The problem-driven framework is not a specific ‘tool’ itself, but rather a ‘platform’ that tries to bring together and to summarise for World Bank teams some practices, thinking, and lessons learned, and to point to some existing tools, such as varieties of stakeholder analysis. The PGPE approach is similar to Sida’s power analysis and DFID’s drivers of change approach in that both direct researchers to look at actors (or stakeholders), institutions and structures that influence poverty and development policies at the macro level. However PGPE analysis can also be applied to the sector and thematic level, or the project- and policy-specific level, or a combination of levels.
Fritz, V., Kaiser, K., & Levy, B. (2009). Problem-driven governance and political economy analysis: Good practice framework. Washington DC: World Bank.
This framework seeks to contribute to smarter, more realistic and gradual reforms in developing countries. It emphasises a problem-driven approach: i) define what the issue is that teams are grappling with; ii) examine the governance and institutional arrangements; and iii) examine the underlying political economy drivers. While directed primarily at the World Bank’s own teams, the framework can be useful outside the organisation. Problem-driven Governance and Political Economy analysis can provide advice on shaping strategies and operations in ways that range from adjusting them to the existing space for change to developing proactive strategies for expanding the space for change.
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Harris, D. (2013). Applied political economy analysis: A problem-driven framework. London: Overseas Development Institute (ODI).
This framework helps practitioners and researchers to use political economy analysis to understand and respond to practical problems. The framework has three dedicated, but related, phases: problem identification, problem diagnosis and consideration of plausible change processes. This introductory note describes the key components of the framework, the relationships between them, and how to use the framework to undertake analysis.
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