Food and Agricultural Policy

Analysis
By
Horace Phiri
2019
Todays Plan
• Essential Preconditions and Capabilities for successful implementation
• Building Blocks for Successful implementation
• Policy Analysis Frameworks
• Dimensions of policy analysi
Essential Preconditions and Capabilities
Considering implementation at every stage of
policy development
• Fully considering implementation issues at every stage of policy
development is a shared responsibility
• All entities—‘central agencies’, policy entities and implementing
entities—should be ever-mindful of the need to identify and involve
relevant parties at the earliest possible stage of developing new policy
and do everything possible to ensure that this, in fact, occurs
• Get the implementation agencies in right at the beginning of the
policy process. Failure to do so drives up risk
Strong leadership, an inclusive approach, sound
processes and the effective use of resources
• It focuses on two key requirements for public sector entities:

• performance—governance arrangements and practices that are

designed and operate to shape the entity’s overall results

• accountability—governance arrangements and practices that are

designed and operate to provide accountability for results, decisions
and actions to the entity’s leadership
Building Blocks for Successful
Implementation
Governance
• Governance refers to the arrangements and practices which enable
an entity to set its direction and manage its operations in order to
discharge its accountability obligations and assist in the achievement
of expected outcomes
• Good public sector governance is about getting the right things done
in the best possible way, and delivering this standard of performance
on a sustainable basis.
Managing Risks
• Successful implementation relies on the identification and
management of risk.
• A robust risk management framework will promote accurate, well-
informed judgements and mitigation strategies.
• The analysis of risks should commence as the policy is being
developed and should continue through the implementation process.
Engaging Stakeholders
• Effective stakeholder engagement starts with a clear objective for
consultation, followed by the identification of people and
organisations with a clear interest in the initiative.
• The nature and quality of relationships between a public sector entity
and its stakeholders strongly influence the impact of government
activities on the community
• A public sector entity should be outward looking and interactive. It
should make the best use of the expertise of stakeholders to inform
policy development and implementation approaches
Planning
• Planning provides a ‘map’ of how an initiative will be implemented,
addressing matters such as timeframe, dependencies with other
policies or activities, program logic, phases of implementation, roles
and responsibilities, resourcing, and compliance with legal and policy
requirements.
• A level of leadership, experience and skills commensurate with the
sensitivity, significance and impact of initiatives should be applied to
implementation planning.
Resources
• Misalignment between resources and needs at the roll-out stage
creates a significant risk that the implementation team will be unable
to deliver the required outcomes in the required time period
• Potential constraints, such as the capability of information and
communications technology systems and staff expertise, should be
identified and dealt with at the earliest possible opportunity.
Respective shares of focus areas in ASWAP Budget

Respective shares of focus areas in 2012/13 MoAFS actual expenditure,

Monitoring, review and evaluation
• Monitoring, review and evaluation processes provide a basis for the
active management of the implementation.
• Establishing effective feedback loops enables the timely adjustment of
the other building blocks to facilitate successful implementation.
• If major issues emerge, which cannot be addressed by adjusting
delivery arrangements, there may be a need to revisit the baseline
policy settings
Some Policy Analysis Frameworks
• Generally, policy analysis frameworks identify key policy elements
vital to understanding and/or judging a policy.
• The specific elements and the approach taken in evaluating the
elements differ depending on the model.
• Donald E. Chambers (2000) formulated a policy analysis framework,
building upon the work of Eveline Burns in her book, The American
Social Security System (1949).
• Chambers highlights the importance of looking at the analytical
description of a policy by focusing on its key elements. The elements
that he highlights as essential to implementation of any policy
include:
• 1) Goals and objectives
• 2) Forms of benefits or services delivered
• 3) Entitlement (eligibility) rules
• 4) Administrative or organizational structure for service delivery
• 5) Financing method
• 6) Interactions among the foregoing elements
• Chambers asserts that it is not enough to simply describe the policy
elements, but social workers must go beyond the description and
make a value-based judgment about the policy
• His three evaluation criteria include the “fit” of the policy elements to
the social problem, the adequacy, equity, and efficiency of policy
consequences for clients and program participants, and other criteria
unique to a single policy element
• Gilbert & Terrell (2002) conceptualized another model of policy
analysis derived from Eveline Burns’ book, Social Security and Public
Policy (1956).
• Their framework expanded Burn’s framework to apply to all social
welfare policies.
• Policy analysis looks at the dimensions of choice or range of
alternatives available when forming and implementing policy
• The basic components or “dimensions of choice” are designated by
the following four questions:
• 1) What is the basis of social allocations?
• 2) What are the types of social provisions to be allocated?
• 3) What are the strategies for the delivery of these provisions?
• 4) What are the ways to finance these provisions?
• The first dimension, basis of social allocation, addresses who benefits
from the policy and nature of entitlement
• The nature of social provisions focuses on the form of benefit,
whether it is cash, in-kind, or an alternative form such as vouchers or
power
• design of the delivery system, deals with the organization of the
service providers and consumers
• The mode of finance is separated into two sections, sources of funds
and systems of transfer.
• Similar to Chambers’ framework, Gilbert and Terrell did not simply
illuminate essential elements of the policy, but further emphasized
the role of values, theories, and assumptions in policy analysis.
• The purpose of social policy components and the entire policy can be
understood by looking at the values, theories, and assumptions.
• Values help to explore the distributive justice aim of social policy by
observing the adequacy, equity, and equality of social policy in
addition to looking at the value of the individual versus the collective
(Gilbert & Terrell, 2002).
• Popple & Leighninger (2004) formulated a model of policy analysis
with Gilbert & Terrell’s framework embedded into one element
• The framework includes the following elements:
• Delineation and overview of the policy under analysis
• Historical analysis
• Social analysis
• Economic analysis
• Political analysis
• Policy/program evaluation
• Current proposals for policy reform
• delineation and overview of the policy, focuses on the nature and definition
of the problem being targeted and the design of the policy utilizing Gilbert
and Terrell’s framework
• The historical analysis looks at earlier policies and the development of the
policy over time
• The social analysis includes the problem description, social values related to
the problem, and goals of the policy
• Economic analysis addresses the effects and potential effects of the policy
on the functioning of the economy as a whole, as well as on behaviors of
individuals, firms, and markets and opportunity cost or cost/benefit analysis
• Political analysis focuses on the major stakeholders and the decision-
making process during implementation
• Policy/program evaluation includes outcomes, unintended
consequences, and questions about cost effectiveness.
• Lastly, it is important to focus on current proposals for policy reform
• Andrew W. Dobelstein (2002) posits that policy analysis guides policy
making activity to appropriate conclusions.
• His framework draws heavily from social science knowledge and
research methods and includes the following elements:
• 1. Identifying, understanding, or clarifying the problem
• 2. Identifying the location for policy decision
• 3. Specifying possible solutions (alternatives)
• 4. Estimating or predicting the impact (outcomes) of those solutions on
different populations
Important to note
• The four frameworks discussed here are only a fraction of the
available policy analysis frameworks available in the literature
• These frameworks as well as others have great variability in terms of
their focus and intent
Dimensions for analyzing public policies
 
What effects does the policy have on the targeted
Effectiveness
problem?

Effects Unintended effects What are the unintended effects of this policy?

What are the effects of this policy on different

Equity
groups?

Cost What is the financial cost of this policy?

Implemen Feasibility Is this policy technically feasible?

tation
Do the relevant stakeholders view the policy as
Acceptability
acceptable?
END