This working paper, written by TPP Principal Wilfred Mwamba, calls for a major shift in how international actors support governance. It shows reforms only endure when domestic reformers lead, urging partners to drop “performance theatre” and back genuine, locally led, politically grounded change.

This guidance note, by TPP Director Laure-Hélène Piron, sets out options for context analysis (political economy analysis, conflict analysis, institutional reviews, etc). It provides advice to make sure any context analysis is politically informed and influential with decision makers.  

This note is part of a series on political economy tools prepared as a collaboration between the UK Foreign, Commonwealth &Development Office and the Thinking and Working Politically Community of Practice.

TPP Principal Alina Rocha Menocal  is the co-author of the Democratic Governance Diagnostic produced for the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). It sets out a strategic approach to analysing democratic governance and identifying options for external engagement. 

This working paper, authored by TPP Associate Richard Barltrop, explores how the prevailing picture of Yemen’s economy is incomplete and misleading, in particular when it fails to take into account the realities on the ground. 

This Policy and Practice brief from TPP Director Gareth Williams discusses Issues-Based Programming (IBP), a development approach which mobilises stakeholders to drive change around locally defined issues. This paper examines its application in several countries through case studies of UK-funded projects and assesses IBP's effectiveness, highlighting successes and failures.

This United Nations policy brief sets out how the organisation can think and work in politically informed ways in designing and implementing security sector reform programmes. 

Nigeria’s forest policy is at a turning point, with a growing domestic push for conservation amidst environmental degradation. This summary explores key trends, challenges, and opportunities in the sector, offering insights into how innovative, multi-level solutions can shape sustainable futures.

TPP Director Neil McCulloch worked with the international climate change think tank E3G and the Indonesian think tank the Institute for Essential Services Reform to explore the political economy of the electric vehicle (EV) sector in Indonesia. The report looks at the huge growth of the EV value chain in Indonesia, from nickel mining, through processing, to battery and EV manufacturing. It highlights the key constraints to the further development of the sector 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, multi-fuel model by existing Internal Combustion Engine manufacturers, and suggests ways in which external partners could work with Indonesia to support the resolution of these issues.

This paper, based on the Kullana Liltanmia Contextual Analysis course in Sudan, explores how Political Economy Analysis (PEA) training influenced participants, particularly young people. It helped them navigate uncertainty and complexity, and fostered resilience and informed decision-making.

Laure-Hélène Piron (TPP Director) undertook an analysis of official development assistance to media and the information environment for the Governance Network of the OECD Development Assistance Committee.

The report shows that the rhetoric of governments which support freedom of expression and condemn disinformation is not matched by sufficient funding. And too little goes directly to local media organisations (only 8% of the total aid to the sector).

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.  

Written by Sam Bickersteth with Neil McCulloch and Meron Tesfamichael, this policy brief draws out some of the common constraints hindering the energy transition in these, and many other, countries in the Global South.  It also shows how PEA can help to identify politically feasible pathways of change in each country demonstrating the importance of PEA as an essential tool to understand energy transition.

This new Policy Brief discusses the political economy of a green recovery in Ukraine. It analyses how corruption might inhibit green, equitable and sustainable reconstruction in Ukraine, the drivers of this corruption and the political opportunities for tackling it. It recommends joining up the anti-corruption and environmental reform agendas, ensuring citizen and community involvement in post-war recovery and building on wartime community self-help initiatives.
 

The brief is based on research undertaken in 2022 by Anna Paterson, Andrii Biletskyi, Lyubov Palyvoda and Sam Bickersteth for the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) Ukraine, with support from the Targeting Natural Resource Corruption project.

The Learning Review explores (i) how APEAs have been used to inform program decisions and their implementation; (ii) how insights from APEAs have influenced program achievements; and (iii) what factors have enabled and constrained the uptake of APEA and its impacts in terms of improved programming. It concludes with lessons and considerations.

In April 2023, Alex Duncan revisited South Sudan for the first time in 40 years since working there for four years as an agricultural economist.  This is a lecture he gave at Juba University on the work that was then started, the lessons learned and the implications for the present.

This policy brief from TPP Director Dr Neil McCulloch is based on his book “Ending Fossil Fuel Subsidies – the politics of saving the planet”, published by Practical Action Publishing. 

It summarises the problem with fossil fuel subsidies, how they inflict harm and what steps are being taken to reduce them.  It also shows why subsidies persist and why existing efforts have been so ineffective. Drawing lessons from countries which have tried to remove fossil fuel subsidies, it explains that the fundamental challenge to reform is not technical, but political. 

TPP Director, Neil McCulloch, has just launched a book on “Ending Fossil Fuel Subsidies – the politics of saving the planet”, published by Practical Action Publishing.  The book explains what fossil fuel subsidies are, how they inflict harm and what steps are being taken to reduce them.  It also shows why subsidies persist and why existing efforts have been so ineffective. Drawing lessons from countries which have tried to remove fossil fuel subsidies, it explains that the fundamental challenge to reform is not technical, but political.  The book lays out a new agenda for action on fossil fuel subsidies, showing how a better understanding of the underlying political incentives can lead to more effective approaches to tackling this major global problem.

This Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) guide outlines how people working in international development can use a set of analytical tools collectively known as 'political economy analysis' (PEA).