Working Paper - From dysfunctional to functional corruption: The politics of reform in Lebanon’s electricity sector
In Lebanon, the electricity sector’s dysfunction and inefficiency mask deeper political economy challenges, including rampant rent-seeking, captured institutions and a fractured state. Over decades, corruption and mismanagement in Lebanon’s electricity sector has contributed to the draining of public finances and has deprived the Lebanese people of their right to reliable and affordable electricity.
Amidst the poor general state of the sector, one area of Lebanon has managed to operate a private utility that provides a reliable and high-quality electricity service – Électricité de Zahlé (EDZ). Our study explores how it has been possible to establish EDZ’s functional, but problematic, service provision within the complex sectarian political context of Lebanon. We draw existing development and political economy literature to understand the rents and types of corruption in the sector and how the changes implemented by EDZ have been consistent with the nature of Lebanon’s political settlement.
Latest Political Economy Analysis in Action online training course launched
Last week, we hosted the live launch webinars for our two online Political Economy Analysis in Action courses. One course has been specifically tailored for UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office staff. The other is our Open PEA course with a diverse cohort of participants from civil society, the private sector, bilateral and multilateral agencies.
We have revised our course material to reflect the wider set of objectives and interests in foreign policy as well as development interventions and we’ve updated our online PEA library .
We look forward to interacting with our 140+ course participants over the next four months.
If you or your colleagues are interested in participating in this course or a tailored one in the future, please email training@thepolicypractice.com to join our waiting list, or visit our training page for further details.
Applying a political economy lens to domestic climate change governance - article by Jesse Worker and TPP associate Niki Palmer
We are pleased to share a new publication by the World Resources Institute, authored by Jesse Worker and Niki Palmer (a TPP associate). This new guide takes a political economy lens and applies it to the extremely challenging area of domestic climate change governance. Just out and soon to be trialled in India, it hopes to inspires greater attention to the local constraints and enablers of climate action.
TPP facilitation on "Model for tackling Lebanon's electricity crisis" webinar
TPP Director, Neil McCulloch moderated a webinar on “Model for tackling Lebanon’s electricity crisis”. The webinar featured a range of experts discussing alternative approaches which might be adopted to improve the Lebanon’s highly inefficient and unreliable electricity system. This included evidence from TPP’s recent paper on “From dysfunctional to functional corruption: the politics of reform in Lebanon’s electricity sector”. Over 180 people registered for the webinar which was livestreamed on Facebook and is available from the Youtube channel of the American University of Beirut here.