Participation In Policy Process Research Articles

Rural Development Strategies through Livestock Policy

Purpose: The main objective of the study was to investigate the rural development strategies through livestock policy.
 Methodology: The study adopted a desktop research methodology. Desk research refers to secondary data or that which can be collected without fieldwork. Desk research is basically involved in collecting data from existing resources hence it is often considered a low cost technique as compared to field research, as the main cost is involved in executive’s time, telephone charges and directories. Thus, the study relied on already published studies, reports and statistics. This secondary data was easily accessed through the online journals and library.
 Findings: The findings reveal that there exists a contextual and methodological gap relating to rural development strategies. The study underscored the significance of livestock farming as a crucial component of rural development strategies worldwide, emphasizing its multifaceted role in providing income, employment, food security, and cultural heritage, particularly in developing countries. It highlighted the need for context-specific and evidence-based livestock policies tailored to diverse socio-economic, environmental, and cultural realities, promoting sustainable resource management and addressing rural poverty and inequality. Additionally, it emphasized integrating holistic development objectives such as gender equity, social inclusion, and climate resilience into livestock policy frameworks to maximize social, economic, and environmental benefits. Lastly, the study stressed the importance of continuous monitoring, evaluation, and adaptive management in livestock policy implementation to foster learning-oriented processes and enhance resilience and responsiveness to evolving dynamics in rural areas. Overall, the study highlighted the pivotal role of livestock policy in shaping rural development trajectories and improving the well-being of rural communities.
 Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The Dependency theory, Institutional theory and Political Ecology theory may be used to anchor future studies on rural development strategies. The study yielded several recommendations to enhance the effectiveness of livestock policy interventions in promoting rural development. These recommendations included prioritizing inclusive livestock extension services, improving access to credit and financial services, integrating climate-smart livestock practices, supporting value-adding and market access initiatives, investing in livelihood diversification, and promoting participatory policy processes. By implementing these recommendations, policymakers and stakeholders aimed to enhance the resilience, sustainability, and inclusivity of rural development efforts, ultimately improving livelihoods and fostering sustainable rural transformation.

Disaster management policy changes in Bangladesh: Drivers and factors of a shift from reactive to proactive approach

AbstractIn this paper, we argue that, while it is necessary to modify existing policy using the lessons learned from disaster events (i.e., reactive learning), this approach is insufficient on its own for dealing with ongoing and emerging climate‐induced disaster risks. Rather, we assert that policymakers must also adopt a proactive and anticipatory learning approach that would enable policy learning and policy evolution in the absence of a major disaster event. We examine drivers, actors, and processes of change in disaster‐management policy paradigms in Bangladesh. A longitudinal learning perspective is applied. We categorize disaster management (DM) policy regimes into three learning episodes: (i) reactive, (ii) transitional, and (iii) proactive. The roles of reactive and proactive learning in shifting DM policy paradigms within these learning episodes are particularly determined. Finally, five interrelated factors that triggered proactive policymaking are identified, which are: risk‐oriented policymaking; cross‐scale (i.e., lesson drawing and policy transfer) and cross‐level (i.e., from local, regional, and national experience) learning; participation of multiple stakeholders; research‐informed and knowledge‐based policymaking; and the presence of a strong advocacy group and a participatory policy process.

