Dear Friends and fellow travellers on all things TWP,
Welcome to the March 2023 edition of the TWP CoP Newsletter. This edition is once again filled with exciting content (or so we hope!). It has been a rather busy couple of months for the TWP CoP, so head to the “What we are working on” section of the Newsletter to get the latest updates on papers and events. In our featured interview, Gareth Williams from The Policy Practice speaks with Dr Suwaiba Said Ahmad and Sunny Kulutuye about politics in Nigeria and their experience applying thinking and working politically to different policy and programming problems they have each worked on in their country over the past several years. If you are curious about what Verena Fritz from the World Bank has been reading (we hear it is good — and timely), check out the book review she has written for us. 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 March 2023 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
What we are working on
They say that when it rains, it pours, and we have lots of exciting updates on TWP CoP publications and upcoming and recent events to share with you all.
New TWP CoP Publications
Reflections on Ten Years of USAID’s Experience Using Political Economy Analysis and TWP
By Derick Brinkerhoff and Marc Cassidy
We are thrilled to announce the publication of Derick Brinkerhoff and Marc Cassidy’s note reflecting on ten years of USAID’s experience using Political Economy Analysis and TWP, which builds on the event they organised as part of our ongoing TWP CoP Global Webinar Series in December 2022.
The Note synthesises the key points arising from the webinar, highlighting observations on the influence that TWP has had on programmatic design, implementation and impact. The paper also explores opportunities, challenges, and prospects for both thinking and working politically to become more deeply adopted and sustained in USAID-sponsored programming going forward.
Understanding Political Economy Analysis and Thinking and Working Politically
By Alan Whaites, Laure-Hélène Piron, Alina Rocha Menocal and Graham Teskey
Under Alan Whaites’ tireless stewardship, we have also published a Guide on political economy analysis and TWP that is adapted from work by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) with inputs from members of the TWP CoP. The guide aims to equip practitioners, within FCDO and beyond, to act in a politically informed manner, given that development objectives are politically complex, and entail engaging with counterparts’ political incentives and preferences. The guide summarises different types of tools – from very light-touch to more in-depth approaches – and provides advice on how development professionals can decide what is most appropriate in a given context, with illustrations based on the experiences of FCDO teams working on these issues.
Events from our Global Webinar Series
Southern Perspectives on international assistance to democracy and human rights: Is donor support fit for purpose?, Thursday 27 April 2023, 12:00 – 13:30pm BST
Join Kojo Asante, Director of Advocacy and Policy Engagement at the Ghana Center for Democratic Development, Caroline Gaita, Executive Director of Mzalendo Trust, Kenya, Sakuntala Kadirgamar, Executive Director of the Law and Society Trust, Sri Lanka, and Ayesha Khan, Senior Research Fellow on gender equality and social inclusion at ODI, in a roundtable discussion with Laure-Hélène Piron and Alina Rocha Menocal.
Democracy and human rights have been under increased pressure globally. According to the Varieties of Democracy Institute’s latest report, advances in democracy over the last 35 years have been wiped out in a context of growing autocratisation. International actors have sought to adjust how they support democracy and rights objectives, including through more politically informed approaches, as captured for example in the latest UK Independent Commission for Aid Impact report on the UK’s approach to democracy and human rights. This webinar aims to flip the global conversation. It starts from the perspective of democracy and human rights activists from the Global South, and asks what they consider to be good practice in terms of the provision of external support, what has undermined their efforts, and what can be done differently.
Roundtable: Alina Rocha Menocal in conversation with Heather Marquette, Laure-Hélène Piron, and Verena Fritz, Wednesday 15 March 2023
We hosted this Roundtable to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the TWP CoP. Together, Alina, Heather, Laure-Hélène and Verena discussed innovations around thinking in more politically aware ways and working differently as a result have been over the past decade, what insights and lessons have emerged for them along the way, where they see this agenda getting traction and making a difference, and where it may head next. In case you missed it, the recording is now available below and on the website!
Highlight feature
Conversation with Dr. Suwaiba Said Ahmad and Sunny Kulutuye on their experiences of applying thinking and working politically principles to their work in Nigeria
This interview, which Gareth Williams of The Policy Practice recorded with Dr. Suwaiba Ahmad and Sunny Kulutuye on the eve of Nigeria’s Presidential election in February 2023, discusses the importance of a thinking and working politically (TWP) approach for understanding Nigeria’s political economy context and designing and implementing effective development projects. Dr Suwaiba Said Ahmad is Associate Professor at Bayero University in Kano, Nigeria, and Director of its Centre for Gender Studies. She is a trained educationalist, gender advocate and consultant who has been working in the education sector in Nigeria for over 15 years. Sunny Kulutuye is a seasoned development consultant with over 25 years of experience working with governance reform programmes. Both are also Associates of The Policy Practice.
