Who we are

We are a network of experienced development professionals who all take a political economy perspective to development. Our Directors, Principals and Associates have specialist knowledge of particular countries and sectors. They have strong connections to government, the private sector, civil society, media and research organisations. They bring to bear their own long working experience within official agencies, academia and the private sector.

What we do?

The Policy Practice applies a political economy approach to supporting positive change in developing countries. We undertake strategic and policy work in developing countries, including political economy analysis, programme designs, reviews, and evaluations. We also run a flagship training course on political economy analysis and provide bespoke training for a wide variety of clients.

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The Policy Practice Training Courses

The Policy Practice is a lead provider of training on applied political economy analysis for development practitioners. 

Political economy analysis provides a deeper understanding of the contexts in which development happens – whether international, national, sectoral or local. It explores how structural factors, institutions and incentives of the key actors shape the possibilities for change in any given context – and how development partners can influence this.

Our course is designed to equip advisers and programme managers to identify the main political and institutional challenges and opportunities in the contexts in which they work, and to draw well-grounded conclusions for strategy, programme design and approaches to implementation.

We have run our flagship course for development professionals over 45 times since 2008, training over 2,000 professionals. We also offer tailored courses and bespoke advice to organisations that wish to deepen their capacity to undertake political economy analysis or manage their programmes more adaptively. Course participants come from bilateral and multilateral organisations, such as the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the US Agency for International Development, the Netherlands Foreign Ministry, Irish Aid, the Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia, the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission, or the United Nations Development Programme. Our clients also include research centres, non-governmental organisations and private companies, such as the The Elders, Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research, Save The Children, Saferworld, DAI, Palladium or Chemonics.

We also launched a new online course on the Political Economy for Climate Action in June 2023. The next course will run in the Spring of 2025 over a six weeks period.

 

Political economy analysis in action online training course

We will be running the next Political Economy Analysis in Action online training course in February 2025. If you would like further information on this course, or to apply, please see our flyer here. 

Participants on this interactive 17-week online course:

  • Learn what political economy analysis is and why it matters
  • Explore political economy concepts and how to use them
  • Interact with leading experts on political economy analysis and thinking and working politically on a weekly basis
  • Work through real-life case studies applying political economy tools to development challenges
  • Participate in regular webinars with other course participants
  • Learn how to ‘think and work politically’ in their own work
  • Participants work both independently and in small groups to complete weekly tasks

See our course flyer for further information on the course, or email training@thepolicypractice.com if you have any questions.