Migration Governance in South Africa

The emerging global migration governance architecture is very different from the formal multilateralism of the post-1945 era that influenced the evolution of transboundary issues of trade, the environment, and finance. States have recognised that they cannot address the challenge of migration without international cooperation. Consequently, multiple institutions co-exist across the bilateral, regional, inter-regional, and multilateral levels, through both formal and informal structures. Proponents of a 'management' approach to global migration governance, primarily countries in the Global North, have preferred to keep intergovernmental discussions regarding migration outside of the United Nations (UN) in various state-led fora in different regional and global settings. Equally, countries in the Global South, along with normative organizations such as ILO, OHCHR, and IOM, have sought to further a rights-based approach to the governance of migration within the UN. IOM's recommendation that has been faulted by academia for being biased: International migration in countries in the Global South, including South Africa, is that migration management frameworks should be anchored in sound policies and underpinned by enabling legal frameworks and implementation strategies that have the support of all stakeholders and devoid of these symptoms of a lack of coordination, coherence and cooperation. The academic critique fails to appreciate that public administration has many lenses that are not in public domains. This paper is explanatory research that is built on exploratory and descriptive research types. It goes further to determine causes and reasons, extend the theory or principles, and provide evidence to support or refute explanations or predictions. The research philosophy of this paper is pragmatism underpinned by the nature of reality, the nature of knowledge of migration governance and the role of values of the researcher. It reviewed relevant literature to the paper, applicable policies, laws, discourses, and practices following a qualitative method with reflexive and critical comparison approach combining broad, multidisciplinary literature review; evaluating of promotion, application, and treaty review of international standards; the direct participation in policy processes in two Reginal Economic Communities in Africa: EAC and IGAD. The relevant literature reviewed are publications on migration, migration management, migration governance, migration development, border management, national security, human rights, international relations, social protection, international labour and skills mobility, development, and related themes. This paper adopted the model of migration that draws upon recent developments in migration theory: the Model Mechanisms that Produce Migration. MMPM does away with the notion of root causes; the notion of 'root causes' originated in the European policy debates about conflict-driven displacement. The attempts to tackle root causes centred on humanitarian action to prevent violence, end human rights abuses, and facilitate peace-building. This flawed preventative logic was transferred to economically motivated migration with the assumption that migration can be stemmed by alleviating poverty and creating jobs. The knowledge growth about the mixed nature of migration flows and migration motivations has been recognized by governments and international agencies and is broadly applicable across different categories of migrants, including refugees. The Model is built around three steps. Migration governance in South Africa remains a complex and challenging issue, requiring a comprehensive, coordinated, and integrated approach from the government and other stakeholders described as a whole-of-society and government approach and partnership. Adequate State funding and stakeholders' participation in the implementation of the South Africa White Paper on International Migration has the potential to address many of the challenges associated with migration governance in the country and the SADC region effectively and sustainably.

Collaboration of Stagist Approaches and Discursive Approaches on Ideas & Discourse in “Bela Negara” Policies in Prismatic Communities: Study in Situbondo Regency, Indonesia

The “bela negara” program in Situbondo Regency focuses on collaborative efforts between Situbondo Regional Leadership Coordination Forum (Forkopimda) and “Pondok Pesantren” to produce a participatory policy process. Collaboration between the two is important in a prismatic society to accommodate the knowledge each party has in an inclusive public space. Although, to realize collaboration is not easy because it involves complex interests between the two. The study analyses the collaboration of “bela negara” policies in the prismatic Situbondo Regency. The method used in this study is a qualitative method with interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA). The use of the IPA approach in this study is to analyze collaboration on “bela negara” policies in Situbondo Regency, both those carried out by policy actors or the Situbondo Regional Leadership Coordination Forum (Forkopimda) as well as those carried out by the target group or among the clergy. Based on the results of the discussion, it can be concluded that in the “bela negara” policy process in Situbondo Regency, there is a different knowledge construction between the actor and the target group. The Situbondo Regional Leadership Coordination Forum (Forkopimda), as a policy actor, relies on professional knowledge and scientific (indigenous) knowledge. While the target group or the clergy use local knowledge (endogenous). These different types of knowledge arise as a result of different policy approaches. Forkopimda Situbondo, as a policy actor, adopts a stagist or managerial policy approach. While the Ulama use a discursive approach to ideas & discourse that relies on their local knowledge. Even though there are differences in policy approaches, the two of them are able to collaborate well, seen in several activities, as seen in the 74th Anniversary of the Republic of Indonesia and the Commemoration of the 74th National Defense Day (HBN).

