The Relationship of Public Policy to Governance: An Empirical Discussion of Nepal
The
Relationship of Public Policy to Governance: An Empirical Discussion of Nepal
Udaya Raj Adhikari
Email: rajudaya98@gmail.com
Abstract
This paper points to what
public policy process and governance mean. It is known that public policy
processes are made to run the governing system and implantation of the policies
are the signs of good governance. Here the issue is, whether public policy decides
how the government will run or the government will decide how the policy would
be best to run the system. Other than this, this paper also tries to focus on
the effects of the relationship and the situation of the implementation of
policies.
Keywords: Public policy
process, governance, relationship between public policy and governance
1.
Public Policy and Process
Public policy cycle (PPC) can be characterized as a complex and
interactive system through which public problems are identified and resolved by
following process of public formation, policy implementation, policy education
and policy evaluation. It is an
exhausting and time consuming 'policy cycle '. The basic stages of PPC are as
follows; a problem is identified, a policy response is formulated, the
preferred solution is then selected and implemented, and finally the policy is
evaluated. However, the evaluation stage takes an in depth look into what can
be learnt from the process as a whole, whether the original problem has been
solved, and if not, what is recommended as an alternative course of action.
Thus, returning policy makers to the very first step; the identification. Policy-Making
is a multiple-step process and is thus fraught with numerous challenges to the
policymakers. Right from the policy formulation to policy evaluation, various
dimensions have to be taken into consideration to make a public policy more
suitable to people's needs. Policy Making not an end in itself as policy
implementation too can pose numerous challenges to the policymakers if policy
is not properly framed. It is the responsibility of the policymakers to ensure
that at every stage, a public policy should be in tune with the needs of the
people which necessitates careful designing of its structures and process.
Hence, due care should be taken to ensure that every policy has an inbuilt
mechanism to make relevant to the ever-changing socio-economic and political
conditions.
Fig: Public Policy Cycle
(PPC)
.
1.1.
Policy Formulation
- After a government has
acknowledged the existence of a public problem and the need to do
something about it, policymakers need to decide on some course of
action.
- Formulating such a course of
action and the second major stage in the policymaking cycle.
- Policy Formulation is the
development of policy alternatives for dealing with a problem on the
public agenda. It occurs in government bureaucracies, interest group
offices, legislative committee rooms, meetings of special commissions, and
policy planning organizations, otherwise known as "think tank ".
- Towards attaining such
objectives, the government promotes and formulates new public policies
from time to time and revamps the existing ones to make them suitable to
the existing conditions.
Issues
|
The problem arising
out of the sale of spurious liquor in villages, corruption, and malpractices
in public officials and lack of institutional support to women 'Panchayat'
members.
|
Goals
and objectives
|
The policymakers
have to decide what to do for improving housing facilities for the slum
dwellers and to consider the rising no of people in the slum area.
|
Strategy
|
• To provide subsidies to farmers,
provide employment opportunities
• To improve the physical
infrastructure, facilities of villages and empower them through village
panchayat.
|
Implementation
Mechanism
|
• Government of India wanted to
ameliorate the living conditions of the rural people after independence.
• The government initiated the
community Development program (CDM) in the year 1952. It was a new
administrative agency that was expected to cater to the overall needs of the
rural people.
|
End
Remarks
|
• The policymakers should evolve
the objectives and goals clearly, adopt strategies and finalize the
implementation machinery
• The designing of policy is an
important element in the entire process of public policy as any error at the
stage may lead to failure of the entire policy.
|
1.2.
Policy Implementation
- The passage of a legislative
act, the issuing of an executive order, the handling down of a judicial
decision, or the promulgation of a regulatory rule and the consequence of
the policy for the people whom it affects. The assignment of new
responsibilities to exiting an organization. These organizations must translate
laws into operational rules and regulations. They must hire personnel,
draw up contracts spend money, and perform tasks. All of these activities
involve decisions by bureaucrats' decisions that determine
policy.
- Example
- The policy about land reforms
is good but the policy failed due to poor implementation by the political
and the administrative executives.
- Corruption prevention act.