Click below to watch the recording:
Alternatively, you can listen to the podcast version here:
What we are reading
McCulloch, N. (2023) Ending Fossil Fuel Subsidies – the politics of saving the planet, Practical Action Publishing
By Verena Fritz, Senior Public Sector Specialist, Governance Global Practice - Public Institutions (please note that Verena is writing in her personal capacity, and the views presented here are her own)
Fossil fuel subsidies are big, bad -- and difficult to reform. The book by Neil McCulloch tackles the last aspect – how thinking and working in more politically informed ways can help to move these challenging reforms forward.
The first chapters of the book are dedicated to outlining the extent of the problem – the estimated size of fossil fuel subsidies (US$468bn to US$5.9trn if negative externalities are taken into account) and describing the different ways in which such subsidies are provided, as direct subsidies, as tax incentives, as well as government or state-owned enterprise debt — and even as export guarantees for companies constructing new fossil power plants abroad. The book also outlines how the international community – multilateral and bilateral donors as well as CSOs – have sought to engage on this issue. Given how difficult it is to tackle fossil fuel subsidy reforms, larger scale efforts have been relatively rare.
The heart of the book focuses on the political dimensions of fossil fuel subsidies – the political logics and incentives that lead to a ‘lock in’ of the subsidies and make them politically very costly to reform. As Chapter 4 of the book highlights, for example, both the rich (who typically consume most energy and benefit the most), as well as the poor (who fear a shock to fragile livelihoods) are likely to oppose an end to the subsidies, and they all have a vested interest in sustaining them. Despite how challenging reforms can be, chapters 6, 8, and 9 outline approaches to how change can happen in this space. McCulloch starts with real world country experiences from Iran, India, and Indonesia (Chapter 6), and then draws wider lessons from there. One key recommendation, which resonates with TWP principles, is that there should be less prescribing of what policymakers ‘should’ do, and a greater focus on what policymakers are likely to do, and how reforms could become more attractive, feasible, and accepted on that basis. Communication as well as credible compensation are important elements in the latter – including progress on capturing who the poor are, and in rolling out cash transfers to make compensation more achievable than it has been in the past. Other elements of the proposed strategy include ‘being opaque’ and ‘attack!’ when it comes to vested interests – while these could have benefited from some further illustration through relevant examples.
The book uses non-technical, accessible language to set out the issues and outline its proposed approaches – making it an easy read. Looking ahead, given the growing attention not just to fossil fuel subsidy reforms but to the wider need for rapid energy transitions and leap-frogging to new types of power sectors, the author has a couple of adjacent policy areas ready to be tackled from a political economy perspective.
Bulletin Board
Sumaya Saluja, Programme Manager for The Asia Foundation’s Regional Governance Team, asks:
‘TWP fellow travellers based in or with roots in Asia, we’re gathering thoughts and recommendations for future convenings in Asia. We’re especially interested in expanding the space to a larger group of Asian development practitioners and thinkers. If you have any ideas or recommendations on who we could reach out to or what kinds of conversations would be useful, please reach out to us at governance@asiafoundation.org.’
If you would like to submit anything for a future bulletin, please email: a.rochamenocal@bham.ac.uk.
Recent Publications
Books, Journals and Articles
Cheeseman, N., and Dodsworth, S. (2023) ‘Defending Civic Space: When are Campaigns against Repressive Laws Successful?’, The Journal of Development Studies.
Many civil society organizations (CSOs) are fighting for survival as governments introduce legislation to curtail their activities. This article examines how domestic civil society campaigns can persuade parliamentarians to reject ‘anti-CSO’ legislation. Employing pairwise comparisons in two regions, East Africa and Central Asia, as well as case studies of successful (Kenya and Kyrgyzstan) and less successful (Uganda and Kazakhstan) CSO campaigns against repressive legislation, the authors find that traditional structural explanations – most notably the degree of international linkage and leverage and the quality of democracy – play an important role in creating greater opportunities for domestic actors. CSOs also need to take advantage of the more conducive environment to defend democracy. Doing so is more likely when campaigns are pre-emptive and sustained; frame issues in a manner that resonates with the electoral incentives facing parliamentarians; coordinate with influential international actors; and engage pragmatically with both the informal political rules that shape legislators’ behaviour and the formal procedural ‘mechanics’ of legislatures.
Golden, M., and Nazrullaeva, E. (2023) The Puzzle of Clientelism; Political Discretion and Elections Around the World, Cambrideg: Cambridge University Press.