Environmental policy integration in a newly established natural resource-based sector: the role of advocacy coalitions and contrasting conceptions of sustainability

Contributing a new South American case study, this paper seeks to advance the research agenda on processes of policy integration by developing a better understanding of how nascent subsystems become integrated into mature ones and the role that changing beliefs of advocacy coalitions play in fostering policy integration. The paper examines environmental policy integration in Uruguay’s forestry sector since the 1990s and is based on an inductive qualitative analysis of policy documents, sector reports, parliament hearings and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders. This demonstrates that environmental policy integration has increased continuously since the 1990s, accelerating particularly during the 2000s. We can derive three insights that specifically address this path of integration: a change in the policy beliefs of the dominant advocacy coalition, international salience of the minority coalition`s beliefs and participatory policy processes that foster interactions between opposing coalitions. Despite this, the two advocacy coalitions have crystallized with fundamentally different deep core beliefs about what a sustainable forestry sector should be. While one coalition argues that commercial tree plantations are sufficiently regulated in environmental terms, the other coalition maintains that the way that the pulp industry has developed in Uruguay is fundamentally unsustainable and therefore seeks to change the forestry sector as a whole.

The Perils of Participation: The Effect of Participation Messages on Citizens’ Policy Support

While scholars have found several benefits to citizens, government, and society resulting from participatory policy processes, other research suggests that citizens are apathetic and uninterested in participating in policy-making. Also, in some cases, knowing that similar others participated in making a decision can decrease support for the result. The current research attempts to determine whether knowledge that similar citizens participated in public transportation policymaking or elites designed a transit policy affects support for the policy as well as general support for the policy process. Results from a survey experiment suggest that who participates matters. Citizens do not want “people like them” developing public transportation policies. These findings pose implications for the promotion of participatory processes.

Territorializing local public policy: Building social muscle, sustaining participation in food system transformation

This article focuses on experiences of engagement with public institutions to explore the nature of local level state-society relations that might enable the construction of food sovereignty. It illustrates how peasants and activists struggling for food sovereignty can benefit from and shape the impact of a variety of institutional supports to enable food system transformation. It draws on the concept of territorialized food systems, to illustrate the importance of considering the what and the how of policy and on feminist social reproduction theory to add nuance and depth to how we think about the process of leveraging public policy to enable food sovereignty. I develop the concept of social muscle to describe some of the ways that social movements try to build strength and resilience in order to navigate contradictions as they arise in this process. I argue that territorializing food systems can help reclaim control over food policy at the local level, but it also requires coordination among a range of diverse actors. A feminist analytical lens helps to visibilize this diversity of actors, understand and overcome some of the barriers to participation in policy processes that they may face. Finally, I suggest that no political opportunity can be seized upon or sustained without social muscle, which is required to guide policy making towards the construction of food sovereignty and which needs to be constantly strengthened.

Facilitating the participation of civil society in regional planning: Implementing quadruple helix model in Finnish regions

The engagement of a wide range of stakeholders has become a key element in regional planning, particularly in the development of regional research and innovation strategies for smart specialization (RIS3) in Europe. The quadruple helix model from the literature on regional innovation systems has been raised on the forefront of RIS3. This comes in spite of the fact that the literature surrounding the quadruple helix model (i.e., the collaboration among the university, industry, government, and civil society) is still in its infancy compared to the well-established triple helix model. Our paper addresses this gap and explores how regional authorities can facilitate the participation of the fourth helix (civil society) and ensure democracy of the participatory policy process. We adopted a grounded theory approach and collected primary data through interviews with regional authorities in Finland. Based on 28 interviews from all 18 Finnish mainland regions, we identified three mechanisms for facilitating the participation of civil society: information exchange, feedback, and co-creation. For policy-makers, our paper provides recommendations on how to overcome impediments in the engagement of civil society in regional planning.

