TWP CoP December 2023-January 2024 Newsletter
Bringing you the latest news and updates on all things TWP!
Dear Friends and fellow travellers on all things TWP,
The TWP CoP Newsletter is back — with a vengeance! Welcome to our December 2023-January 2024 edition, which is filled with lots of exciting content to catch up on since our last Newsletter back in March. In our featured interview, Nicola Nixon, Sumaya Saluja and Mohammad Sadat Sadruddin Shibli from The Asia Foundation talk about coalition-building and why coalitions are so important to effective development programming. Drawing on examples of coalition-building efforts that TAF has supported over the years, Nicola, Sumaya, and Shibli highlight the importance of long-term relationship-building among actors. If you are curious about what colleagues in the TWP space have been up to, head to the “What we are working on” section of the Newsletter and take a look Leila Kazemi’s paper on the politics of the extractive industries sector. In that section you will also find the recording and write-up of an event that the TWP CoP D.C. Working Group organised recently in collaboration with other partners on locally-led approaches to TWP featuring case studies from Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Mali. To hear about what Marco Mezzera has been reading, check out the review he has written for us on FAO’s efforts to integrate a political economy lens into their work. Last but not least, and as always, we bring you the latest publications, events and resources of interest from a TWP perspective.
If there is anything you would like to share with us, including items for future newsletters, please get in touch by email at: info@twpcommunity.org. And please share this newsletter with others who might be interested too, and subscribe if you haven’t already!
As a reminder, please open the newsletter directly on your browser (click on the ‘TWP CoP December 2023-January 2024 Newsletter’ header, at the top of this page) so that you can get full access to all the content.
With all best wishes,
Alina & Graham
Highlight feature
Alina chats with Dr Nicola Nixon, The Asia Foundation’s Senior Director of Governance, Sumaya Saluja, Program Manager for the Regional Governance Team, and Mohammad Sadat Sadruddin Shibli, Director of the Bangladesh office, about coalition-building initiatives.
Nicola has over 20 years of experience in international development, and she has worked for organisations including the Australia Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade and UNDP. She is also a member of the TWP CoP Steering Committee.
Sumaya supports governance programming across TAF to incorporate and learn from thinking and working politically approaches to pursue reform. Over the past decade, she’s led programmes and policy-directed research on social accountability, urban governance, and adolescent health in South and South East Asia.
Shibli has two decades of experience leading governance programmes on improving business climate and working conditions, countering extremism, and building public-private networks. Among other things, he has played an instrumental role in promoting decent work and acceptable working conditions in the tannery sector in Bangladesh.
In this interview, the team discusses TAF’s recently published On the Right Tack: Reflections on Coalition-Building Initiatives Across The Asia Foundation. Featuring case studies from Bangladesh, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Timor-Leste, the study explores how different actors who would normally not have much interaction — whether in government, civil society or the private sector — have come together in a goal-oriented way. The paper also highlights commonalities across different coalition-building efforts, which should hopefully contribute to the conversation on what works well, less well and why, and what implications might be for development practice.
Click below to watch the recording:
Alternatively, you can listen to the podcast version here:
What we are working on
New TWP CoP Publication
We are thrilled to announce the publication of Leila Kazemi’s paper on Thinking and Working Politically on the Governance of Extractive Industries. Leila is a senior fellow at the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI). This reflection piece is based on a CCSI project on the Politics of Extractive Industries that sought to support greater integration of a political lens into efforts to improve the governance of extractive industries. Few in a field routinely confronting governance challenges such as corruption, state capture, and lack of accountability rooted in powerful vested interests would dispute that ‘politics matter'. However, there has been less clarity on how it is that politics matter – and what can be done in response. These were the key issues that the Politics of Extractive Industries project sought to address. This piece focuses on the process of trying to socialise thinking and working politically principles in a particular subfield of stakeholders, rather than on the substantive outputs of that project as such.
Webinar on ‘Locally Led Approaches to Thinking and Working Politically: Practical Applications’
Watch here. This webinar is also available in French and Spanish.
