Policy planning and design: The policy

process
• For one to understand policy the process, it is
important to reflect on constants of public policy
namely:
(i) Issues: That appear on public agenda
(ii) Actors: Who initiates, presents, interprets, responds
and acts?
(iii) Resources (8Ms) that facilitate policy development
(iv) Institutions/Actors that deal with policy issues
(v) Levels of government that address issues (Central,
local, enterprises, agents etc.
 8Ms
• Man
• Materials
• Moment (timing )
• Machine (equipment)
• Money (financial)
• Methods
• Market (customers)
• Messages
 The Policy Process
• Problem definition
• Agenda setting
• Policy formulation
• Policy adoption
• Policy analysis
• Decision making
• Policy implementation
• Policy M&E
• Policy Review
• Policy Termination
 Policy development in Uganda
• Development of policy is done by the relevant
line Ministry.
• Draft Cabinet Memorandum prepared
• Ministry senior and top management teams
debate and obtain ownership of the proposed
policy
• Permanent Secretary prepares Cabinet memo
• Minister responsible presents and defends the
Memorandum in Cabinet.
 Policy development/ design…
• Identify the financial, legal and other
administrative implications
• Consultations to gain support and consensus
• Cabinet may and can direct preparation of a
Cabinet Memoranda
• Under Article 99 of the Constitution, the
President may, and does often, direct that a
Minister seeks Cabinet approval on certain policy
matters
• Introduction of a new law or an amendment to
an existing law requires the Minister responsible
to prepare and submit to Cabinet the principles
for the proposed legislation
 Policy development/ design…
• Cabinet approval of principles leads to the
First Parliamentary Counsel (Legal Counsel) to
draft the Bill in accordance with the principles
earlier approved by Cabinet.
• The draft Bill is presented to Cabinet for
approval and authorization to the Minister to
have the Bill gazetted and tabled in Parliament
for debate and enactment.
 Inter-Ministerial Consultations
• Expertise on how a policy option can affect
their portfolio areas and can provide feedback
on the implications of a proposal.
• It is the responsibility of the Ministry
preparing the Cabinet Memorandum
• Discussed at the Permanent Secretaries’
monthly meeting.
Public/Stakeholder Consultations
• Informal consultations
• Formal
Not very well formalized in the policy
management process.
Significant contributions to policy
development at the point of approval in
Parliament.
Avoids unnecessary delays in obtaining
approval
 Policy Analysis
• To estimate the likely costs and benefits of a
policy.
• Such analysis is of two broad types:
Technical analysis focuses on whether it is
technically feasible to achieve a given policy
goal and at what economic cost/rate of
return.
Political analysis which asks whether the
policy is consistent with electoral promises
and/or national priorities as well as its
expected impact on political support for the
incumbent Government.
 Decision Making
• Decision-making is mainly centralized in the
Presidency; is made collectively by Cabinet;
• Constitution vests the President/Cabinet with
powers to make policy decisions
• Cabinet, decisions are binding to all the
members
• Cabinet meets once a week to make such
decisions
 Policy Implementation

 In Uganda Policy implementation is the

responsibility of line ministries.
 Dissemination of Decisions
– The first step is recording and
disseminating Cabinet decisions.
– Much depends on the quality of the
Minutes that document the proceedings
of Cabinet.
 The Legislation Process
• There are 3 types of Bills:
• Government Bill: Bill introduced/tabled in
Parliament by the Executive Arm of
Government.
• Private Member’s Bill: introduced/tabled in
Parliament by a Member of Parliament. When
this happens, the Bill should conform to
Article 93 of the Constitution – it should
not have financial implications.
• Bill introduced by Committees under Rule
124: A committee of the House may initiate
any Bill within its area of competence.
 Process of handling a Bill
• Ministry initiating a Bill prepares the Principles of the Bill
for approval by Cabinet.
• Cabinet approves the principles and authorizes the
sponsoring ministry to issue drafting instructions to the
First Parliamentary Counsel.
• Drafting instructions:
– nature of the problem
– the purposes of the proposed legislation,
– means of achieving purposes
– impact of the proposals on existing circumstances and
law.
– include the Cabinet Minute and the Cabinet
Memorandum relating to the Cabinet Policy on the
drafting of the Bill.
 Process of handling a Bill…
• Minister submits Bill to Cabinet for approval
with a covering Cabinet memorandum
the Bill should be accompanied with a
certificate issued by the First Parliamentary
Counsel addressed to the Secretary to
Cabinet stating that the Bill is consistent
with the principles approved by Cabinet
Certificate of financial implications as
required under the Budget.
 Process of handling a Bill…
• Attorney General or the Solicitor General may
waive the requirement of prior approval by
Cabinet
• The request for waiver should be made in
writing to the Minister concerned
• Bill submitted to Cabinet should be
accompanied by a certificate issued by the
First Parliamentary Counsel addressed to the
Secretary to Cabinet stating that the Bill was
drafted on the basis of approval by the
Attorney General or Solicitor General.
 Process of handling a Bill…
• The Minister obtains authorization to have the
Bill gazetted and introduced in Parliament.
Attached to the Bill should be a letter from the
Attorney General confirming that the Bill has
been drafted according to the principles
approved by Cabinet and that it complies with
the Law.
• The Certificate of Financial Implications from the
Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic
Development should also be attached to the Bill.
• First Parliamentary Counsel will instruct the
Government Printer to publish the Bill in the
Gazette on receipt of the Cabinet Minute
authorizing publication.
 Process of handling a Bill…
• According to Rule 94(1) of the Rules of Procedure
of Parliament, if bill is of an urgent nature, that
Bill may be introduced without publication.
• Ministry concerned requests that the Bill be put
on the Order Paper to be given first reading by
Parliament.
• First Reading
• Second Reading
• Committee Stage
• Re-committal
• Third reading
• Presidential Assent
 Note: Presidential Assent