“If You’re Not at the Table, You’re on the Menu”: Learning to Participate in Policy Advocacy as a Teacher Educator

ABSTRACT Scholars have long urged teacher educators to engage in policy advocacy and to respond to mounting attacks on the teacher education field. Prior research has shown that teacher educators feel largely unprepared to participate in policy debates. This observation raises the question of how those who do engage in advocacy learn to navigate the contested terrain of teacher education policy. Drawing on a multiple case study research project, we argue that learning policy advocacy is a prolonged process, during which participants acquire the language used by policymakers and learn the procedures utilized by policymaking communities. This learning entails peripheral participation in policy processes, modeling, and mentoring. Our study sheds light on the importance of professional networks and relationships as support systems to expand teacher educators’ ability to participate in policy advocacy and reclaim their professional voice in policy debates.

Let the people decide: citizen deliberation on the role of GMOs in Mali\u2019s agriculture

This paper describes and critically reflects on a participatory policy process which resulted in a government decision not to introduce genetically modified (GM) cotton in farmers’ fields in Mali (West Africa). In January 2006, 45 Malian farmers gathered in Sikasso to deliberate on GM cotton and the future of farming in Mali. As an invited policy space convened by the government of Sikasso region, this first-time farmers' jury was unique in West Africa. It was known as l’ECID—Espace Citoyen d’Interpellation Démocratique (Citizen’s Space for Democratic Deliberation)—and it had an unprecedented impact on the region. In this Deliberative and Inclusive Process (DIP), the ECID combined the citizens’ jury method with indigenous methods for debate and dialogue, including the traditional African palaver. The ECID brought together male and female producers representing every district in the Sikasso region of southern Mali, specialist witnesses from various continents and a panel of independent observers, as well as resource persons and members of the national and international press and media. As an experiment in deliberative democracy, the ECID of Sikasso aimed to give men and women farmers the opportunity to share knowledge on the benefits and risks of GM cotton, and make policy recommendations on the future of GM technology in Malian agriculture. Designed as a bottom-up and participatory process, the ECID’s outcomes significantly changed national policy on the release of GM technology and have had an enduring influence in Mali. In this paper, we describe our positionality as action researchers and co-organisers of the ECID. We explain the methodology used for the ECID of Sikasso and critically reflect on the safeguards that were put in place to ensure a balanced and trustworthy deliberative process. The ECID and its key outcomes are discussed in the context of the political economy of GM cotton in West Africa. Last, we briefly highlight the relevance of the ECID for current international debates on racism in the theory and practice deliberative democracy; the production of post-normal transdisciplinary knowledge for technology risk-assessments; and the politics of knowledge in participatory policy-making for food and agriculture.

Public Participation and the Governance of Mineral Resources in Zimbabwe

Public participation in policy issues by the locals is a crucial ingredient that guarantees the success of any policy decision, national project and public programme. Public participation should permeate every sphere of governance. In this vein, Zimbabwe is endowed with numerous mineral resources. The indigenous Zimbabwean are statutorily deemed as the owners of the mineral resources hence their participation in policy processes and spaces that relate to the governance of natural resources is pertinent. However, it was noted that the Zimbabwean population is not fully benefiting from the extraction of these mineral resources. The paper therefore explores the magnitude and essence of public participation in the governance of mineral resources in Zimbabwe. In achieving this, the paper is informed by Arnstein’s ladder of participation as the theoretical framework. In addition, data was gathered from documentary review and in-depth interviews with key informants. The study observed that public participation in respect of mineral governance can be undertaken through public hearing meetings, national budget consultative meetings and alternative mining indabas. However, the current level of participation is within the range of non-participation and lower tokenism. In addition, there is also lack of feedback and information flows in one direction from the Government officials to the citizens. The Government does not really take seriously the contributions from the public. The study therefore proffered some recommendations to enhance the levels of knowledge and participation by the public in the governance of mineral resources in Zimbabwe.

