Conference Name: Devpolicy Seminars
Event Type: Devpolicy Seminars
Year:
2014
Political economy and the aid industry in Asia
Presentation/s:
Dr Jane Hutchison, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Studies, School of Management and Governance, Murdoch University.
In the last decade, many international development agencies have turned to political economy analysis to try to improve the effectiveness of their programs and projects. Sometimes political economy has been used for better risk analysis, but it has also been applied more positively to determine the social and political ‘drivers of change’ and how aid agencies might work more politically. However, the agencies involved have struggled to operationalise political economy insights.
Drawing on case study research in Southeast Asia, this seminar outlined the limits and possibilities entailed in an alternative, structural political economy, approach to development policy and practice. In particular, it explains the analytical typology of reformers and their alliances that a Murdoch-based research team presents in the forthcoming book Political Economy and the Aid Industry in Asia (Palgrave 2014), written by Jane Hutchison, Wil Hout, Caroline Hughes and Richard Robison.