TWP CoP September-October 2025 Newsletter
sithandiwe mujuru
This edition shines a spotlight on the challenges facing democratic governance today and explores whether – and how – international actors can play a more effective role in supporting democracy.
Highlights include:
- An interview with Rachel Beatty Riedl (Cornell University) on the state of democratic politics worldwide and ideas to respond to democratic backsliding.
- The Political Systems and Democratic Governance (PSDG) Diagnostic – developed by the UK Government’s Politics & Governance Centre of Expertise in collaboration with the TWP CoP.
- A new technical guidance note by FCDO on ‘Understanding a Quick Approach to PEA’
- Our webinar, in collaboration with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, on “What Future for International Democracy Support?”
- Alina Rocha Menocal’s new journal article reviewing two decades of democratic backsliding.
Alongside this focus, we also have a wide range of news, insights, and resources from a TWP perspective, including:
• Reflections from a Palladium event on “What it really means to work politically: lessons from UK governance in Nigeria”
• Efforts to preserve knowledge and institutional memory by the Democracy, Rights and Governance (DRG) Hub and OneAid Community
• David Jacobstein’s paper, published by The Policy Practice, on how TWP spread across USAID
• A blog on lessons from Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy in Latin America and the Caribbean by researchers at the University of Ottawa
• Reflections from Michael Jarvis on the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development
• A blog by Cathy Shutt and Alina Rocha Menocal on “The Case for TWP in Nigeria’s FCDO-supported PERL Programme”
• A blog by Andrii Biletskyi, published by The Policy Practice, exploring the fight against corruption in Ukraine
•A review by Tom Kelsey on ‘Gendered Political Violence in the Digital Sphere in Latin America’ (also available in Spanish)
Read the Newsletter here.
Do get in touch if you have any material you would like for us to include in the next newsletter.
Kind regards,
Thandie