By Graham Teskey, Priya Chattier and Tara Davda Political economy analysis (PEA) refers to a body of theory and practice that was first identified by the great economists of the 18th and 19th centuries. Indeed, economics was originally termed ‘political economy’. It was only when mathematics intruded that the word ‘political’ was dropped. Political economy …
Author: Governance Practice
Online networking event | Evidence-based practice: what’s next?
When: Wednesday 16 September 2020 4pm – 5.30pm AEST Where: via Zoom In a post COVID-19 world, budgets are tighter, grants and consultancies are (even) more competitive. The pressure to demonstrate ‘real-world impact’ and ‘reach’ is at odds with real-life time pressures and budget lines. In policy, the Partnerships for Recovery is committed to “monitoring, evaluation, research, learning and …
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Achieving strategic integration for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO): is a portfolio approach the answer?
By Vishal Gadhavi and Lavinia Tyrrel The UK Government has a short window of opportunity to make the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and Department for International Development (DFID) merger work. But this means learning from one key mistake made by its antipodean cousin (Australia): operational integration does not automatically lead to strategic integration. A …
Applying political economy analysis to health and education programming: four lessons
By Matilda Nash, Lavinia Tyrrel and Graham Teskey Over the past two years, Abt’s Governance and Development Practice (GDP) have worked with local partners in over 13 countries across the Pacific, Asia and Africa to apply Political Economy Analysis (PEA) approaches to sector programming (see briefing note for further detail). The aim? To help us …
Women’s economic empowerment at a time of crisis: can COVID-19 be different?
by Cecilia Reategui and Andrew Rowell COVID-19 is a health crisis with far-reaching social and economic consequences, both immediate and stretching into an unpredictable future. Investing in Women recently commissioned a rapid literature review to examine the impacts of COVID-19 and previous pandemics and recessions on the economic position of women. The study, conducted by Professor Marian Baird and Associate Professor …
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Gender equality at work: Southeast Asia’s other hurdle
By Aya Silva and Georgia Davis Equality in Asia: Across the ASEAN region, countries and companies have been engaging in the equality debate for several years. For some, a looming skills gap and the costs of not retaining good female staff have prompted their investment in policies and initiatives that promote more open and equal …
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Online panel discussion
AFTER COVID-19: A ‘NEW NORMAL’ FOR MONITORING, EVALUATION, RESEARCH AND LEARNING? The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly shifted the context in which aid and development is being delivered. This presents an opportunity for aid actors to promote more locally-led, politically-informed and adaptive forms of Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) which can help make sense of …
Blog submission Guidelines
We welcome submissions from external authors. Please see below for our blog guidelines and pdf version. Blog submission guidelines pdfDownload General guidelines. Blogs should be no longer than 1000 words, and must be accompanied by images (see ‘image guidelines’ below for details) All sources must be cited as hyperlinks, and not footnotes or end-notes. Author …
COVID-19 makes the case for getting development in fragile states right
by Nelly Mecklenburg and Jessica Mackenzie What does the COVID-19 response and commitments for more effective development in fragile states have in common? More than you might think. Governments all over the world are suddenly faced with responding to a pandemic causing suffering and anxiety in every community and sector. In response to both the …
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Coronavirus: The end of sexist economics?
By Tara Davda and Priya Chattier Gender-responsive coronavirus policies are not only smart economics, but provide opportunities to do the right thing. As coronavirus spreads, government spending, and lots of it, has been the order of the day. Most of the analysis has focused on the economic impact of these responses, with scant attention paid to …
Five messages for the new Australian aid performance framework: a collective view from MERL wonks
By Lavinia Tyrrel, Lucy Moore, David Green, Damien Sweeney, Linda Kelly and Chris Roche At the recent 2020 Australasian AID Conference (AAC), we (the Abt Governance & Development Practice, Praxis, LTU and Clear Horizon) spent 90 blissful minutes locked away in a room full of practitioners and policy makers debating the strengths and weaknesses of …
Education in a pandemic: five messages that Australia’s aid program could consider now
By Reiko Take After much debate in the media about whether it is safe for the community, teachers and children themselves to continue going to school,[1] the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria in Australia are going ahead with student-free schooling. Whilst the symptoms and deaths of children from COVID-19 have been lower in comparison to …
