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, in partnership with Palladium, is contributing to Component 2 of the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s Investments in Forests and Sustainable Land Use Phase 2 programme. This £500 million initiative supports climate action through sustainable land use and forest protection. Component 2 focuses on developing sustainable business models and market systems in the Congo Basin.
This project was led by TPP Associate Theodore Trefon. He provided USAID DRC and its Local Health System Sustainability Project with strategic recommendations to enhance Human Resources for Health management within the DRC Ministry of Health.
The approach included a desk review of existing research, development of analytical tools, stakeholder interviews, data synthesis, and comprehensive report preparation, with fieldwork in January 2025 in Kinshasa.
This political economy analysis focuses on the industrial and artisanal timber sectors in Central Africa and is undertaken by TPP Principal Olly Owen and new TPP Associate Theodore Trefon, together with a local team.
The Policy Practice has been assisting the World Bank Governance Practice pilot clinics and a training course to support the roll-out of its new GovEnable approach since January 2023.
The team, led by Gareth Williams, TPP Director, and lead researcher Theodore Trefon, undertook a political economy analysis (PEA) as part of the on-going Demographic Diagnostics Commission. The PEA built on DFID’s understanding of historical legacies, political interests and DFID’s room for manoeuvre in the contexts in which DFID is working.
This is a comparative study donor of approaches to risk management in fragile and conflict affected states. The findings are based on evidence from four case study countries: Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Somalia and Nepal (and additional examples drawn from Myanmar, Afghanistan and Haiti). The study was commissioned by the OECD INCAF Task Team on Finance and Aid, who identified a need to complement ongoing policy level work on risk management with evidence from the field on how donors manage risk in practice.
This literature review of the political economy of the basic education sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) draws on over 50 published and unpublished reports. It has also been informed by a DFID workshop held on 11 July 2012 on the political economy of education in DRC. The report is divided into three parts.
This study analyses the progress of public financial management (PFM) reforms in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and prospects for further change. It provides a diagnosis of the strengths and weaknesses of public financial management, mainly at the level of central government. It then explains this performance and the progress of reforms using political economy analysis to identify the incentives and interests that may block or promote change.