Policy Change Through Negotiated Agreements: The Case of Greening Swiss Agricultural Policy

Negotiated agreements are a promising pathway for policy change. This paper revisits and extends characteristics of negotiated agreements using the Advocacy Coalition Framework. We focus on two characteristics of negotiated agreements that previous literature has not explicitly addressed. First, we scrutinize the role of policy core and secondary policy beliefs in actor constellations. Secondly, we address partial success, that is, the notion that actors concede on some points, but in return succeed in others. We investigate these two characteristics in the 2014 reform of Swiss agricultural policy. Based on cluster and social network analysis, we exemplify how negotiated agreements embedded in a participatory policy process lead to a surprising level of policy change by promoting agricultural production practices with an intended positive effect on the environment. We show that rather than coalitions based on policy core beliefs, the formation of groups of actors based on secondary beliefs who span across the coalitions formed the basis for a negotiated agreement. Green and conservative groups were both able to achieve partial success. We conclude that insights from this exemplary case study should revive the concept and initialize a research agenda on negotiated agreements as a pathway for change in domestic policymaking.

Ideologies of sign language and their repercussions in language policy determinations

This article discusses ideologies of sign languages and language policy for revitalisation. The first part provides an analysis of language policy as official texts, public discourses and performative participation in policy process. After a review of ideologies that influence sign languages the paper looks at legal recognition, and some ways that the law can help or hinder the rights of sign language users. The origins of some language ideologies are traced through public attitudes, comparisons with revitalisation efforts for minority spoken languages and historical projects of idealised language forms. The article discusses the chapters in the Special Issue against the backdrop of language policy and political considerations.

An institutional analysis of glacial floods and disaster risk management in the Nepal Himalaya

Institutional factors of disaster risks have rarely been studied for glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), which are threatening high mountain regions such as the Andes, Alps, and Himalayas. Exacerbated by climate change, much of the focus in the Himalayas so far has been on GLOF risk anticipation. Recent research suggested the gaps in how scientific information on GLOFs has been communicated to local communities and the resulting distrust in government-led mitigation efforts such as, lake lowering and early warning systems. These gaps are largely driven by a set of socio-economic, cultural and institutional factors, which are poorly understood. Applying an institutional analysis framework, this research examines the institutional conditions under which Himalayan communities can create effective strategies to address GLOF risks. This research applies a mixed-methods approach by combining a) quantitative analysis of household social surveys, and b) qualitative analysis that maps out the various institutional factors that influence the success of community-level mitigation efforts. Additionally, GLOF case studies from Nepal are compared to those of Peru, where a long history of managing GLOFs exists. A set of critical institutional factors and barriers have been identified, including lack of cross-scalar communication networks, a mismatch between the agenda of external agencies and priorities of local communities, failure to recognize the value of local knowledge and participation in policy processes, and ineffective inter-organizational coordination of knowledge sharing and funding streams for mitigation projects. Bridging these disconnects is a significant step toward successful adaptation and mitigation efforts to reduce future GLOF disaster risks.

Sensing policy: engaging affected communities at the intersections of environmental justice and decolonial futures

ABSTRACTPushing back against an extractive approach to research to center relationships, this paper draws from ethnographic sensibilities and community vignettes to discuss what academic-activists and political scientists can learn from communities’ situated bodies of knowledge. Tensions emerge when those most directly affected by public policy decisions are excluded from the decision-making process. Consultation leaves many encountering a paradox: their lived experiences are discredited even when they are invited to participate. This paper offers an imaginative approach to the design of participatory policy processes and asks: how can decision-makers meaningfully engage affected parties in pursuit of environmentally just policy creation? In response, this paper argues that bodies generally, and guts specifically, are political. To do so, I flesh out how a sensing policy approach to public engagement and socially engaged research can assist those crafting policies – including, laws, programs and service-delivery – to address contentious multilayered environmental justice issues. These include concerns for more-than-human life. Reflecting on experiences of community-engagement with Indigenous communities in Canada and Hawaiʻi, sensing policy builds from interpretive methods and intersectionality-based policy analysis to inform and potentially improve decision-making processes by taking seriously the experiences, knowledges and voices of those most affected by the government (in)decisions.