- Compulsory reserve % of
participation of women in decision making and other activities like
application on public service commission.
- Free and quality housing
distribution act.
- Why Policy Implementation fail?
- Not given sufficient authority
and autonomy. They should be saved from political pressures so that they
concentrate on the accomplishing of policy objectives.
- Lack of skills and expertise
to deliver better goods and services. Faulty recruitment, selection, and
training processes have resulted in the decline of civil service
standards.
- Lack of financial resources
and human resources.
- No clear enunciation of the
objectives, time frame selection of beneficiaries, and structure of
implementing agency.
1.3.
Policy Education
- It is the responsibility of the
government to educate people regarding different facets of public policy.
- Many problems during implementation
can be solved to a large extent if people are educated about various
dimensions of public policy.
- For.eg. People should be
educated regarding the benefits of the policy institutional arrangements,
the impact of policy on their lives, and the monitoring mechanism.
- Example: Supply of solar power
to Rural Area
- Where there is abundant
sunshine, it should initially educate the people regarding the
implication of using solar power.
- The assistance of voluntary
organization: These organizations help can be taken to spread awareness
about a policy.
- Services of voluntary
organization can be utilized to spread awareness about child care and
women's health.
1.4.
Policy Evaluation
- It can be evaluated from the
perspective of minimizing errors in the future. Once the policy
implementation starts then all necessary steps should be taken to ensure
that all the agencies involved in it are functioning well
- According to Wholey, policy
evaluation is the assessment of the overall effectiveness of a national
program in meeting common objectives.
- For.eg. Building Houses for
slum dwellers
- If slum development is the
goal to be accomplished by the government, it should enunciate the
corresponding objectives
- People who receive grants
from the government may not necessarily use it to construct new houses
- The government should process
the money through banks and construction companies to the people who
take the responsibility of building houses for slum dwellers.
- Therefore, the terms goals and
objectives must be clearly defined so that the major objective of the
policy can be accomplished.
2.
Governance
2.1. Definition and Parameters of Governance
Governance can be defined as a system or process for the exercise of
authority by state authorities and other entities, in reference to broadly
shared values (foundation of governance) and thorough democratically-established
institutional mechanism (infrastructure of governance), that deliver on the
state's commitments for public goods and services (Service delivery) that
together define and consolidate the relationship between the state and
citizens.
According the definition of
governance adopted by Nepal National Governance survey 2017/18, parameters were
identified corresponding to each three major dimensions of governance:
foundations (values), infrastructure (institutions) and service delivery. A
fourth dimension of 'future Prospects' was added to gather information on
people's views on the future of and changes to governance, the condition of the
country and their own socio-economic conditions. An outline of these parameters
for each dimension is presented in below box 1.
Box 1: Parameters of governance
Source: Nepal National Governance survey 2017/18
3.
Relationship between Public Policy and Governance
Conceptualization of
public policy and governance has made it easier to define the relationship
between them. As we know that public policy is created for the development of
the state mostly by the government or by the institutions under the government.
Public policy cannot be made by a day. It is processed in different level. Such
as, for implementing a policy or evolving a policy there are institutions which
get involved.
They are:
i.
Cabinet
ii.
Secretariat Committee
iii.
Parliamentary Committees
iv.
Council of Ministries
v.
Executive Committee of Ministries
vi.
Ministries
If we discuss the context
of Nepal then, the government gets involved in these institutions. They decide
how it should go and how much money it should get for the implementation. They
set an agenda and through evaluation it gets a form of public policy. If the
government chooses what the policy should be in first level then, there are
possibilities of getting it done fully by any means. It seems quite clear how
the relationship works. Overarching the situation, I personally think that if
the government works as a good government (whether it is democratic or not),
the relationship kind of works to ‘government to policy’ not vice versa.
Because if there were different institutions of deciding the public policy then
there were chances that the policies would have been different than what the government
wanted it to be. In contrast, the institutions that get involved in deciding
the public policies, contain the government officials including the prime
minister. So there are slight chances to decide the public policy from a
different opinion view. It does not matter whether it’s a pluralistic society
or not. The need of public policy can come from anywhere. It can be from the
government or the society or sometimes the government opens a debate for a
situation where a public policy is needed. People can express anything about
the policy. But ultimately it’s the government who gets to decide how the
policy should be and implements it lastly. This is how the relationship works.
