The World Bank discovers power in the power sector - Policy Brief 14
The World Bank’s 2019 report on Rethinking Power Sector Reform recognises that many of the key challenges in power sector reform result from the political economy of the sector.
Barnett and McCulloch state that the report is weak in four areas:
- On corruption – which it treats as a local problem rather than as a systemic issue linked to countries’ political settlement;
- On the political economy of donors – and how this can sometimes make reform more difficult;
- On the impact of new technology – and how disruptive technologies can change local political incentives;
- On how to Think and Work Politically in the power sector – the report gives little guidance on how to move beyond the focus on supply-side reforms.
This Policy Brief makes recommendation to the World Bank and other development partners on how these could be tackled.
Political economy analysis for climate action training course running from 31 October 2023
The Policy Practice is delighted to announce a new short online course focussing on the Political Economy of Climate Action. This course explains how political economy analysis can be used to understand the challenge of action on climate change and to design more effective interventions. The course will consist of seven, 2-hour online sessions from 31 October to 27 November 2023. For more information and to register please click below
Why governments drag their feet on climate action - and what to do about it. New blog from TPP Director Neil McCulloch
In March 2023, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a Synthesis report of its huge sixth assessment report, pointing out that greenhouse gas emissions must fall dramatically – starting immediately – for us to have any chance of keeping the global temperature within 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels by 2100. The response to this depressing reality from many advocating urgent action to tackle climate is that we must try harder. That failing to do so will result in catastrophe. This blog argues that this is the wrong approach. That the rallying cry to keep on pushing forward is unlikely to work unless we have a better understanding of the political barriers to doing so.
Q&A with Dr, Neil McCulloch - written by Aia Brnic (IISD) and Neil McCulloch
Neil was interviewed by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) about the controversial fuel subsidy reforms that have just taken place in Nigeria.
This article first appeared on the IISD website - see link below: