness in Africa - Policy Brief 13
This Policy Brief by Gareth Williams, Director at TPP looks at the political economy of pandemic prevention and preparedness in Africa.
Political Economy Analysis of the Business Environment in Eleven Middle-Income Countries - Policy Brief 12
Reforming the business environment needs to be understood not only as a technical challenge but, as importantly, as a challenge to the political economy. This Policy Brief, based on an analysis by The Policy Practice for the UK's cross-government Prosperity Fund, reviews experience in 11 middle income countries and identifies key issues, common themes and unanswered questions.
The Evolving Role of Political Economy Analysis in Development Practice - Policy Brief 11
In 2007 The Policy Practice issued two Policy Briefs on Tackling the Political Barriers to Development: the New Political Economy Perspective and Making the New Political Economy Perspective more operationally relevant for development agencies. The present Brief summarises how this approach has evolved in the light of the major shifts in the development context over the last decade and draws out the implications for development practice going forward.
Political Economy of Africa's Power Sector - Policy Brief 10
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.
Below includes other publications in which The Policy Practice have been involved with, including project reports.
In Lebanon, the current crisis has exposed the fragility of Electricité de Zahlé (EDZ’s) model, which relies on both discounted power provided by Electricité de Lebanon (EDL) and subsidized diesel fuel imports to run EDZ’s own power plant, which are both now in short supply. In this policy brief, the team has estimated the savings from a medium-sized Solar PV plant of 63 MW in Zahle area, covering 20% of the demand currently supplied by diesel-based power generation. They also tackled the challenges facing the implementation of utility-scale renewables in Lebanon and what the Government should do to enable such investments in renewables and proceed forward.
Global efforts to improve energy access and quality and to tackle climate change need a different approach to addressing poor energy governance in developing countries. Energy projects should be designed to “think and work politically.”
This Technical Brief shows how poor energy governance damages energy access and efforts to improve the quality and reliability of power. It explains the political reasons why energy governance is so bad in many countries and contrasts this with the current system of procuring technical assistance, which largely ignores the energy governance challenge.
On 4 February 2021, the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut (AUB), in collaboration with The Policy Practice (TPP) and the SOAS Anti-Corruption Evidence (ACE) consortium, hosted a webinar entitled ‘Models for tackling Lebanon’s electricity crisis’. This briefing paper summarises the views of the key speakers and discussants. It draws together the key threads of the discussion – identifying the commonalities and the points of disagreement – and provides some tentative suggestions about the way forward for the sector.
Reforming the business environment needs to be understood not only as a technical challenge but, as importantly, as a challenge to the political economy.
In 2007 The Policy Practice issued two Policy Briefs on Tackling the Political Barriers to Development: the New Political Economy Perspective and Making the New Political Economy Perspective more operationally relevant for development agencies.
This paper reviews DFID’s experiences with PEA and TWP during the 2010-15 period and draws lessons learned and recommendations.
A reliable and financially sustainable electricity supply is a pre-requisite for successful development, in Africa, as elsewhere.
Global efforts to improve energy access and quality and to tackle climate change need a different approach to addressing poor energy governance. Written by TPP and Chemonics International, this paper outlines the size and nature of the energy challenge, with a focus on electricity. It describes the investments that are currently being made to improve the quality of power and access to electricity — and the growing evidence that investments often fail due to poor energy governance.
Theories of growth have made progress in understanding the mechanisms of growth in economic terms. However, there is less understanding of the political processes that enable or obstruct these mechanisms.