‘Building Kachin’: Youth and Everyday Action in one of Myanmar's Ethnic States

ABSTRACTIn 2011, Myanmar started its political transition after decades of military rule. In Kachin State this coincided with the breaking of a 17‐year ceasefire between the Kachin Independence Organization/Army (KIO/A) and the state army, the Tatmadaw. For youth living in Kachin State, this meant that opportunities for civic and political participation opened up while at the same time their context remained volatile and uncertain. Using citizenship theory and the concept of the ‘everyday’, this article analyses how youth in Kachin State connect the challenges they experience to their sense of citizenship, and how this informs everyday forms of youth action as well as youth participation in policy processes. The article argues that young people act out of moral and political reasons to ‘build Kachin’, in response to deeply historically rooted experiences of discrimination and state repression. While the agency of young people living in conflict settings is often believed to be limited to tactical agency for individual and immediate survival, an analysis of youth's experiences of citizenship shows that they also act strategically to advance the interests of their society.

What drives participatory policy processes: Grassroot activities, scientific knowledge or donor money? – A comparative policy network approach

A policy network approach has been developed to assess participatory policy processes in Ghana, Senegal, and Uganda. Theoretically, political influence measures correspond to two different influence mechanisms: vote-buying and informational lobbying. For each mechanism, separate measures were defined and empirically derived from corresponding policy networks. Exponential random graph models were used to assess the network-generating process, which allows for analysis of the robustness of the derived influence measures and the determinants of network structure. The results imply that participatory policy processes are dominated by donor and research organizations, while farm interests and civil society organizations have only a negligible influence. The design of stakeholder systems appears to be difficult since the observed network structures are mainly determined by relational factors that result from organizations’ social networking activities or other organizational attributes, such as reputation power, which cannot be easily controlled. Institutional factors such as membership in committees have only a minor impact.

Citizens’ Jury and Elder Care: Public Participation and Deliberation in Long-Term Care Policy in Thailand

ABSTRACTHealth care policies for the elderly are complex, multidimensional, and contextually circumscribed. While engagement of health experts, economists, health care administrators, and political leaders is generally viewed as instrumental to the success and sustainability of eldercare programs, the elders themselves are often viewed as passive recipients of care and not included in the policy processes. Experiences and expectations from users’ perspectives can be invaluable information for policy formulation and systems design. This paper examines a participatory policy process using a “citizens’ jury” to promote public engagement in eldercare policy. The process was initiated by the National Health Commission Office in Thailand to explore how a citizens’ jury as a model for civic deliberation can be utilized to provide sophisticated policy recommendations on long-term care policies for the elderly. The objectives of this paper are to (1) examine how public participation in health policy can be actualized through the citizens’ jury as an operational model, (2) understand the strengths and weaknesses of the ways the idea was implemented, and (3) provide recommendations for further use of the model. Details of how a citizens’ jury was deployed are discussed, with recommendations for further use provided at the end.

Factors for Citizens’ Participation in policy process: Mediating Effects of Online Activities

Factors for Citizens’ Participation in policy process: Mediating Effects of Online Activities

The participation of stakeholders in the policy processes and their satisfaction with results: A case of Estonian forestry policy

The article explains the stakeholders' interactions and satisfaction with their participation in the forest policy processes in Estonia. The interactions during the policy formulation and decision-making stages are observed with special attention to the role of scientists. Representatives of three target groups were interviewed: forestry officials, stakeholders and forestry scientists. The stakeholders tend to believe their main form of participation in policy processes is decision-making, not realising that the final decisions are made by forestry officials or by politicians: the minister, government or Parliament. Consensual proposals or decisions are important because these usually form the basis for final formulations in policy documents. The policy processes are mostly facilitated by forestry officials whose mediation skills need improvement. There is a major conflict between stakeholders representing timber production and environmental protection. In policy discussions, the environmentalists should provide more analysis, otherwise their viewpoints are ignored. Forestry scientists fall short in their most important role as honest brokers; they must learn how to integrate themselves into policy processes. Very often scientists act as observers, but other participants expect them to actively bring scientific information and knowledge into discussions. In addition to the face-to face meetings, new communication tools (e-consultation and e-participation) are available, but they are underused in the policy formulation processes.