TWP CoP November-December 2024 Newsletter

Welcome to the November- December 2024 , Holiday Edition of our Newsletter!

In our featured interview, we speak with Marta Ruedas, a veteran of the United Nations, as she shares insights about her experience in seeking to think and work in politically aware ways across a variety of countries and settings. Have a look at our latest publication- A  paper by Nicola Nixon, Leni Wild, Sumaya Saluja, and Adam Burke that the TWP CoP has published in collaboration with The Asia Foundation (TAF) and Global Governance Partners (GPG). You will find information on an exciting upcoming TWP event on “Monitoring and Evaluation for Thinking and Working Politically”, a fishbowl discussion which will be facilitated by Florencia Guerzovich and Tom Aston on the 11^th of December 2024. Have a read of a short piece highlighting insights from an event on the political economy of the energy transition in the Global South that ECDPM and The Policy Practice organised in October in Brussels in collaboration with the World Bank and the TWP CoP. The article also includes embedded videos of a few participants sharing soundbites from the event, which you can watch. In “What we are reading”, Simon Maxwell writes an in-depth review of Mark Lowcock and Ranil Dissanayake’s recently published book on “The Rise and Fall of DFID”. As always, we also bring you the latest publications, events, resources and other news of interest from a TWP perspective.

TWP CoP September – October 2024 Newsletter

Welcome to the September-October 2024 (Back to School) edition of our Newsletter!

Inspired by the reflections that Duncan Green wrote for the last edition of our Newsletter on thinking and working politically after retiring from Oxfam GB, in the featured interview in this issue, we ask Judith Kent and Kate Whyte, who were both at FCDO until very recently, to share their insights and wisdom as fellow travellers in the TWP journey, drawing on their 5+ decades of collective experience working on foreign affairs, conflict and international development. In terms of “What we are working on”, we are delighted to publish, in collaboration with The Policy Practice, a paper that Beverley Jones and Daniel Oosthuizen have written with Dr Abdelgalil Elmekki and Esraa Ahmed telling the story of how a group of young people in Sudan used participatory political economy analysis in what became a form of political empowerment. If you are curious about “What we are reading”, take a look at the literature review that Sharon Boadu, who is a Mo Ibrahim Scholar at the University of Birmingham, has written on the political economy of air quality management, with a focus on Ghana. And if you are eager to hear about what others are doing in the TWP space and/or would like to share your own work, please check out our Bulletin and register for the next TWP “What’s up?” session, which is scheduled for November 2024. Last but not least, as always, we bring you the latest publications, events, and resources of interest from a TWP perspective.

TWP CoP Summer (June-August) 2024 Newsletter

Welcome to the Summer (June-August) 2024 edition of our Newsletter! In this edition’s featured interview, we speak to Ashley Jackson, co-director of the Centre on Armed Groups. She tells us about her research on the dynamics between civilian populations and armed groups, including the Taliban in Afghanistan. In the ‘What we are working on’ section, you will find Duncan Green’s reflections about thinking and working politically based on his 20+ experience at Oxfam. In the same section, we provide an update on the winners of the USAID TWP Case Study Competition. Our Programme and Communications Officer, Sithandiwe Mujuru, reviews the book ‘The Politics of Development’, a recent publication edited by several members of the IDD department at the University of Birmingham. Last but not least, we bring you the latest publications, events, resources and other news of interest from a TWP perspective.

TWP CoP April-May 2024 Newsletter

Welcome to the April-May 2024 edition of our Newsletter! In this edition’s featured interview, Alina speaks with Global Partners Governance (GPG)’s Greg Power about his new book, Inside the Political Mind: The Human Side of Politics and How It Shapes Development. Head to the “What we are working on” section of the Newsletter to hear all about a conversation on politics, development and change webinar that we are co-hosting with GPG as well as The Asia Foundation and Development Intelligence Lab on Monday 29 April, partly inspired by Greg’s book. There is sill time to register! If you are curious about “What we are reading”, take a look at TWP CoP’s Lyndsey Hand’s review of a book on how large scale change can happen. Last but not least, as always, we bring you the latest publications, events, resources and other news of interest from a TWP lens!

