How is political economy being used?

• 10 years ago pe not in donor vocabulary• Now many donors using pe analysis - Sida: power analysis - DFID: Drivers of change - Netherlands: SGACA - World Bank: problem driven analysis - UNDP - Asia Foundation: political settlements

Why?

• Evaluations point to importance of politics

• Limited impact of public sector reform, best practice approaches

• Concerns about corruption

• Work in fragile states highlights politics of state building

Different approaches, common experiences

• Top down, bottom up• More or less prescriptive• Political or technocratic leadership• Country, sector or problem level• Quality of analyst, country knowledge• Mainly for own information• Jointly with partner country changes

dynamics

Impact: general

• Links development, diplomacy, security, trade• Challenges best practice, comprehensive PSR,

crude conditionality• Incremental change; more nuanced narrative

about corruption• Taxation and accountability• Global drivers• State-building lens• Quality of internal debate

Impact: country level

• Diversity, complexity of country context

• More realism about objectives, donor leverage (SGACA)

• Some fundamental shifts in strategy (Nigeria, Nepal)

• Impact of donor behaviour, aid modalities

Impact: sector level

• Realism (Uganda roads, Bangladesh water)

• Opportunities (different entry points, global drivers, changed narrative)

• Problem driven analysis (traction, risks)

• Scope for “doing better”

Challenges

• Impact fragmented: no fundamental re-think about development, donor roles

• Divergence between internal debate and external narrative (alignment, reform in return for aid, all good things go together, zero tolerance for corruption)

• No changes to donor staffing, incentives• Risk missing opportunities• PEA just the next donor fashion?