On November 16, 2023, the D.C. Working Group of the Thinking and Working Politically (TWP) Community of Practice hosted a webinar in collaboration with Pact, RTI International, Creative Associates, CARE, and Adapt Consulting LLC, highlighting how local organisations are working in innovative ways using TWP-like approaches. The webinar featured case studies from Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Mali. These case studies are part of a new series, Profiles in Locally Led Approaches to Thinking and Working Politically, that the TWP CoP DC Group has launched. All case studies in the series are available on the global TWP CoP webpage and can be accessed following the links below:
During the webinar, local civil society leaders Juliet Gómez Osorio (from Colectiva Justicia Mujer in Colombia), Abdou Kola Bocoum (from Think Peace Sahel in Mali), and Claudine Tsongo (from Dynamique des Femmes Juristes in the DRC ) presented the methods they use to navigate complex socio-political dynamics in their respective countries to achieve tangible outcomes. The four case studies in the series explain these approaches in more detail, including how they help tackle especially sensitive issues like GBV and violent extremism and inform the development of interventions that are contextually viable, technically sound, and politically savvy.
Laura Pavlovic, Deputy Assistant Administrator for USAID’s newly established Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (DRG), provided opening remarks. She highlighted how USAID is adapting its DRG policies and programs to foster more locally led, inclusive, context-aware interventions across sectors and geographies, and how global networks like the TWP CoP help incentivise development practitioners to rethink their relationships with local actors.
Building on their recent TWP CoP paper on Reflections on Ten Years of USAID’s Experience with Political Economy Analysis and Thinking and Working Politically, Derick Brinkerhoff, Distinguished Fellow Emeritus, RTI International, and Marc Cassidy, President & Chief Political Economist, Adapt Consulting LLC, summarised how TWP-like efforts can inform how international and local implementing partners get greater traction on the localisation agenda.
To explore themes that emerged from the case studies, Mason Ingram, Vice President of Governance, Pact, facilitated a panel discussion with Juliet, Abdou and Claudine. The discussion focused on how TWP-like approaches used in each context catalysed the convening power and influence of networks and enabled adaptive management. Alina Rocha Menocal, Director of the TWP Community of Practice, provided closing remarks. Alina highlighted three takeaways from the panel discussion. She emphasized the importance for international actors to avoid imposing change from the outside. Instead, they should seek to work with greater nuance where levers or pressure points for reform are coming from the local level, and what this implies for how they can work with different grains to support progressive change. Based on the experiences shared by Juliet, Abdou and Claudine, Alina also highlighted why it is crucial for donors to think about change in a more fluid and holistic manner to avoid working in silos.
What we are reading
Bojić, D., Clark, M. and Urban, K. (2022) Focus on governance for more effective policy and technical support: Governance and policy support framework paper. Rome: FAO.
By Marco Mezzera
Marco is a governance expert with 25 years of experience working with both bilateral and multilateral organisations on conflict resolution, peacebuilding, and the political economy of development (please note that Marco is writing in his personal capacity, and the views represented here are his own).
Spurred by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’s call for transformative change, in 2013 FAO started on a course to integrate political economy and governance analysis in its policy and technical work. These efforts to promote a political economy perspective in the organisation’s work contributed a few years later to the creation of a Governance and Policy Support Unit.
The framework paper published in 2022 builds on a legacy of accumulated knowledge and experience stemming from FAO work at country, regional and global levels, while also drawing on academic literature as well as the experience of other international organizations and agencies.
This publication makes a meaningful contribution to ongoing research and debates on the centrality of politics and power in shaping development prospects, even in sectors like food security and nutrition which have traditionally been perceived as highly technical.
Focus on governance for more effective policy and technical support dedicates its first half to a detailed elaboration of the concept of governance and its relevance for FAO’s work. It does so by presenting the key approaches that have influenced thinking about governance over the past three decades. It then examines how understandings of the concept of governance and its use have evolved in FAO over the past two decades. The concluding part of this first section outlines three principles for how governance analysis for agrifood systems transformation should be approached. Analysis should:
1) Serve as a means for understanding the context and not simply another technique for justifying a technical intervention;
2) Be problem-focused and contribute to collective learning and decision-making processes;
3) Be used to help inform policies that are not only technically viable but also politically feasible.
The more original part of the paper, however, starts with chapter III, where a basic framework for governance analysis is laid out. The framework is innovative because it puts forward four interrelated phases without turning their execution into a mechanical exercise. The emphasis of the framework is in suggesting the kind of analysis that should be carried out to arrive at a proper understating of the context (or problem) in which a technical intervention or project are meant to take place. It also calls for identifying those stakeholders that should be part of any such collective understanding and intervention process. Finally, the framework does not stop with the analysis. Its additional value resides in a fourth phase, where all the knowledge acquired through the first three phases of the analysis can be applied to concrete and collective courses of action.
The paper seeks to convince its readers of the importance of taking a political economy perspective when approaching work related to food and agriculture, which tends to be perceived as almost purely technical. The paper is not prescriptive, however, and it does not impose the use a specific methodology. The paper clarifies that there is a wide variety of guidance and available frameworks out there that can be used to carry out the analysis recommended in the different phases of the framework.
