Un-Dutching the Delta Approach: network management and policy translation for effective policy transfer

Ellen Minkman,Arwin Van Buuren,Victor Bekkers

doi:10.4000/irpp.2174

Ellen Minkman, Arwin Van Buuren + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4000/irpp.2174

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Abstract

This study identifies network management as a facilitator of effective policy transfer. We reconstruct the unconventional collaboration between Dutch private-sector experts and national governments of Vietnam and Bangladesh to develop multi-sectoral, long-term strategies (‘delta plans’). We identify the network management strategies used by the Dutch actors and use these to explain how problem perceptions of state and non-state actors were aligned in order to define solution pathways. Based on these cases, we argue that network analysis is a tool for policy transfer studies. This paper further concludes that the ‘soft’ nature of the transferred policy (in the form of principles, norms and ideas) increased its transferability, as being ambiguous and abstract left room for interpretation and translation to the local context.

Highlights

This study identifies network management as a facilitator of effective policy transfer
We identify the network management strategies used by the Dutch actors and use these to explain how problem perceptions of state and non-state actors were aligned in order to define solution pathways
This article seeks to deepen our understanding of the networked character of processes of policy transfer and focuses upon the network management strategies deployed by transfer agents to facilitate policy translation

Summary

Introduction

This study identifies network management as a facilitator of effective policy transfer. We will attempt to respond to the following research question: “How do the network management strategies applied by policy transfer senders help explain the (in)effectiveness of policy transfer in the case of transfer of the Dutch Delta Approach (DDA) to Bangladesh and Vietnam?” The term ‘effective’ is preferred over ‘successful’ The latter may bear normative connotations while the intention of this research is to assess the role of network management as a tool for effective policy transfer (which is understood in this article as accessing the policy-making network and translating ideas to fit the receiving context) without evaluating the suitability of the ideas transferred. We highlight the relevance of using network analysis, i.e., analyzing the policy transfer network and network management strategies deployed by transfer agents, to study policy transfer

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