Waste management is a huge industry at the local, national and international levels. Public services play a key role in dealing especially with waste generated by households. Getting waste management right is essential if we are to achieve a circular economy and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Complex legal frameworks and their weak implementation open up spaces for criminals to profit from illegally managing or trading in waste. The consequences on the environment and human health can be severe. The role of corruption in crimes involving waste is unexplored.

This guide suggests six steps for bringing political economy analysis findings into a theory of change for a project or programme.

It aims to provide a practical means for conservationists to navigate political economy in contexts where they work. While a theory of change explains the logic of a project, a political economy analysis, which looks at the influence of power, helps get to the heart of what needs to change for a project to work. But practitioners often find it challenging to use political economy analysis in practice. 

Through the USAID INTEGRITAS programme, KEMITRAAN and its consortium partners – Indonesia Corruption Watch, Transparency International – Indonesia and the Basel Institute on Governance – are working to enhance conflict of interest policy in Indonesia and its implementation.

This guidance has been developed in this context, in order to assist Indonesian government institutions in strengthening controls against conflicts of interest.

The illegal wildlife trade threatens biodiversity and security worldwide. Criminal networks pocket billions of dollars in illicit profits from stripping the world bare of endangered species and corrupting politicians and public officials in the process.

Yet there is very little empirical evidence on the role of both ordinary citizens and criminal networks in the illegal wildlife trade. Our research aims to fill this gap.