Its publication ushers in a new phase of political economy awareness in one of the most technical UN agencies. But this is just the beginning. A profound and strategic work of sensitisation and accompaniment needs to continue to make sure that such an approach gets properly embedded in FAO’s standard operational modalities.
Bulletin Board
USAID’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Governance (DRG) is excited to announce their inaugural Thinking and Working Politically (TWP) Case Competition. Submissions close January 26, 2023, at 5:00 PM ET.
This Case Competition seeks to capture real-life case studies of USAID staff and implementing partners using a TWP approach for organisational learning and improved development outcomes.
The TWP Case Competition will build an evidence base of approaches of USAID and implementing partners who are thinking and working politically in their respective strategies, programmes, or activities. The Competition is looking for stories that showcase innovation and expertise, and might help to move the needle on strategic collaboration, continuous learning, and adaptive management.
ODI and The Policy Practice regularly run a Political Economy Analysis in Action online training course, which covers adaptive management and other ways to think and work politically. The next course starts in February 2024. The deadline to apply is 15 January 2023.
Recent Publications
Academic books, Journals, and Articles
Biekart, K., Kontinen, T. and Millestine, M., eds. (2023) Civil Society Responses to Changing Civic Spaces. Palgrave Macmillan (open access)
This open access book contributes to debates about the role of civil society in shrinking civic spaces, rising authoritarianism and right-wing populism, conflicts, fragile states, and the global COVID-19 pandemic. This is one of the first books to address the implications of changing civic spaces for civil society organisations worldwide. It offers an overview of how social movements and civil society groups in very different settings are responding to state-imposed restrictions on basic civic freedoms. It also contributes to a better understanding of the conceptualisations and practices of civil society.
Popovic, S. and Parks, S. (2023) ‘How Thai Activists Outsmarted the Generals’. Journal of Democracy, Online Exclusive.
This article looks at the recent democratic elections in Thailand, where opposition parties received a large majority of the votes. Through unification, regrouping, bypassing censorship, and joining forces with civil society and young people, the opposition dealt an important blow to the military junta.
Roelofs, P. (2023) Good Governance in Nigeria: Rethinking Accountability and Transparency in the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (not open access)
Drawing on original fieldwork in Nigeria, this book argues for a re-conceptualisation of good governance. Contributing to debates around technocracy, populism, and the survival of democracy in a context of inequality and mistrust, the author offers a novel account of what it means for leaders to be accountable and transparent. Centred on the rise of the 'Lagos Model' in the Yoruba south-west, this book places the voices of roadside traders and small-time market leaders alongside those of local government officials, political godfathers and technocrats. In doing so, Roelofs challenges long-held assumptions of international actors that African political systems are inherently dysfunctional, and suggests that politics in Nigeria offers much to learn about good governance.
Reports, Briefs, Working Papers and other Policy Publications
Freeman, M. (2023) ‘First Principles: The Need for Greater Consensus on the Fundamentals of Polarisation’. IFIT Discussion Paper. Barcelona: IFIT.
This paper looks at the term ‘polarisation’ and tries to move towards a more shared baseline understanding of the topic. It identifies a series of ambiguities and proposes a definition that should help build consensus on the minimum characteristics of polarisation to work towards more sustained approaches on how to tackle it.
International IDEA (2023) The Global State of Democracy 2023 - the new checks and balances. Stockholm: International IDEA.
This edition of International IDEA’s annual flagship publication on the global state of democracy. It focuses on the role of countervailing institutions in preventing the erosion of democratic governance. The term goes beyond the traditional understanding of ‘checks and balances’ to encompass those governmental and non-governmental organisations and movements that are intended to keep power in check and hold decision-makers to account.
Izdebski, K., Turashvili, and T., Harutyunyan, H.; Kerly, B. (ed.) (2023) The Digitalization of Democracy: How Technology is Changing Government Accountability. National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and International Forum for Democratic Studies.
This collection of essays offers new perspectives on the complex ways in which digitalisation is transforming state accountability. Surveying the risks that automation presents for democratic norms, the volume identifies principles and practices that can help state and civil society actors work together to ensure that the integration of next-generation technologies into government processes works in democracy’s favour.
James, T. S., Clark, A. and Asplund, E, eds. Elections during Emergencies and Crises. Stockholm: International IDEA.
Running elections during times of crisis poses distinct challenges for democracies all over the world. This report analyses the various paths that some countries took during their elections in the context of Covid 19, and explores how election administrators and workers, legislators and judges sought to strike a careful balance between maintaining the integrity of elections and allowing as many citizens as possible to vote safely.
