Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences
School of Public Management and Administration
School of Public Management and Administration
Selected Highlights from Research Findings
Two studies examined issues related to effective policy implementation. The first study was based on the premise that cross-national experiences and policy design in a specific jurisdiction should theoretically influence policy learning and eventually policy outcomes. The research explores the debate around and value of policy learning and highlights the myths and imperatives of policy learning by addressing to what extent it contributes to real policy change. One such myth is that all incidents of policy implementation should foster policy learning and therefore improved service delivery. A common definition of policy learning may be possible, but details differ in every social context. Different kinds of learning are instrumental learning, social learning and political learning. The basis for learning includes aspects such as how conscious learning is, the object of learning, who learns, and the status of learning in policy literature. Often policy change does not result from learning, although it can occur because of learning. Learning due to failure in the process of policy learning often has more long-lasting effects than learning from successes. Different kinds of policy learning and a combination of them can contribute to meaningful policy change and improved service delivery. Policy change is proof of learning. What is learned is what is remembered, but how do governments and organisations deal with policy intelligence? Policy intelligence should be valued in a culture of policy learning. Organisational and intra-organisational learning could stimulate common learning in government and institutions alike.
The second study focused on sense-making in the implementation process. What a policy means for the implementers is constituted in the interaction of their knowledge, beliefs and attitudes with the situation. The understanding of the policy message is influenced by individual cognition, situated cognition and the role of the implementing agents. The implementing agents sometimes reject or fundamentally revise national policy proposals. To take a stand against a certain policy, implementers must first know what it is that the directive is asking them to do. The understanding of directives requires cognitive skills and processes of interpretation. What implementers’ make of new information has much to do with prior knowledge, expertise, values, beliefs and experiences. The study delineates the contribution of cognitive frames to implementation and attempts to make additional contributions to understanding the role of cognition in the implementation process.
Contact person: Prof PA Brynard.
In this study, the research team argued that African and other developing countries cannot continue to argue about the fairness of the international trading rules, while simultaneously being further excluded and marginalised owing to their effects. It was further argued that one such effect will be the reduction in the amount of autonomy previously enjoyed by national bureaucracies. Through the interplay of deregulation and technology, the team postulates that new options for economic and political participation become available in public administration modelling. The study also indicated that the challenges facing African states to become more involved in the global trading environment needs to be investigated. Such opportunities should be investigated at both regional and international level with the aim of modifying the present rules in order to gain new advantages. If Africa is absent from such global debate and consensus building, it can only be to the detriment of the region.
Greater access to international markets is universally accepted as the solution for many of Africa’s problems. Such increased access would theoretically allow African countries the opportunity to develop strong economies. Sustainable growth through trade would then replace the current common dependence on aid and enable African citizens to enjoy a fuller share of the myriad benefits of globalisation. The gradual global reduction in historic methods to protect market aspects, such as tariffs, is bringing technical requirements to the fore. These requirements often become technical barriers to trade (TBTs) between Africa and its trading partners. Simultaneously, there are continuous global demands for greater access to African markets. Such demands even occur as ever more stringent technical requirements for granting reciprocal access in developed markets are set. Such technical access requirements are insidiously becoming an increasingly important part of the African trading landscape.
Therefore, African governments increasingly need to ensure that domestic industry and agriculture have appropriate and affordable access to appropriate technical support infrastructure. The current African approaches to such generally unexpected technical challenges from elsewhere are mostly reactive donor-driven projects managed as crises. The predominant focus of NEPAD presently revolves around demonstrating appropriate governance. Rather than continuing to be victims of globalisation, African states working cooperatively through NEPAD have an opportunity to redress their past difficulties. In the area of African standards, quality assurance, accreditation and metrology (SQAM) capacitation, NEPAD has an important leadership role to play. It could provide a foundation through which solutions in SQAM can be cooperatively sought and addressed. Aspects relating to proving compliance to the aforementioned agricultural, industrial and environmental policies need immediate attention. An African public administration-led approach to building SQAM technical capacity would then be possible.
Complying with the various and technically challenging regulatory requirements of foreign markets cannot continue be the sole thrust of Africa’s trade facilitation efforts. Implementing foreign technical solutions that make sense in a limited and different context will not deliver large-scale benefits for Africa. NEPAD-fostered partnerships based on mutually beneficial and optimal solutions are preferable. Such a proposed role for NEPAD includes the creation of sound theoretical public administration underpinning and successful operational facilitation for African public administrators working in concert on mutually beneficial technical SQAM support strategies. The many predicaments identified by this study raise the question as to whether cooperative engagement with such complexities, using a vehicle such as NEPAD, would assist African states to find appropriate and sustainable solutions.
Contact person: Prof JO Kuye.
|