Empirical
Discussion
Theoretically there are
many things that can be described. But there is a different between theoretical
understanding and empirical understanding.
The
Process of Urban Development Policy Making
The
Problem
|
o
Unplanned land and housing development.
o
Conflicting and overlapping responsibilities among
agencies to execute urban plans and programs.
o
Absence of an effective mechanism for identification
and mobilization of the instruments and resources.
o
Fragmented and piece meal approaches of various
agencies.
o
Lack of an effective mechanism for mobilization and
coordination of the assistance and resources.
|
Justification
|
o
Address all aspects of urban development.
o
Establish an effective mechanism for mobilization
and coordination of the assistance and resources in urban sector.
o
Foundation for Comprehensive Zoning regulations and
controls.
o
Cornerstone for formulating regulatory bases for
planned urban setting.
o
At the national level, there is dearth of policy
regarding open spaces. The proposed policy is expected to fill up that void.
o
The proposed policy will address the spatial
framework for urban development from a national and regional perspective in
the infrastructure and resource development context.
o
The proposed policy will be supportive for the
construction of reliable, effective, efficient and sustainable basic urban
infrastructures (roads, water supply, sewage & drainage, solid waste,
energy, urban open space, basic physical amenities etc.) and quality
benchmarking.
o
A milestone for improving urban environmental
concerns - air, land, noise pollution; urban transport issues, high fossil
fuel consumption, land us e incompatibility, public space encroachment and
growth of squatter settlements.
o
Guide for planned development of services--
education institutions, nursing homes, industries and real estates in
suitable locations.
o
Municipalities are facing ever increasing funding
and financing gap .The volume of fiscal transfer systems from the central
government is very low. The proposed policy will have due focus on mobilizing
and utilizing resources from different sources.
o
The proposed policy will be effective for
institutional development, coordination and good governance.
|
Methodology
|
o
Stakeholder consultations and agenda setting
o
Review of literature, existing regulations, programs
and implementation mechanism
o
Collection of relevant data from both primary and
secondary sources
o
Data analysis
o
Preparing results and discussion for the data
o
Drawing
conclusion
|
Selecting
Tools of Actions
|
o
Policy tool - methods used by governments to achieve
a desired effect.
o
The two basic types of policy tools - regulatory and
economic tools.
o
Exist at all stages of the policy process
o
Specific tools such as stakeholder consultations and
government reviews linked to agenda-setting activities
o
Legislative rules and norms linked to
decision-making behavior and outcomes
o
Use of ex-post, or after-the fact, cost–benefit
analyses-to evaluate policy
|
Research
Tools
|
o
Regulatory Tools---Existing policies/Acts/Regulations
o
Financial Tools – Income tax/Sales tax/Duties and
Tariffs – User fees and Charges – Licensing – Grant, Subsidy, Equity, Loans –
Public expenditures – Government Insurance
o
Informational Tools – Public education and
information – Advertisement – Information technology
|
Implementation
Plan : Roll out of the Programmes
|
o
Implementation of land use plan
o
Planned urbanization
o
Improved urban environment
o
Development of adequate, affordable and safe urban
infrastructures
o
Coordinated efforts of stakeholders in urban sector
through One window approach
o
Effective functioning of Kathmandu Valley
Development Authority(KVDA )and Town Development Committees (TDC)
o
Increased investments in urban sectors
o
Facilitation of Private sector investment
o
Effective and Coordinated Urban Governance
|
Plan
in action
|
o
Organizational set up and allocation of human
resources
§ A number of
agencies involved in urban sector, various agencies have their special roles
in policy implementation.
o
Financial Resources
§ The financing of
the implementation of the policy activities shall be done in principle of
shared responsibilities between governments, the private sectors and
development partners.
o
Communication Plan
§ The
communication plan for the proposed policy includes the key message, the
targeted audience and communication action plan.
|
Monitoring
and Evaluation
|
o
Central Level
§ Office of the
Prime Minister and Council of Ministers (OPMCM), National Planning Commission
(NPC), Ministry of Finance (MOF) will carry out M&E functions at the
national level.
