There is no doubt that the MDG progress report is mixed. The SDG campaign therefore needs to be grounded in realistic assumptions about how development progress happens. More attention needs to be focused on how domestic reformers can drive key changes in contexts that are often politically challenging, complex and uncertain.
This short paper describes the key components of the problem-driven framework, the relationships between them and how to use the framework to undertake analysis.
This note introduces a framework for thinking about politics and power called Everyday Political Analysis (EPA). EPA helps address a gap in the work of frontline staff: how to understand the changing political context and make politically-informed decisions on a day-to-day basis.
This paper argues that existing political economy approaches lack the analytical tools needed to grasp the inner politics of development. It aims to give policy makers and practitioners more precise conceptual tools to help them interpret the inner, ‘micro’, politics of the contexts in which they work.
Political economy analysis can support more effective and politically feasible development strategies, as well as inform more realistic expectations of what can be achieved, and the risks involved. This practice paper brings together various tools with a view to explaining the relevance and uses of political economy analysis.
This note is intended to provide World Bank sector- and project-based operational teams with an understanding of why and how to commission a political economy assessment.
Aid donors have found it hard to move from thinking politically to working differently, but there is evidence that they can do so and that this improves outcomes. This paper highlights locally-led interventions that focused on locally salient issues and harnessed the local capacity to discover sound yet feasible solutions. These experiences could be replicated and taken to scale.
This framework takes the general view that in order to improve development effectiveness, governance and political economy diagnostics should become integral to preparing and implementing World Bank strategies and operations. Its key intention is to propose standards for such diagnostics and to synthesize lessons learned. It is primarily intended for a World Bank audience.
Development assistance works best, and is least liable to do harm, when the people designing it are thinking and working politically (TWP). However, there has been a tendency to see TWP as mostly a matter for governance specialists.
This paper discusses the steps required to build a robust evidence base for ‘thinking and working politically’ (TWP) in development. It argues that better understanding what works, when and why is an important step in moving thinking and working politically into mainstream development programming.
