Political Constraints in Growth and Development: Moving beyond talking about them to actually tackling them – Peter Evans

In Pursuit of Development

Although political constraints have significant negative impacts on development, mainstream approaches to addressing these issues are often primarily technical and lack a willingness to understand and address political economy factors. Despite decades of technical efforts in sectors like health, education, and climate, some critical problems persist, such as drug supply losses, tree planting failures, and chronic absenteeism in health and education.

Peter Evans is a governance specialist with wide-ranging experience and expertise across international development and social research. He holds a PhD in medical geography and was previously Team Leader of the Governance, Conflict, Inclusion and Humanitarian Research Team at the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). In this role, Peter designed and led the Anti-Corruption Evidence (ACE) programme. Until recently, he was director of the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre at the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) in Bergen. @PeterEvans_Guv

Peter argues that the supply of practical political economy research is limited and often falls short of practicality and accessibility, shaped more by researchers' interests and fund availability than the needs of policymakers or practitioners. Political economy research is further hindered by its sensitivity and riskiness, making it challenging for researchers, particularly in politically unstable or corrupt environments. On the demand side, there is a lack of structured efforts to understand and address political constraints in global investments for growth and development. Politics is often relegated to a risk rather than a problem to be understood and engaged with. And many actors in the field, including national governments, bilateral agencies, and multilateral organizations, often avoid addressing political economy factors, which hinders effective development outcomes.

Resources

• Gambling on corruption, and making the political more practical
• When evidence is thin... (how to think, not what to think).
• How I think when I talk about anti-corruption: porridge and berries, priors and biases
• Peter Evans on LinkedIn
• Corruption and political settlements (episode featuring Mushtaq Khan)
• The development bargain (episode featuring Stefan Dercon)

Key highlights

• Introduction - 00:24
• Wicked problems and progress - 03:50
• Taking politics seriously - 08:08
• Tackling corruption - 20:25
• Why capacity building initiatives do not work - 36:20
• Political settlements and public procurement - 44:07
• Anti-corruption: What should researchers, donors, and governments focus more on - 53:52

Host

Professor Dan Banik (@danbanik @GlobalDevPod)

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https://globaldevpod.substack.com/

Host

Dan Banik (@danbanik @GlobalDevPod)

Apple Spotify YouTube

Subscribe:

https://in-pursuit-of-development.simplecast.com

https://globaldevpod.substack.com/