Drawing on his roles with bilateral development agencies, Mwamba argues that political economy analysis (the “Thinking Politically”) is widely used, but reform depends on the “Working Politically”: judgement exercised when evidence collides with donor incentives. Three cases illustrate this:
The Policy Practice has been working with the FCDO-funded Cities for Infrastructure and Growth project in Zambia to examine how petroleum needs might be incorporated into the country’s Integrated Resource Plan for energy in a way that is consistent with the country’s needs as well as its climate commitments.
In 2023, The Policy Practice and its local partners conducted political economy analyses (PEAs) in Ghana, Zambia, and Vietnam to help understand context-specific challenges and opportunities for the clean energy and transport transitions.
TPP Director, Dr. Neil McCulloch and Associate, Dr. Mashekwa Maboshe undertook a study of the political economy of fuel supply in Zambia for the Ministry of Energy and the Energy Regulatory Board.
Between January 2023 and the end of March 2023, Neil McCulloch and Sam Bickersteth worked on a series of three, rapid, Political Economy Analyses of the energy transition for the FCDO-funded Climate Compatible Growth programme. The PEAs conducted looked at:
Sam Bickersteth and Neil McCulloch undertook a scoping study for the Climate Compatible Growth programme. It identified three counties in Kenya and rural areas in Zambia where there is both potential and demand for off-grid energy solutions, taking account of other current projects, local government capability and investment options.
Dr. Neil McCulloch (TPP Director) and Mashekwa Maboshe (ZIPAR) undertook this assignment with the primary objective of outlining a set of alternative price adjustment mechanisms and showing how they can be used to reduce subsidies in a way that minimises harm to citizens. It also summarised thinking about best practice approaches to subsidy reform, including examples from other countries and discussed their relevance to the Zambian context.
In consortium with Saana Ltd, The Policy Practice has been working for DFID Southern Africa to prepare options for a new regional trade programme covering Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia. Feeding into this work, Gareth Williams and William Kingsmill prepared country level political economy assessments of trade policy issues for the three countries.
The Policy Practice and IDL Group have been commissioned by OECD to develop an analytical framework to understand how international factors affect corruption at the country level. The framework will be developed illustrated and tested through four country case studies: Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Zambia.