Navigating political complexity for impact: a human-centred approach to government engagement

At Africa Practice, we operate at the intersection of industry and government, driven by the belief that sustainable performance depends on managing political and policy risk, building trust, and delivering meaningful social and economic impact.

However, the world is moving quickly, and outdated ways of designing policies are not always fit for purpose. In over 20 years of working to accelerate the pace of progress for a prosperous Africa that inspires the world, we have learnt that we cannot simply transplant policies that work elsewhere without rigorously checking if they are fit for our specific context. Instead, we must be at the forefront of policy innovation; just because a regulatory solution doesn’t exist elsewhere yet, doesn’t mean we cannot create it here.

To achieve this, we advocate for a “whole society” approach where the people closest to the issue are involved at all stages. This opens up civic spaces and ensures true representation. To operationalise this philosophy, we work with our clients to utilise our C3 framework:

1. Participate in public Consultations, making full use of the democratic spaces available, in a public and transparent manner. 
2. Collaborate with governments to co-create solutions at the very beginning of the policy cycle. By engaging in early-stage ideation, we help design quality regulation that serves the public interest while fostering innovation, shifting the dynamic from transactional negotiation to transformative partnership.
3. Support to Capacitate, recognising that the capacity required to design policies specifically for local context and current context is often limited, resulting all too often in defensive or delayed policy, or a replica of laws that have worked elsewhere but don’t serve our societies.  

This methodology is not theoretical; it is embedded in the work we deliver to navigate systems across the continent.

• Driving fair regulation in FMCG: When a major food and beverage company faced regulatory headwinds, we developed regulatory impact assessments and engagement plans that helped them secure a “seat at the table” with lawmakers. By shifting to evidence-led advocacy, the client was able to help shape the design of fair and effective regulation, while unlocking the potential of an integrated food system.
  
• Solving complex taxation in telecoms: When the telecoms sector faced disruptive multiple taxation issues, we convened multi-industry stakeholders to amplify the discourse. Through a multi-channel engagement strategy, we helped raise public awareness, eventually leading to a government recommendation to classify telecoms assets as critical national infrastructure.

We believe that while bad regulation can harm economies, quality regulation has the potential to improve the wellbeing of societies and industries alike.