This book presents newly-collected cross-national data on re-election rates of lower house national legislators from almost 100 democracies around the world. Somewhat counter-intuitively, re-election rates are lower in countries where clientelism and vote buying are high, and vice versa. Drawing on theory developed to study lobbying, the authors explain why politicians continue clientelist activities even if these they do not secure re-election. Finally, the authors suggests that clientelism evolves with economic development, and it assumes new forms in highly developed democracies rather than disappear.
Oakley, A. A., and Krueger, K., eds. (2022) ‘Special Issue: Innovations in Complexity Responsiveness: Advances in Democracy, Human Rights and Governance Program Evaluation’, New Directions for Evaluation, 2022(176).
This issue of New Directions for Evaluation presents practical approaches to incorporating complexity-responsiveness into programme monitoring, evaluation, and learning, drawing on lessons from the democracy, human rights, and governance (DRG) sector and featuring a wide range of global contributors. The issue is organized into three sections, including a sectoral overview, conceptual considerations, and practical considerations for undertaking complexity-responsive evaluations.
Toral, G. (2023) ‘How Patronage Delivers: Political Appointments, Bureaucratic Accountability, and Service Delivery in Brazil’, American Journal of Political Science.
In this article, Toral argues that, contrary to popular opinion, in certain conditions, political appointments can enhance bureaucratic accountability and effectiveness for public service delivery. According to the author, this is because patronage provides connections between bureaucrats and politicians, and thereby grants access to material and nonmaterial resources, enhances monitoring, facilitates the application of sanctions and rewards, aligns priorities and incentives, and increases mutual trust.
van Wessel, M., Kontinen, T., Bawole, J. M., (2023) Reimagining Civil Society Collaborations in Development, London: Routledge.
While there is much discussion of localisation, decolonisation, and ‘shifting power’ in civil society collaborations in development, the debate thus far has centred on the aid system. This book directs attention to CSOs as drivers of development in various contexts in the ‘Global South’. It seeks to do so from five complementary angles: (1) Southern CSOs reclaiming the lead, (2) displacement of the North–South dyad, (3) Southern-centred questions, (4) new roles for Northern actors, and (5) new starting points for collaboration. The book suggests that INGOs, Northern CSOs, and their donors should follow Southern CSOs’ leads, recognising their locally grounded perspectives, agendas, resources, capacities, and ways of working. Based on 19 empirical chapters, the book also offers an agenda for further research, design, and experimentation.
Reports, Briefs and Working Papers
Barnes, K., and Lonsdale, J. (2023) ‘Celebrating Adaptive Delivery: A View from the Frontline in Myanmar’, IDS Working Paper 586, Brighton: Institute of Development Studies.
This paper reflects on the difference between adaptive management and adaptive delivery, and how this interacts with risk and aid accountability, particularly in contexts of fragility. Drawing on examples from Oxfam’s work in Myanmar and the authors’ personal insights in relation to delivering programming across humanitarian, peace-building, and development, they suggest that in complex, conflict-affected, and highly political environments, adaptive delivery already happens far more regularly than is currently recognised, as a matter of necessity. However, such adaptation often happens despite the system, not because of it, and is therefore often hidden and carried out ‘under the radar’ rather than celebrated as a success in difficult environments. This paper makes tangible recommendations on steps that donors, international non-governmental organisations, local staff, and partners could take to encourage and recognise adaptability in programme delivery in fragile contexts more openly and explicitly.
Cheeseman, N., and Desrosiers, M. (2023) How (not) to engage with authoritarian states, Westminster Foundation for Democracy.
This report examines how states that are committed to strengthening democracy engage with authoritarian states – and how this can strengthen authoritarianism. It outlines how pro-democracy governments can better interact with authoritarian states to avoid doing democratic harm and ultimately strengthen democracy around the world.
Gebremedhin, A. (2023) ‘Moving on Up: Multilevel Monitoring and Advocacy for Health Rights’, Accountability Working Paper Number 12, Accountability Research Centre.
International development practitioners, particularly in civil society, in efforts to hold governments—from the national to the local—often use multilevel approaches to monitoring and advocacy to account for policy implementation. However, many scholars in the social accountability field have not fully understood or identified such approaches as of yet. This evidence review seeks to address this gap through a cross-case comparison of multilevel approaches in ten health rights programs across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The findings highlight the importance of explicitly identifying multilevel tactics for monitoring and advocacy; theorising the process by which unaddressed claims can be addressed, particularly beyond the local level; emphasising the importance of the ‘middle’ and ensuring regional and provincial decision-making is leveraged; and linking vertical integration with opportunities for horizontal organising.
