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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 TWP into mainstream development programming. The paper reviews the existing evidence base on TWP, building on this and on other literature on public sector reform and 'pockets of effectiveness' to suggest research questions, case study selection criteria, and a...
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The Asia Foundation and the Australian Embassy in the Philippines today released a new publication, Thinking and Working Politically in Development: Coalitions for Change in the Philippines. Written by London School of Economics and Political Science Professor John T. Sidel and The Asia Foundation’s Jaime Faustino, the book examines the first phase of the Coalitions for Change program (2012-2018) and the contributions to key development policy reforms in the Philippines. The book is a...
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A DFID programme in Kyrgyzstan offers useful insights into how the Thinking and Working Politically approach can escape from its governance ghetto
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In recent decades, the World Bank and many bilateral development partners have provided funding to support land administration reform. Traditional land administration reform projects focus on the economic and technical design of interventions based on a library of best practice, commonly avoiding the “messy politics” typically involved in land governance. Experience and lessons from land administration reform initiatives have been documented and a recurrent theme is that many projects fail...
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Over the last 15 years, a set of ideas now referred to as “thinking and working politically” (TWP) has coalesced into a “second orthodoxy” about how to take context into account when implementing development interventions. This approach stresses the importance of obtaining a better understanding of the local context (“thinking politically”) in order to support local actors to bring about sustainable developmental change (“working politically”). However, the evidence base to justify this new...
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The Facility for Oil Sector Transparency and Reform (FOSTER) was a £14 million programme that has helped Nigeria to transform its governance of the oil and gas industry. FOSTER ran from 2011 to mid-2016, and used an explicit ‘thinking and working politically’ (TWP) approach. It was funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and managed by Oxford Policy Management (OPM). This paper seeks to identify the factors that drove – or constrained – FOSTER’s achievements, and...
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Thinking and Working Politically (TWP) through Applied Political Economy Analysis (PEA). A guide for practitioners Have you ever done everything right in a development program — followed every technical best practice — but still missed the mark? When this happens, it often relates to factors in the context beyond any external development actor’s ability to control.
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This paper suggests that working politically in a developmental context means directing attention and support to the agents of reform and development (leaders and organisations). This allows investment in the local processes that will resolve problems – such as problems of collective action – through the work of alliances and coalitions. Hence, it will drive the formation and consolidation of the locally appropriate, feasible and legitimate institutions that are most likely to advance...
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The Thinking and Working Politically (TWP) Community of Practice (CoP) was established at a small meeting tacked on at the end of a meeting of Governance Advisers working for the United Kingdom’s Department of International Development (DFID) on South and South-East Asian countries, held in Delhi in November 2013. Since then, a number of meetings have been held throughout the world, each addressing different issues; ‘TWP’ has entered the lexicon of mainstream development; the CoP has...
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It’s always a red letter day when a new paper from Graham Teskey drops. His most recent is Thinking and working politically: What have we learned since 2013? For those that don’t know him, Graham is a consummate insider-outsider within the aid sector – long stints at DFID (UK), DFAT (Australia) and now Abt (Management Consultants). From this vantage point he has been one of the leading proponents of ‘thinking and working politically’, always ready to call out the hand-wavey academics and...
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Based on its work in Sri Lanka, The Asia Foundation argues for greater attention to the local political dynamics into which digital solutions are introduced
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On 3-4 October 2016, British Council, Pyoe Pin, The Asia Foundation and UK DFID co-hosted a two day conference on ‘Thinking and Working Politically’ (TWP) for more effective and sustainable development assistance. The success or failure of development programmes is, in many – if not most – cases, determined by domestic politics within countries, rather than by the technical elegance of programme design by external donors. The event brought together international donors, implementing...
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• In recent years, Political Settlements Analysis (PSA) has become increasingly influential in academic and policy circles • Despite its intuitive appeal, it seems difficult to use in practice • PSA has a natural affinity with Adaptive Development, Thinking and Working Politically, and Doing Development Differently approaches • By answering the simple diagnostic questions supplied here, development partners can identify the types of political settlements in which they work, and draw some broad operational implications
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