Applied Political Economy Analysis and Why It Matters

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.