TNRC Partner Resource USAID Thinking and Working Politically and Strengthening Political Economy Analysis

Discussion Note: Thinking and Working Politically and Strengthening Political Economy Analysis in USAID Biodiversity Programming

By USAID | May 2019 | Partner Resource

There is a growing consensus among researchers and analysts from foreign assistance agencies, multilateral donors, academia and civil society that development interventions often fail or produce suboptimal results because political realities have not been sufficiently taken into account. Because biodiversity is so fundamental to economic life, resilience, social stability and national security, projects undertaken in the conservation and natural resource management fields are inevitably affected by politics, power relations and political economy. This 2019 guidance note from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) provides biodiversity sector specialists with an understanding of thinking and working politically and how political economy analysis can sharpen the tools already used for project design and adaptive management in the biodiversity sector. It provides: 1) an introduction to thinking and working politically and political economy analysis; 2) an overview of entry points for political economy analysis in biodiversity programming; 3) next steps to advance learning and the application of thinking and working politically and political economy analysis in USAID biodiversity programs; and 4) examples of how political economy analysis has been applied to biodiversity projects in different contexts.

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