 A Bill becomes an Act after it has been assented

to by the President.
 Under Article 91 of the Constitution, a Bill may
also become law without the assent of the
President in certain circumstances where the
President and the Parliament disagree on the Bill.
 A Bill assented to by the President or which
becomes law without the assent of the President
is required to be published in the Gazzette.
 Monitoring and Evaluation
a) Monitoring
– Should begin well before implementation
gets underway.
– Policy should have monitoring plans to
guarantee implementation.
b) Evaluation
– Policy evaluation is an attribute of mature
management systems in which policies are
reliably carried through to the end.
– To ensure that policy objectives are met and
desirable policy changes are realized
Problem definition and agenda setting
• Public policy agenda setting is concerned with
the effort and techniques that are employed
or ought to be adopted in ensuring that a
given public concern reaches the platform
that matters
 Agenda setting
• Agenda setting involves identifying the agenda
issue in the first place

• What is an agenda issue?

It is a concern affecting a considerable number
of people whose remedial action requires a
broad spectrum of interventions e.g. school
feeding
 Characteristics of policy agenda issue
i. It affects a considerable number of people
ii. It affects the people considerably (degree)
iii. Apparently, there is little or nothing being done
to address the concern adequately
iv. The concern must be in the category where
governmental action is strongly recommended
v. The concern must be at such a point that
without urgent action the bad situation would
escalate into a crisis
Strategies for identifying policy agenda
issues
• Look out for issues about which the public
verbalize
• Look at the unfinished business of the
legislative body
• Look out for recommendations by academia/
researchers
• Employ experts/ consultants
 Strategies …
• Look at the kind of intervention individuals
and groups are attempting and the land of
problems they are attempting to address
• Look at the press/ media
• Look up at professional bodies e.g. UNATU,
UMA
• Look at international conventions/
declarations
 Power bases and agenda setting
• A power base is a particular trait or aspect of a
given individual or institution from which they
derive the ability to influence particular
outcomes
 Examples of power bases
• Age which is associated with wisdom
• Skill obtained from specialized training
• Talent (in-born)
• Royalty (king, queen, Prince, Princes)
• Wealth
• Knowledge (exposure)
• Access to authority
 Power bases…
• Physical characteristics
• Gender
• Religion
• Political affiliation
• Position/ status
 Power Broker
• A person or an institution with a power base is
known as a power broker. In respect to public
policy, the following are the key power brokers
 Opinion leaders
 Activists
 Political parties
 Religious leaders
 Cultural institutions
 Powerful individuals with resources
 Power Brokers…
 Donor community
 Academia
 International imperialist groups
 Old and experienced people
 Saboteurs (open enemies & those who pretend
to be friends)
 NGOs
 Media
 Gender Based Groups (Feminists)
 Options for dealing with power
brokers
• Work to bring them on your side
• Having a mutual agreement to respect and
support their position in exchange for their
support
• Join their side/ cause
• Negotiation
• Litigation
 Power broker options …
• Buy-off
• Ignore
• Balkanization – establish hostile blocs
• Procrastination
• Address the concern of a particular group
 Policy objectives formulation
The formulation of policy objectives should be
based on state principles of:
• Democracy
• National unity and stability
• National sovereignty, independence and
territorial integrity
• Right to development
• Balanced and equitable development
• Accountability
 Policy decision making
1. Cost benefit analysis
In an era of scarcity, interest in weighing cost
against benefits rises
Measurement of costs and benefits
The distributional impact
2. Systems analysis
This approach forces us to look at problems as
systems;
Assemblies of interdependent components;
 Policy decision making…
3. Multi-objectives Models
 Recognition that there are multiple objectives in
the policy
 Administrative processes Need to calculate the
relative importance or weight of various
objectives
4. Nominal Group Techniques
 Bring together broader perspectives for defining
the problem, more knowledge and information,
easier to implement (buy-in)
 Policy decision making…
5. . Operations Research
Here the scope of decision making is narrower.
 Concerned with problems that can be
represented by mathematical models
Concerned with relatively small problems
 -Option Selection criteria &
recommendation of Preferred Policies
• Before defining options of solutions to the policy
problem, evaluation criteria related to the results
of the selection of these alternatives need to be
defined. This begins with
Establishing policy goals
 The goals express what the policy should achieve
in terms of the solution of the problem
(outcome)
 The goals are translated into objectives, more
concrete statements about the future results that
are desired
A good selection criteria should be
• Clear
• Consistent
• Supported by measures
Commonly used evaluative criteria
• Legal feasibility (consistent with current
constitutional and legal framework
• Political viability (acceptability of the policy
option to various stakeholders)
• Sustainability
• Social-cultural feasibility
 Evaluative criteria…
• Technical feasibility (competence)
• Administrative feasibility (ease of
implementation)
• Cost effectiveness (achieving policy goals at
the least cost)
• Economic efficiency (maximization of
satisfaction by society)
• Equity
 How to develop policy options
• If no policy exists, begin from generic alternatives
• If there is a current policy, use it as a basis and gradually modify
components of current policy
• Develop typologies
• Compare the various alternatives with real experiences or with an
ideal situation
• Consult with experts and stakeholders
Specify a range of alternatives that include at least:
 Maintain or modify the current system
 Apply a policy design that has been tried and tested in other
settings
 Create a new one
 Do nothing (current policy as a base)
 Features of Good policy making
• Forward looking (Long term view)
• Outward looking (Focus on international,
national, regional situations)
• Innovative, flexible
• Joined up (Looks beyond institutional boundaries)
• Inclusive (Consultative for implementation)
• Evidence based
• Evaluated
• Reviews
• Lessons learnt (What works and what does not)
END