Transforming Institution for Results-focused Policy Jibgar Joshi

Basic concepts Policy makes impact on the resultant/overall course of actions (inactions) performed by the government, business, community, and individuals for human well-being. It is influenced by:  International concerns  Obligations of a welfare state  Government functions  Business  Communities  Civil societies, pressure groups. Policy should facilitate actions taken by different actors. All actors align their policies with the public policy. Policy is generally made to solve problems but it also creates unintended problems. It is also used as a tool for allocation and reallocation of resources. Investments depend on it.

What Leads to Policy  Existing problems  External concerns and external funding  Diagnosis  Information  Global commitments  Demonstrative effects  Transnational business operation  Governance at different levels: global, national, regional and local  National politics  Community needs, resources and networks  Political demand-making, pressure groups (civil societies)

Elements of Policy  Vision of New Nepal  National Space and Integration  Poverty Alleviation and Socio-economic Vision  Integration with Global Economy  Economic Resilience  Investments  Environment and Sustainable Development  Good Governance with Effective Provision of Services  Institution (institutional changes as condition) Institution is key to policy

Institution  All the elements are shaped through values and culture associated with institutions.  Policy is interpreted by institution.  Implementation depends on institution. A diverse range of organizations in action for making governance better. However these can also:  Legitimize wrong actions  Limit the access of the people to services  Exploit the people-bound resources  Diffuse accountability  Provide immunity to political leaders  Cause delay by postponing decisions and actions.

CHANGING PERSPECTIVES Institution has become more and more complex.  Community and social network predominated  Increased public involvement  Privatization  Global impact  Partnership  Coordination and integrated action  Consensus and coalition of interest of stakeholders

Problems  Policy environment is not appropriate  Inadequate and obsolete institution  Increasing complexity  Frequent and immature policy changes  Weak in implementation  Unrealistic targets  Organizational culture not service oriented  Lack of commitment, personal interest  Political factors  Lack of coordinated policy response  Policy seen as an end in itself; not as a means  Government spending does not ensure optimum use.  Lack of consensus: diverging perspectives of stakeholders  Lack of accountability, Corruption.

Diagnosis  Bureaucratic resistance in changing the role of the government to an enabling role  Donors’ influence and lack of harmony  Delay and non-performance (rewards and impunity)  Unnecessary costs in getting services  Cover-ups and manipulation  Limited access to information  Not results-based  Indifference to people’s suffering  Informal channels  Lack of innovative and creative attitude  Lack of public faith in governance

Government  Mechanism we use for collective action to solve our problems and satisfy our needs  Makes more and more policies and disables the private initiatives  Creates new institutions without any purpose  The government itself has but little success stories. Government action depends on:  The role of a Welfare state  Market functions  Pressure groups  External influence Government: short term, need to get elected. With frequent change in government, policy also changes.  Leadership in government  Changes in organizational culture  The dominance of the government is decreasing.

Organized Private Sector  Profit-oriented, interest in the private good  Taking after the evils of government  They exploit the services of the informal sector  Not competitive to face the global challenges  Do not take adequate risks  Policy not enabling enough and does not encourage producers to do better job  Limited contribution to innovation and R & D  Free access to knowledge-based resources  Actuated by global opportunities  Lack of corporate social responsibility

Community Sector The elements of policy will be duly taken care of if we could focus on community.  Empowerment  Problem of getting integrated with others  Risk of being exploited  Vulnerable  Community produce expropriated by other sectors  Need for integration of community efforts with the formal sectors  Self-reliant economy  Community-driven policy

Civil Societies  Help protect the community sector from being exploited by the public sector as well as the private sector  Enhance the role of community sector  Focus on community needs and community based initiatives.  Increasing access of Civil Societies in governance  Relationships with donors, government and business.  Increasing opportunity for Civil Societies to influence policy.

NEA  Limited scope for engineers.  Political undermining of technical rationality  Competence building  Awareness generation  Sustainable provision of services required by the people  Projects not assessed in terms of their contribution to result.  Lack of objective criteria  Inadequate R & D  Appropriate technology  Focus on Community initiatives  build pressure to make policy for the people  Help the formal sector to build competence to move to results to enhance social good

What leads to better policies?  Self-reliant system  Affordability Sustainable consumption and austerity  Realistic targets  Community-owned initiatives  Capacity building  Technology  Standards  R & D  Consensus  Transparency  Objective way of looking at things Results focused approach  Encouraging good actions,  Consensus and contentment of the coalition

Transforming Institution  Enabling role of the government  Interfere only when something better can be done. Policies in which there is consensus of the coalition of the stakeholders will be complied with.  Based on community needs that respond to the well felt needs, there will be good response.  Use Dreams and Vision for inspiring and motivating members of an organization.  Leadership  Accountability  Participatory  Service oriented  Equity  Sustainability  Strengthen community sector

Conclusion  Policies should help to align different stakeholders to build consensus. They should enable institutions.  The benefits of any policy is measured by the impact it makes.  Look at results in judging whether policies are good or bad. The result will depend not only on the policy but also on how others have aligned with it.  To make policy in any sector effective, it should consider all the elements.  Transformation to a new Nepal requires community-driven policy.  Change will be difficult if we fail to get rid of old institution and obsolete organizational culture.  NEA can make a difference in the reshaping of policies to make them community-based and results-focused. It should help to: - Raise awareness - Build competence in engineers to resist from being co-opted to support any sort of bad governance - Motivate engineers to learn through working with communities and develop appropriate technology - Develop information system and ensure transparency and accountability - Promote service-oriented approach - Bring changes in organizational culture and create pressure for good governance.

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