Nixon, N., Yates, P., Saluja, S., Lae Yi, S., Lucas, M., and Bain, K. (2023) On the Right Track: Reflections on Coalition-Building Initiatives Across The Asia Foundation, The Asia Foundation.
This publication examine the use of coalition-building approaches that are inherently adaptive in six case studies: policy and institutional reforms in the Philippines; subnational governance reforms in Nepal and Sri Lanka; education reforms in Thailand; and private sector development in Bangladesh and Timor-Leste. The authors argue that politically smart adaptation has enabled practitioners to put people, relationships, and working partnerships at the centre of development practice, where sustained cooperation over the long term can be prioritised over a short-termist focus on outputs and deliverables.
Woodhill, J. and Millican, J. (2023) Systems Thinking and Practice: A guide to concepts, principles and tools for FCDO and partners, K4D, Brighton: Institute of Development Studies.
This guide is a basic reference on systems thinking and practice developed for FCDO and partners but of use to others well beyond. The guide is an output of the K4D, which facilitated a Learning Journey on Systems Thinking and Practice with FCDO staff during 2021 and 2022. The guide offers a common language and shared framing of systems thinking. It explores what this implies for working practices, business processes and leadership; and provides links to additional resources and tools on systems thinking. For a review of the guide, see Green, D. (2023) ‘Great New Guide to “Systems Thinking and Practice”’, From Poverty to Power, February 8.
Blogs, Podcasts and other opinion pieces
Emmanuel, R. (2023) ‘Hope for better jobs eclipses religious ideology as main driver of recruitment to violent extremist groups in Sub-Saharan Africa’, UNDP blogs, 7 February.
This blog summarises new findings from a UNDP report which challenges traditional assumptions about what drives people to violent extremism. It highlights the urgent need to move away from security-driven responses to development-based approaches focused on prevention.
Green, D. (2023) ‘Book Review: The Systems Work of Social Change’, From Poverty to Power, February 9.
In this review of Cynthia Rayner and Francois Bonnici’s book ‘The Systems Work of Social Change: How to Harness Connection, Context, and Power to Cultivate Deep and Enduring Change’, Duncan highlights the authors’ call for a rethink about how to foster change based on the recognition that we live in a world of messy, constantly shifting complex systems and ‘wicked problems’. Rayner and Binnici offer practical pathways for ‘reimagining the future’, with chapters on systems-compatible measurement for learning, funding for partnership and concluding with ‘Principles and Practices in Action’ that according to Duncan are ‘excellent’.
Hamladji, N., and Rizk, S. (2023) ‘The dynamics of violent extremism in sub-Saharan Africa’, UNDP Blogs, February 13.
Following up from Emmanuel’s blog (see above), this blog summarises UNDP research into how and why individuals join violent extremist groups. Factors include violent groups stepping in to fill the void left by (largely absent) local government in the delivery of basic services, and gaining a foothold over land and water. The blog summarises common denominators emerging from UNDP research that may be useful to inform more relevant and coherent responses anchored in a human centred and ‘development first’ approach.
Heliso, D. (2023) ‘Why Foreign Aid is not Changing Africa and What Can be Done’, Religion Unplugged, February 10.
From the starting point that over the past few decades, aid has failed to ‘transform Africa’, this blog argues that the principles and practices that underlie aid need to be recalibrated to shift focus toward human development, entrepreneurship, trade and investment. The author also posits that there must be a roadmap toward a point where foreign aid is no longer necessary. In the meantime, aid needs to place the interests of its recipients at the centre, and embrace contextually relevant strategies and frameworks.
Jacobstein, D. (2023) ‘USAID’s Local Capacity Strengthening Policy: Creating More “Coffee Breaks”’, USAID, February 14.
This is the first in a series of blogs about how USAID’s programming will be affected by the Agency’s first-ever Local Capacity Strengthening Policy. David argues that local capacity strengthening is about USAID learning how to support local partners and actors, including among other things through more streamlined reporting. The blog also highlights the importance of understanding and identifying blind spots and finding opportunities to learn and adapt on the ground.
Levy, B. (2023) ‘How context and reform align (or misalign): New evidence from the education sector’, Working with the grain: integrating governance and growth, January 30.
The recognition that ‘context matters’ for development policymaking and implementation has become commonplace, almost to the point of cliché – but going beyond the general principle to something practically useful continues to be a challenge. This post draws on a set of ambitious new case studies on the politics of policymaking in education to illustrate the practical potential of an approach that takes seriously the ways in which power and institutions shape context, and thus reform opportunities and constraints. (A companion post lays out the approach’s theoretical underpinnings.)
