Applying a Political Economy Perspective to Development
We are a network of experienced development professionals who all take a political economy perspective to development. Our Directors, Principals and Associates have specialist knowledge of particular countries and sectors. They have strong connections to government, the private sector, civil society, media and research organisations. They bring to bear their own long working experience within official agencies, academia and the private sector.
The Policy Practice applies a political economy approach to supporting positive change in developing countries. We undertake strategic and policy work in developing countries, including political economy analysis, programme designs, reviews, and evaluations. We also run a flagship training course on political economy analysis and provide bespoke training for a wide variety of clients.
TPP welcomes two new Associate
TPP are pleased to welcome Steve Fraser and Theodore Trefon as our two new Associates.
Steve Fraser has over 30 years experience living, studying and working in Nigeria as a development practitioner, including as Technical Director for the Engaged Citizens pillar of the FCDOs flagship governance programme in Nigeria.
Theodore Trefon is senior researcher at the Belgian Royal Museum for Central Africa and lecturer at ERAIFT/Kinshasa. He has devoted his career to studying environmental governance in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and elsewhere in Central Africa.
Political economy analysis from a community level perspective
Based on his experiences in Kenya and Nepal, TPP Associate Richard Holloway argues that community level political economy analyses need to be carried out by local actors who have some “skin in the game” to solve local issues.
Artificial intelligence will turbocharge the spread of disinformation – and development organisations need to respond
The development sector has been too slow to invest in the healthy news media and “information ecosystems” on which healthy societies depend. Nick Benequista (Center for International Media Assistance), Laure-Hélène Piron (The Policy Practice), and Cristina Ordóñez (Trust, Accountability and Inclusion Collaborative) say new OECD principles on supporting media integrity should be a prompt to act in the face of growing manipulation and suppression.
An event was held to discuss the report on 11th June - the full recording can be seen here.
Webinar 11 June 2024: Funding for Information and Media: Government, Private Philanthropy, and Beyond
This event aims to explore the crucial role of information ecosystems in development and governance, discuss key findings on the flow of official development assistance and philanthropic funds from three recent funding mappings, and foster a dialogue on addressing funding gaps.
Laure-Hélène Piron, TPP Director, will share findings of the study she has completed for the OECD Governance Network analysing official development assistance to media and the information environment since 2002.
The full recording of the 11 June 2024 event can be seen here.
Outlawing metal mining in El Salvador - Policy Brief 18
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.
Political economy analysis for climate action - new course launched starting October 2024
The Policy Practice is delighted to be re-running the popular online course on Political Economy Analysis for Climate Action. This course explains how political economy analysis can be used to understand the challenge of action on climate change and to design more effective interventions. The course will consist of eight, 2-hour online sessions from 4 October to 12 November 2024. For more information and to register please click below or see our flyer here.
The political economy of energy transitions in Ghana, Zambia and Vietnam - Policy Brief 17
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 Ghana, Zambia, and Vietnam and many other countries in the Global South. It also shows how political economy analysis can help to identify politically feasible pathways of change in each country demonstrating the importance of such analysis as an essential tool to understand energy transition.
Media support: aid funding does not match donor rhetoric
Laure-Hélène Piron (TPP Director) presented her analysis of official development assistance to media and the information environment to the Governance Network of the OECD Development Assistance Committee on 6 March 2024.
The draft report shows that the rhetoric of governments which support freedom of expression and condemn disinformation is not matched by sufficient funding. And too little directly goes to local media organisations.
Latest Newsletter from The Policy Practice
We're pleased to share with you our latest newsletter. Read here to find out more about the projects we have been working on at TPP, and exciting news about the launch of our next Political Economy Analysis for Climate Action online training course, starting 5 March 2024. This issue also includes our new Policy Brief on The political economy of a green recovery in Ukraine.
As part of the UK Partnership for Accelerated Climate Transitions programme (UK PACT), TPP Associate Olly Owen and Ochuko Obido are leading the development and completion of a scoping study on nature in Nigeria. This includes reviewing pre-work completed by FCDO, donor-mapping to identify previous, ongoing and future programmes, and contributing to a list of possible future projects that PACT could invest in.
This includes undertaking fieldwork to interview key stakeholders.
TPP Director Laure-Hélène Piron continues her collaboration with the Swiss Development Cooperation office in Burundi by conducting a political economy analysis of the forensic medicine sector. The new Swiss programme could contribute to improved responses to gender-based and domestic violence.
Samantha Wade (TPP Principal) and Neil McCulloch (TPP Director) are working with The Elders staff to deliver three bespoke workshops and ongoing mentoring between August and October 2024. The aim is to develop a flexible, light-touch set of Political Economy Analysis guiding questions and to create space to discuss embedding politically-smart ways of thinking and working with the team.
Led by TPP Principal Olly Owen, the project provides advice to the Children's Investment Fund Foundation's sexual reproduction and health rights team’s around the future direction of their funding linked to data and advocacy in Nigeria.
TPP Director Neil McCulloch worked with the international climate change think tank E3G and the Indonesian think thank the Institute for Essential Services Reform to explore the political economy of the electric vehicle sector in Indonesia.
This political economy analysis focuses on the industrial and artisanal timber sectors in Central Africa. It was undertaken by TPP Principal Olly Owen and new TPP Associate Theodore Trefon, as well as a local team.
Andrii Biletskyi (TPP Associate) and Laure-Hélène Piron (TPP Director) are assessing the current state of judicial reforms in Ukraine in order to advise the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Laure-Hélène Piron (TPP Director) is helping the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation review their approach to decentralisation and local governance in Mali.
This bespoke workshop, run by TPP Director Neil McCulloch and Alex Duncan, was designed for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) staff to gain a better understanding of Political Economy Analysis and how it might help them to identify the challenges arising from political economy features of the contexts in which they work.
The Policy Practice is a lead provider of training on applied political economy analysis for development practitioners.
Political economy analysis provides a deeper understanding of the contexts in which development happens – whether international, national, sectoral or local. It explores how structural factors, institutions and incentives of the key actors shape the possibilities for change in any given context – and how development partners can influence this.
Our course is designed to equip advisers and programme managers to identify the main political and institutional challenges and opportunities in the contexts in which they work, and to draw well-grounded conclusions for strategy, programme design and approaches to implementation.
We have run our flagship course for development professionals over 45 times since 2008, training over 2,000 professionals. We also offer tailored courses and bespoke advice to organisations that wish to deepen their capacity to undertake political economy analysis or manage their programmes more adaptively. Course participants come from bilateral and multilateral organisations, such as the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the US Agency for International Development, the Netherlands Foreign Ministry, Irish Aid, the Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia, the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission, or the United Nations Development Programme. Our clients also include research centres, non-governmental organisations and private companies, such as the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research, Save The Children, Saferworld, DAI, Palladium or Chemonics.
We also launched a new online course on the Political Economy for Climate Action in June 2023. The next course will start in October 2024 over a six weeks period. For further information, see here.
Political economy analysis in action online training course
We will be running the next Political Economy Analysis in Action online training course in September 2024. If you would like further information on this course, or to apply, please see our flyer here.
Participants on this interactive 14-week online course:
- Learn what political economy analysis is and why it matters
- Explore political economy concepts and how to use them
- Interact with leading experts on political economy analysis and thinking and working politically on a weekly basis
- Work through real-life case studies applying political economy tools to development challenges
- Participate in regular webinars with other course participants
- Learn how to ‘think and work politically’ in their own work
- Participants work both independently and in small groups to complete weekly tasks
See our course flyer for further information on the course, or email training@thepolicypractice.com if you have any questions.