Knutsen, C. H., Marquardt, K. L., Seim, B., Coppedge, M., Edgell, A., Medzihorsky, J. Pemstien, D., Teorell, J., Gerring, J. and Lindberg, S. I. (2023) Conceptual and Measurement Issues in Assessing Democratic Backsliding. Gothenburg: V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg.
This paper addresses three interrelated questions. First, how strong is the evidence that democracy has declined globally over the last decade? Second, how can (changes in) democracy best be measured? Third, given that much of the recent evidence for global backsliding comes from measurement projects that rely on expert ratings, is there evidence that experts have become harder judges of democratic quality in recent years?
Miller, J. (2023) Civil Servants, Social Norms, and Corruption: What do we know? What do we do? Calgary: Besa Global.
This literature review explores what is known about social norms that drive
corrupt practices among civil servants in corrupt contexts and how
such norms can be addressed. The review presents findings relevant to practitioners and policymakers who are working on anti-corruption efforts in public sector reform and the provision of public goods and services.
Nord, M (2023) Democracy under Threat: Protecting Democracy in Times of Autocratization. May 18 Glocal Issue Monitoring Report Vol. 4.
With World Democracy Day on 15 September 2023, this report gives perspective and points of reflection for democracy practitioners and civil society activists. Nord explores the impact of democratic backsliding on the current state of global democracy. It also suggests what might be done to protect democracy in a context of growing autocratisation.
Okechukwu, N. (2023) ‘The fragility of the African governance agenda: A crisis of legitimacy’. Briefing note No.171. ECDPM, The Charter Project Africa, and EU.
This note argues that recent coups d’état have been enabled by gaps in the existing normative framework, waning political consensus against unconstitutional changes of government, and an overemphasis on security at the expense of governance. The author argues that these factors have led to a crisis of legitimacy and governance in a number of countries in Africa. The note reviews each of these points in turn and explores what, if anything, the African Union and its international partners could do to reverse this trend.
Rocha Menocal, A., and Piron, L. H. (2023) ‘Applied Political Economy Analysis Learning Review for the Human Rights Support Mechanism’. Washington, DC: Pact.
In this learning review commissioned by Pact, the authors analyse the uptake of political economy analysis and TWP in democracy support and human rights projects supported by USAID’s Human Rights Support Mechanism (HRSM). The review explores (i) how applied political economy analysis (APEA) has been used to inform programme decisions and their implementation; (ii) how insights from APEA have influenced programme achievements; and (iii) what factors have enabled and constrained the uptake of APEA and its impacts on improved programming. The review concludes with a series of lessons and considerations for greater uptake. Key findings and insights can also be found in an accompanying blog and webinar.
Sanga, K., Johansson-Fua, S., Reynolds, M., Fa’avae, D., Robyns, R., Rohoana, G., Hiele, G., Jim, D., Case, L. J., and Malachi, D. (2023) ‘Leadership negotiation in Oceania: The context behind the context’. Development Leadership Programme. Birmingham: University of Birmingham.
This paper draws on research on school leadership in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands. It asks how school leaders negotiate their leadership within the different domains of community influence (education, church, and kastom), with implications for how school leadership needs to be understood in education programming.
Shipra, S., Brown, T., Wingfield, T., Hartel, L., Oduor, Z., Bangaman, C. A., and Beyer, A., (2023) The Importance of Political Economy Analysis for Strengthening Health Commodity Supply Chains: A Primer. The Local Health System Sustainability Project (LHSS), USAID Integrated Health Systems IDIQ. Rockville, MD: Abt Associates.
This primer is designed to help supply chain practitioners in governments, the private sector, donor agencies, and implementing partners understand the value of political economy analysis (PEA) and how it can help improve outcomes when implementing supply chain interventions and reforms. It also discusses when and how you can apply PEA in your supply chain work, and provides some practical tips and considerations.
Whaites, A. (2023) Understanding institutional analysis. London: FCDO.
This guide on institutional analysis and how to undertake it is the second in an FCDO series on understanding governance tools (following the earlier publication on PEA, in collaboration with the TWP CoP), and should be followed by a third guide (on the politics of public sector reform). The approaches in this guide were developed by UK government staff over a number of years, primarily for use with public sector bodies (e.g. government departments). Overall, the aim is for rigour with flexibility. The advice offered in the guide provides a foundation of principles that can inform adaptation, rather than providing a rigid roadmap.