§ Office of
Attorney General (OAG) and Financial Comptroller General Office (FCGO) also
should monitor and evaluate as required by different acts and bylaws of the
country.
§ The National
Development Action Committee (NDAC) and Ministerial Development Action
Committee (MDAC) shall ensure the progress, quality and the coordination.
o
Ministry/Department/Regional Level
§ M & E will
be undertaken by the respective ministry and department and regional offices
of sectoral ministries. Department and regional offices should monitor and
evaluate inputs, implementation process, outputs, and outcomes of
programme/project.
§ The Regional
Administration offices submit reports to OPMCM and the NPC after carrying out
M&E of development activities under their jurisdiction.
o
District level
§ The Supervision
and Monitoring Committee at district level shall monitor the activities at
district level following the frameworks.
o
Project Level
§ M&E at the
level of programme or project shall be carried out by the concerned
programme/ project implementing offices to monitor the mobilization and use
of resources, implementation process and outputs.
|
Disclosure
statement
·
With the new constitution, Nepal is poised
to move towards a federal system of governance which will have significant
implications for urban growth and development.
·
New Urban Development Policy can be a
guide to orient regional urban development processes and associated investment
decisions and to shape the work of newly born ministry-that is Ministry of
Urban Development (MoUD).
·
Various policy action tools like
regulatory, financial, informational and governance have been proposed.
·
Implementation plan has been proposed with
defined roles and responsibilities, time frame, cost and human resources.
·
Monitoring and Evaluation process and
framework has also been figured out.
·
The proposed Urban Development Policy is
expected to be a milestone in planned urban development and improved urban
environment.
4.
Conclusion
Since the government
decides how the policy should be, it’s hard to believe that the policy would be
different form the perception of the ruling government. The government is trying
to process the public policies contrasting the overall situation. It’s not
completely failing. But the empirical situation is far away from the policy
that should have been implemented completely. However, it is expected that the
public policy will be decided for the peace and development of the public under
the governance of the government.
Public policy is intricately tied to
governance. This is true because the ultimate objective of public policy is the
accomplishment of nation building. Good public policy will lead to the
provision of social amenities; reduce unemployment, income inequality and
poverty that are the major elements of poor governance. Manipulative leadership
perpetuates corruption and in such a polity the vast majority of the people
suffer in frustration and aggression. Aggression as a result of weak public
policy and bad governance manifest because poor people who are in the majority
are not getting enough to eat, not being able to purchase clothes, an inability
to continue traditions that are important to them and feelings of
defenselessness, hopelessness, fear, ignorance, humiliation, exclusion from
social and commercial life and low ability to provide basic necessity for the
household are easily visible. A good public policy is critical to enhance good
governance. This fresh study found that public policy has a strong positive
relationship with governance architecture.
To sum
up, an honest
public policy and
efficient yet good
governance are the
primary tools if we are to realize the Gandhi is greatest words “to wipe
out every tear from every man’s eye.”
5.
References
·
Kooiman,
J. (2003). Governing as Governance. (London: Sage Publications).
·
Orthy,
S.R. Khan (2017). The Relationship of Public Policy to Governance. Retrieved
from https://www.academia.edu/35213621/The_Relationship_of_Public_Policy_to_Governance
·
Gelal,
M.R (2010). Practices of Policy Making: A case of Urban Development Policy in
Nepal. NASC, Kathmandu
·
Vedantham,
V.M., & Kamruddin, S.(2015). Good Governance and Public Policy in
India.Peple :International Journal of Social Sciences, Retrieved from
https://grdpublishing.org/index.php/people/article/view/351
·
Bevir,
M. (2016). Public Policy. In Encyclopedia Britannica Retrieved From https://www.britannica.com
·
Ugoani,
John, Dimensions of Public Policy and Governance (2014). Journal of Public
Policy and Governance, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp: 51-61.. Available at SSRN:
https://ssrn.com/abstract=2562331
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