The World Bank discovers power in the power sector - Policy Brief 14
The World Bank’s 2019 report on Rethinking Power Sector Reform recognises that many of the key challenges in power sector reform result from the political economy of the sector.
Barnett and McCulloch state that the report is weak in four areas:
- On corruption – which it treats as a local problem rather than as a systemic issue linked to countries’ political settlement;
- On the political economy of donors – and how this can sometimes make reform more difficult;
- On the impact of new technology – and how disruptive technologies can change local political incentives;
- On how to Think and Work Politically in the power sector – the report gives little guidance on how to move beyond the focus on supply-side reforms.
This Policy Brief makes recommendation to the World Bank and other development partners on how these could be tackled.
New briefing paper - Models for tackling Lebanon's electricity crisis
On 4 February 2021, the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut (AUB), in collaboration with The Policy Practice (TPP) and the SOAS Anti-Corruption Evidence (ACE) consortium, hosted a webinar entitled ‘Models for tackling Lebanon’s electricity crisis’.
This briefing paper summarises the views of the key speakers and discussants. It draws together the key threads of the discussion – identifying the commonalities and the points of disagreement – and provides some tentative suggestions about the way forward for the sector.
Latest Political Economy Analysis in Action online training course launched
We are delighted to let you know that The Policy Practice and ODI will run our next Political Economy Analysis in Action online training course from 6 September – 17 December. Please find attached a course flyer. Please click here to register by 2 July.
Political economy analysis (PEA) is now recognised as essential to the design and adaptive management of development and foreign policy interventions. It is about understanding the contexts in which development and foreign policy happen, the incentives that determine how the relevant actors behave, and drawing well-grounded operational conclusions for policy, strategy, programme design and implementation.
This course will equip participants with the tools and the confidence to undertake a PEA, and to apply it to policy and programmes in a wide range of contexts. It will cover ten sessions over a 15-week period, requiring about 4 hours of study per week (with a mix of self-study, online Study Group discussions and tasks and webinars, supported by an inter-active platform).
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.