While economics is the study of the optimal use of scarce resources, political economy begins with the political nature of decision making and is concerned with how politics affects economic choices in a society. Political economy seeks to better understand and analyze the contestation of interests, and engages core concepts, such as power, incentives, interest groups, ideas, and institutions.
UNICEF’s political economy analysis primer identifies five tools for analyzing political economy issues under the problem-driven analysis approach: stakeholder mapping (which identifies and classifies stakeholders based on their characteristics), stakeholder analysis (which explores stakeholder relationships), power mapping (maps the distribution of power among stakeholders), process mapping (which focuses on the process and how it works), and social network analysis (which explores the interconnectedness between stakeholders and how that influences the outcome).
In some countries, traditional vaccines and vitamin A supplements are still fully funded by external donors. Bringing together the financial and non-financial consideration, UNICEF provides a political economy framework to enhance understanding of how best to guide shifts towards government financing of vaccines and vitamin A supplements, especially in countries facing economic transition.