Mambon, K. (2023) ‘Rethinking perceptions of spousal violence in PNG’, DevPolicyBlog, Development Policy Centre, February 22.
This blog examines four common perceptions about spousal violence in PNG using the last PNG Demographic and Health Survey. Contrary to common perception, the blog indicates that in PNG, the prevalence of spousal violence increases with education level, and household wealth, and is also more likely to occur in urban centres. Moreover, it finds that a considerable number of women in PNG are also perpetrators of spousal violence.
Millier, C., and Wilson, R. (2023) ‘A Global Citizens’ Assembly on the Climate and Ecological Crisis’, Carnegie Europe, February 14.
The 2021 Global Assembly was an attempt to create a citizen-led governance chamber that connected institutions, civil society, and grassroots communities. It was also an effort to provide the blueprint for a new piece of global governance infrastructure, owned and led by a representative group of the world’s citizens, over whom no one could have undue influence. This article looks at whether the global assembly had impact, and whether it can help engage global citizens in climate change decisions on a longer-term basis.
Nicaise, G., Jackson, D., and Jenkins, M. (2023) ‘Integrity based approaches: combining rewards and sanctions works best’, CMI / U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, February 6.
This blog summarises a review looking at the effectiveness of ‘integrity interventions’ in anti-corruption. The authors find that ethical leadership, behavioural nudging and anti-corruption messaging can help to reduce corruption – in certain settings. These ‘integrity interventions’ can complement direct anti-corruption policies, or they can be integrated into existing frameworks, combining carrots and sticks.
Redfern, C. (2023) ‘One year on, Ukraine exposes the limits of well-funded international aid’, The New Humanitarian, February 14.
Analysing the humanitarian response to the invasion of Ukraine, this article highlights the limits of well-funded international aid. Local responses are often undermined or lack adequate support as a result of donor pressures and logistical challenges.
Wilén, N. (2023) ‘What space for women in African peace agreements?’, Democracy in Africa, February 2.
How are women, their roles and functions imagined in future African post-conflict societies? What are the spaces and places that women occupy in African peace agreements? This blog summarises research examining how women have engaged in 130 peace agreements signed in Africa from 1990 to 2019. The research highlights four categories reflecting different ways in which women have been portrayed or participated: as vulnerable victims, moral peacebuilders, counting women, and human rights (and women’s rights).
Events
Recent Events:
7 February: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to Reduce Crime and Violence: Evidence on Long-Term Effects from Liberia, Innovations for Poverty Action
15 March: Roundtable: Alina Rocha Menocal in Conversation with Heather Marquette, Laure-Hélène Piron and Verena Fritz, TWP CoP
21 March: How to make AI systems more just with Hilary Pennington and Dr. Timnit Gebru, Ford Foundation
Upcoming Events:
April 5: Event to share findings from ICAI’s latest review of FCDO’s support to democracy and human, ODI. If you are interested to join, please email here.
April 12: Webinar on Neil McCulloch's new book - "Ending Fossil Fuel Subsidies: the politics of saving the planet", The Policy Practice.
April 12: A manifesto for African regionalism - and how to support it, ECDPM, United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies and the Trade Law Centre.
April 26-27: Global Digital Development Forum, USAID, Chemonics, IBM, Deloitte, DAI, Google, RTI International, Save the Children, and TechChange.
Training, Learning Opportunities and other Resources
The Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment is running two courses in New York City. One on ‘Executive Training on Sustainable Investments in Agriculture’, from May 2-12 2023, online. Apply by April 7. The other, on ‘Executive Training on Extractive Industries and Sustainable Development’, from 5-16 June 2023 in New York. Apply by March 31.
The 2023 Collaborating, Learning and Adapting (CLA) Case Competition opens for submissions on Monday, May 15th. All USAID and implementing partners are encouraged to participate by sharing how strategic collaboration, continuous learning, and adaptive management have supported their work. There is an informational webinar on Thursday, April 6th at 8 a.m. EDT (join via this Zoom link) to find out more. The CLA Case Competition is an opportunity to showcase what's been working well, less well, and lessons learned along the way. All eligible cases will be published on Learning Lab, and winners and finalists will be featured in blog posts and spotlighted on social media.
If you are interested in sharpening your virtual facilitation skills, check out the Breakthrough Facilitation online course, with the enrollment for its April 18-May 18 cohort now open.
Last but not least, don’t forget that the TWP Community Podcast is now available on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Google Podcasts, or you can search for us through your usual podcast directory/app. Please do subscribe and share — and email Alina at a.rochamenocal@bham.ac.uk if you have ideas for future topics the podcasts can cover, or if you would like to feature in an upcoming episode.
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