Legislative and Institutional Pathways interfacing the Research,

Policy and Practice Nexus

Strengthening Linkages between Policy Research and Policy making for African Development

Sub-Theme One: Conceptualizing research, policy and practice for Sustainable African

development African Technology Studies Network (ATSN)

Annual Conference & Workshop

BT Costantinos, PhDProfessor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,

Department of Public Administration and Management, AAU, costy@costantinos.net,

Theme of the ResearchThe research theme augurs on challenges and opportunities in interfacing pathways for translating research evidence through policy to practice for sustainable African development.

The key research question augurs on what the research protocols and models of public management that can be deployed to reform the research, policy and practice interface?

Research questions1.What are the research-policy-

practice interface analytical limitations?

2.What research protocols can be deployed to synergise the interface?

3.What public management models can be proposed to advance the interface

Hypothesis: Policy formulation pluralism and practice is most likely to happen when initiatives emanate from society rather than the state or international actors. The effectiveness of state and non state organisations at promoting policy pluralism depends on their autonomy, capacity, complexity, and coherence.

ObservationsAgency & ideology for RPP in Africa:• Participants : • governments: preside on the nexus, • political organisations not affiliated

government, • opposition groups, intellectuals and the

press; • local non-state entities that exert far-

reaching external influence over political reform;

• Certain international agencies that range their activities and influence extensively;

• These are reinforced by uncertainty and complexity reducing activities of key participants.

• This hierarchy of agency effectively places some participants in positions of subordination.

DiscussionAnalytical perspectives of the RPP nexus

1. a tendency to narrow RPP nexus to the terms of immediate not very well considered action, a naïve realism, as it were;

2. inattention to problems of articulation RPP systems and processes within local realities rather than simply as formal or abstract possibilities;

3. a nearly exclusive concern in certain institutional perspectives on RPP nexus with generic attributes of organisations and consequent neglect of analysis in terms of specific strategies and performances of organisations;

4. ambiguity as to whether African think tanks are agents or objects of the nexus;

5. inadequate treatment of the role of policy transfers from the BWI and of relations between global and indigenous aspects or dimensions of policy-practice nexus

A determinate order of institutions, interests powers and activities operates through complexes of ideas and values, filling out, specifying, anchoring and often short-cutting their formal content or meaning. This raises the questions• Are all ideas and values allowed to

contend? Are there laws or unwritten codes which prevent or hinder intellectual and cultural freedom?

• Do the views and perspectives of society have a significant and legitimate place in policy projects and processes? Is good faith criticism of a particular policy strategy construed

Proliferation of aid, Policy TransfersCapacity building for policy pluralism is important,

but it is also important that institutions in civil society and the state in Africa make the most effective use of whatever actual capacity they have for igniting policy

change; which begs the question:

• What is the overall rationality or significance of the great traffic of international programmes and projects of capacity development in Africa, the proliferating activities that seem to show little regard for economy of co-ordination; not to mention new forms of participatory research into social engineering that seem to haunt the rural landscape indefinitely?

• How far and in what ways do various international agencies’ programmes, mechanisms, forms of knowledge and technical assistance feed on one another in helping set the boundaries of policy reform in Africa?

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ResearchPolicy relevant

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IMF/WBUN SystemCSOsAcademia

Research arenas and policy relevance

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  Capital formation and accumulation  

   

  Human, spiritual & social capital Policy & institutional strategy  

   

 Local adaptive

strategiesLegal empowerment of the poor  

 RPP Interface

TransformationParticipatory planning  

   

 Human security and development

continuum 

   

Processual/ Strategic elements

Sustainability Benchmarks

• Rules: constitutional, legislative, administrative

• Institutions: autonomy, capacity, complexity, cohesion

 

• Resilience, • economic efficiency, • social equitability 

 

Levels of application: household, community, wereda, region and federal

 

RPP Emerging paradigms

Mainstreaming a the nexus

Managing strategic

Information

Participatory Situation analysis: Policy, strategy, processes and structures for Public Sector

Management - Think tanks, Legislature, Executive

EvaluationPolitical economy strategic

analysis of institutions, stakeholders and rules collected

and collated

Develop political economy tools and institutional

arrangements for implementation

Blend RPP to national Strategic Governance Frameworks

Mainstreaming and integration RPP operational plans

RPP Decentralised Management at District and Community levels

Sustained implementation of

RPP and active feedback on

accomplishments

Guiding rules and toolsWith reference to policy pluralism and governance, the rules are 1)policy contest (i.e. unrestricted expression of social

interests); 2)policy participation (i.e. channels for citizen

involvement);3)administrative accountability, transparency, and

predictability;

The research should focus on four key generic characteristics 4)Organisational Autonomy: independence of the

organisation to set any pursue its own goals; 5)Organisational Capacity: effectiveness of the

organisation at achieving its stated objectives;6)Organisational Complexity: bureaucratisation of

internal structure; 7)Organisational Cohesion: sharing of common values,

goals and organisational culture among leaders and members;

Open inclusive policy making 1.Careful planning: preparation and learning,

transparency, 2.Inclusion: Governments benefit from active citizens

and dynamic civil society3.Shared vision , purpose, trust, impact, participatory

culture, action and sustained engagement4.Leadership and strong commitment to information

and consultation active participation in policy-making is needed.

5.Public consultation and active participation should be undertaken as early in the policy process as possible;• Governments have an obligation to account for the

use they make of citizens inputs received through feedback ;

• Governments need the tools to evaluate performance in providing information, conducting consultation and engaging citizens in order to adapt to new requirements and changing conditions for policy-making.

Thank YouBT Costantinos, PhD

Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies, Department of Public Administration and Management, AAU,

costy@costantinos.net https://sites.google.com/site/doncosty/