TWP CoP February-March 2024 Newsletter

Welcome to the February-March 2024 TWP Newsletter! In this edition, Alina Rocha Menocal has a chat with Martha Maya and Maria José Daza Bohórquez from the Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT), focusing on the work IFIT is doing in encouraging dialogue and collaboration in Congress across party lines in a highly polarised political context in Colombia. Peter Evans shares an idea he is developing to integrate political economy further into the mainstream of growth and development thinking and practice. You can read more about this exciting idea on the “What we are working on” section. If you are curious about “What we are reading”, take a look at Flor Guerzovich’s review of a report about how far learning has come (or not) in the development sector. Check out all the latest publications, blogs, events, resources and other news of interest from a TWP perspective!

TWP CoP December 2023-January 2024 Newsletter

Welcome to our December 2023-January 2024 newsletter, which is filled with lots of exciting content to catch up on since our last Newsletter back in March. In our featured interview, Nicola Nixon, Sumaya Saluja and Mohammad Sadat Sadruddin Shibli from The Asia Foundation talk about coalition-building and why coalitions are so important to effective development programming. If you are curious about what colleagues in the TWP space have been up to, head to the “What we are working on” section of the Newsletter and take a look Leila Kazemi’s paper on the politics of the extractive industries sector. Last but not least, and as always, we bring you the latest publications, events and resources of interest from a TWP perspective.

TWP CoP March 2023 Newsletter

Welcome to the March 2023 TWP newsletter! In this edition’s featured interview, Gareth Williams from The Policy Practice speaks with Dr Suwaiba Said Ahmad and Sunny Kulutuye about politics in Nigeria and their experience applying thinking and working politically to different policy and programming problems they have each worked on in their country over the past several years. If you are curious about what Verena Fritz from the World Bank has been reading (we hear it is good — and timely), check out the book review she has written for us.  

TWP CoP November 2022 Newsletter

Welcome to the November 2022 TWP newsletter! This edition features an interview with Professor Heather Marquette on lessons emerging for TWP from research from the Serious Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Evidence Programme (SOC ACE). Chas Cadwell shares with us what he thinks is most exciting about the TWP agenda going forward, and David Jacobstein tells us what he’s been reading. As always, the newsletter includes the latest publications, events, and resources on all things TWP.

TWP CoP January 2023 Newsletter

Welcome to the January 2023 TWP newsletter! This edition features an interview with CAFOD’s Dadirai Chikwengo on her TWP journey TWP journey. including her efforts to make PEA/TWP concepts and languahe more accessible to partners on the ground. Emma Kerr and Paula Estrada Tun from DAI give us a first hand account of what it has been like for them to conduct PEA in a challenging environment and draw out lessons from that experience; while Laure-Hélène Piron from The Policy Practice tells us about insights related to TWP that emerged from a recent review of UK support to democracy and human rights that she led for the UK Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI). 

TWP CoP September 2022 Newsletter

Welcome to the September 2022 TWP newsletter! This edition features an interview with Duncan Green on the GELI programme; influencing for Senior Leaders. Susan Kemp and Sharon Van Pelt tell us what they’ve been reading, and Nicola Nixon gives an update on a recent WHO event she attended. We also bring to you the TWP Community Podcast! As always, the newsletter includes the latest publications, events, and resources on all things TWP.

TWP CoP July 2022 Newsletter

Welcome to the July 2022 TWP newsletter! This edition features an interview with Kerry Selvester and Sam Sharp on lessons learned from the MUVA programme in Mozambique. Nic Cheeseman tells us what he’s been reading, and Katherine Hellier reviews Land Equity International’s recent webinar. As always, we bring to you the latest publications, events, and resources on all things TWP.

TWP CoP May 2022 Newsletter

Welcome to the May 2022 TWP newsletter! This edition features an interview with Pilar Domingo on TWP and the women, security and conflict agenda, as well as a feature from Bruce Byiers on the importance of TWP-ing about regional integration. As always, we bring to you the latest publications, events, and resources on all things TWP.

TWP CoP March 2022 Newsletter

Welcome to the March 2022 TWP newsletter! This edition features an interview with democracy support specialist Idayat Hassan, as well as the latest news and updates on all things TWP, including a round-up of our global webinar series.

TWP CoP January 2022 Newsletter

Happy New Year! And welcome to our January newsletter. This edition brings to you the latest news of the CoP, including the publication of Graham Teskey’s new think piece on ‘TWP; What have we learned since 2013?’, the launch of our global webinar series and much more!