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INTRODUCTION AND HOW TO USE THIS HANDBOOK
Applied Political Economy Analysis (APEA) is an approach to analyzing key power dynamics and social, political, economic, and other incentives operating within a given sector or locality. Donors and implementers of international development programs increasingly use APEA to help them base their interventions in an understanding of the local political and economic environment. Practitioners can point to a range of examples of where APEA or similar approaches have been applied in the governance sector, as well as in other sectors such as health, natural resource management, and economic growth. While implementers of human rights programs routinely have used assessment methodologies that shed light on local contextual factors, there is limited experience in or available guidance on using APEA as a foundation for human rights programming.
This handbook was developed for the USAID-funded and Freedom House-led Protecting Global Rights with Sustainable Solutions (PROGRESS) project consortium,1 as well as other organizations supporting and implementing human rights programming. It offers practitioners a theoretical overview of APEA, but focuses on providing practical, operational guidelines and recommendations for grounding human rights interventions in a deep understanding of local- or country-level political economy. This handbook is rooted in Pact’s experience using APEA in more than 30 programs across sectors. While examples are tailored to the human rights sector, this handbook is equally applicable to programs in other sectors, such as health, livelihoods, and education. It also builds on PROGRESS consortium core partners’ experiences and methodologies, which complement the principles and practices of APEA.
INTRODUCTION TO APEA
Applied Political Economy Analysis (APEA) is an approach for understanding the underlying interests and incentives that explain key actors’ decisions and behaviors. Some of these incentives may be highly visible, such as formal legal, policy, and economic frameworks, while others may be largely invisible, such as unwritten norms and values that shape the actions of individuals and groups. APEA helps practitioners answer questions like:
Why are things the way they are in a given place at a given point in time?
What are the visible and hidden drivers that constrain and enable desired change?
Where does formal and informal power lie within a given system, and how can those power-holders be engaged?
APEA seeks to understand the dynamics between structures, institutions, and actors; the interaction between formal and informal institutions; and how incentives shape these institutions’ behaviors. APEA can help implementers in international development identify who has an interest in preserving the status quo (spoilers), who has an interest in change or reform (champions), and why these key actors behave as they do.
APEA studies are generally multi-week exercises, with a research team carrying out a series of key informant interviews and focus group discussions around a core question. These can be done at any time during the project, but they often take place during project start-up, prior to annual work-planning, or when the project is making a strategic pivot. APEA studies should be supplemented by ongoing or iterative APEA, in which the project team carries out continuous political analysis over the life of the project to inform more politically smart programming.
Writing proposals for funding is one of the most crucial aspects of any NGO. Proposals are important for any organization, as they decide the success or failure of an organization. No matter how big or small your organization is you cannot get away from writing a project proposal. As an NGO staff, you might be aware that the primary purpose of a project proposal is to convince the donor agency to fund your project. It is thus important for you to write a proposal that is innovative, practical, and methodological.