Blogs, Podcasts and other opinion pieces
Boeira, L., Patino-Lugo, D., Simeon, D. T., Hunte, S., Kuhn-Barrientos, L., Osorio-Calderon, V., Osorio, D., Menescal, B. and Dejonghe, F. (2023) ‘Institutionalizing evidence-informed policy-making in Latin America and the Caribbean’. Integration and Implementation Insights blog (9 May).
This article provides a brief history of key initiatives to institutionalise evidence-informed policy-making mechanisms in Latin America and the Caribbean. Despite challenges, the article argues that policymaking can be informed by evidence. When this happens, it tends to be ‘under the radar’, as a result of willpower, creativity and engagement.
Bretton Goods podcast - Ep.46: Growth teams with Kartik Akileswaran. Growth Teams is an initiative which helps build state capacity for economic growth in developing countries.
In Pursuit of development Podcast with Dan Banik - Political Constraints in Growth and Development: Moving beyond talking about them to actually tackling them. This episode of the Podcast showcases Peter Evans, a governance specialist, and previous Team Leader of the Governance, Conflict, Inclusion and Humanitarian Research Team at FCDO. Peter argues that the supply of practical and accessible political economy research is limited because it tends to be shaped more by researchers' interests and fund availability than by the needs of policymakers or practitioners.
Mosqueira, E. and Alesandro, M. (2023) State capacities and climate change: the public management of complex problems. IDB blogs (1 September).
While education and health policies are typically managed by one Ministry or agency, climate change often involves a large group of them. This blog argues that this is because of the complex nature of climate change and requires combined expertise and coordinated action.
Events
Past Events:
19 April 2023: How Can Thinking and Working Politically Strengthen Your Health Commodity Supply Chain? This Webinar was organised by USAID Local Health System Sustainability Project (LHSS), with presenters Shipra Srihari and Tom Brown from Abt Associates.
2 May 2023: Retooling development aid for the 21st century - the importance of budget support. In this event hosted by the Economic Research Forum, authors Shahrokh Fardoust and Stefan G. Koeberle highlighted the need to revisit the role of budget support in delivering aid in an uncertain world and changing international financial architecture.
3 May: How ChatGPT could change how you work in government. This workshop from apolitical explored how AI tools can be used in government, and how ChatGPT could affect future roles in the public service.
24 May: Reinvigorating the Evidence Agenda at Development Organizations. Co-hosted by CGD and 3ie, this webinar highlighted lessons on how to integrate data and evidence into routine decision-making, drawing on concrete examples of using evidence to enhance the impact of public and aid resources.
3 October: The Unintended Effects of Foreign Aid: Should Donors avoid, accept or act on them? This event organised by ODI explored the range of unintended effects that can arise in aid relations and initiatives and how donors might tackle them.
Upcoming Events:
5-7 December: 2023 Australasian AID Conference (AAC2023), in partnership with The Asia Foundation. An in-person event with livestreaming via YouTube. The aim of AAC2023 is to bring together researchers from across Australia, the Pacific, Asia and beyond who are working on aid and international development policy to share insights, promote collaboration, and support development within the research community.
7 December: How the law can unite and act to deliver the UN SDGs. This event is held as part of COP 28 in Dubai, where Advocates for International Development (A4ID), in collaboration with international firms CMS, Clifford Chance, Kirkland & Ellis and Linklaters, have organised two panel discussions on how the legal profession can support the achievement of the UN SDGs, especially in relation to a just energy transition.
Other Resources
Pact have released an updated suite of tools for practitioners designing and conducting Applied Political Economy Analysis (APEA) exercises - New Pact guidance to help development practitioners make more informed, politically smart decisions. These tools are intended to demystify APEA so that project teams can own and lead the process rather than relying on outside resources.
IDS have published a list on Essential development books and podcasts for the summer. The list is aimed at students who are about to start their postgraduate degree in international development, but it should prove useful to anyone interested in the subject. It covers a range of themes ranging from colonial rule; economics; and science and wisdom.
Since it was established in 2005, Global Integrity has been working on anti-corruption efforts intended to improve public service delivery outcomes by producing cutting-edge research, strengthening local responses, and building an extensive global network of governance reformers. As the initiative draws to a close, Global Integrity has compiled a pack - Learning with Integrity: The Global Integrity Learning Journey - which showcases their work over the last 20 years and provides links to their reports and other resources.
Tell us what you think…we want to hear from you!
Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us for your suggestions and ideas for sections of our newsletter. You can do this via:
- Email: info@twpcommunity.org
- Twitter: @TWP_Community
- Or by leaving a comment down below