Research and analysis

Understanding change as politics not political will

This technical guide summarises some of the challenges facing development programmes, and suggested approaches for addressing these.

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This guide summarises some of the challenges facing development programmes, and the suggested approaches for addressing these. It is a technical guide primarily for governance focused work but will also have relevance to other sectors. The guide is for use alongside other analytical tools, including country-level institutional analysis and political economy analysis. 

The evidence outlined in the guide challenges traditional development thinking that ‘lack of political will’ can explain many of the barriers to progress. It instead illustrates the collective action problems that may lie behind these issues, with mini-case study examples drawn from wider research.    

Approaches set out in this guide also illustrate skills and knowledge relevant to the FCDO Technical Competency Framework for Governance.

Read other research and analysis in this series:

Understanding political economy analysis and thinking and working politically: how people working in international development can use a set of analytical tools collectively known as ‘political economy analysis’ (PEA).

Understanding institutional analysis: how to undertake institutional reviews in the context of international development programmes and partnerships.

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Published 17 July 2024

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