Policy-making Cycle Research Articles

National Quality Policy and Strategy of the Health Services in Health Systems of Developing Countries: A Scoping Review.

It has always been argued that countries should not be inactive about the quality of health services. Therefore, a clear policy needs to be created regarding how quality of health services should be. The present scoping review was aimed to identify and map the available evidence regarding the National Quality Policy and Strategy (NQPS) of the health services in health systems of developing countries, graphically and tabularly. We followed the published methodological guidance of the Joanna Briggs Institute reviews. Also, we employed a narrative thematic synthesis integrated with the systematic analysis using the World Health Organization's approach of NQPS, and the multiple-streams framework of Kingdon. We included 33 records that met the inclusion criteria; these records were published between 2010 and 2019. Meanwhile, government documents were the most frequent records (61%). Zimbabwe, Indonesia, and Sudan were the most frequent locations (each one 8%). The Ministry of Health was in charge of the ultimate responsibility for developing the NQPS in all identified countries. Besides, 82% of the countries were in the development phase of NQPS formulation, and convergence of three streams was observed in Indonesia, Sudan, and Tanzania. It seems that the African countries were informed about their quality issues, and the need for having NQPS have been more popular with them. We recommend that future research focuses on examining NQPS in terms of prioritizing in the agenda-setting phase of the policy-making cycle, and also, document analysis of all identified NQPS based on the core eight interdependent elements related to the NQPS approach.

Contextual Factors Obstructing the Effective Implementation of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy in the Lesotho Education Sector

Policy implementation is the most crucial phase in the policy-making cycle. If not implemented, policy aims and objectives cannot be achieved, and the quality of education can subsequently not be improved. The Lesotho Ministry of Education (MoET) adopted the Curriculum and Assessment Policy, 2009 (CAP 2009) to localise its curriculum. With this curriculum, MoET intends to make education relevant to Basotho and improve equal and equitable access to quality education for all Basotho. However, a persistent policy gap caused by failing to implement the CAP 2009 effectively renders this curriculum ineffective. MoET now plans to replace CAP 2009 with a new curriculum called the Lesotho Basic Education Curriculum Policy (LBECP), which is intended to close the implementation gap witnessed with the CAP 2009 and counter the contextual factors that led to the failure of CAP 2009. In this article, we argue that the Lesotho education policy context obstructed the implementation of CAP 2009. We, therefore, explore certain contextual factors that negatively impacted the effective implementation of CAP 2009. We argue that the persistent policy gap regarding the implementation of CAP 2009 results from a policy process that is not sensitive to or does not reflect the unique Lesotho education context. Findings suggest that poverty, rurality, HIV/AIDS, corruption, and political instability severely hampered the effective implementation of the CAP 2009. Following this, specific recommendations are made to improve and ensure effective curriculum implementation within the Lesotho education sector.

No net land take for Flanders. Towards a roadmap for the implementation of Europe’s land target

Since 2011, the European Commission has recommended that member states reduce land take and achieve the ‘no net land take’ objective by 2050. The objective was reinforced in the EU ‘Soil Strategy for 2030’ and is likely to gain further importance in the upcoming Soil Health Law. This paper investigates the feasibility and implementation of a no net land take policy for the Flemish region, Belgium. The new land policy for Flanders was announced in 2016, representing a paradigm shift from spatial growth to final growth boundaries. The paper uses a generic model of the policy-making cycle to assess the implementation of a no net land take policy at the national or regional level. We propose a roadmap of implementation in five cyclical phases for Flanders, but many aspects of this proposed roadmap can be applied to other parts of Europe as well. In the implementation stage, the targeted selection and implementation of land-use instruments is of paramount importance to realise the land-take reduction trajectory. The Flemish case of the so-called Bouwshift shows that development instruments supporting further construction at good locations are politically more popular than protective measures that actually protect soil and landscape but intervene in property rights.

What Can We Do to Improve the Health Policy-Making Cycle in the Islamic Republic of Iran with a Good Governance Approach? Recommendations for the Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Health and Food Security

Background: The primary purpose of the health system is to promote equitable health in society. The aim of this study is to offer some recommendations for improving the Iranian health policy-making cycle with a good governance approach.
 Methods: The systematic review approach was employed to undertake this research. To track down articles published electronically between 2010 and 2021, a comprehensive search in the National Library's English databases, in December 2021, was conducted using the keywords such as public policy, policy, policy-making, health policy, good governance, health, and healthcare. In addition, the Persian equivalents of the aforementioned keywords were searched separately or in combination with Boolean operators (OR, AND) in databases such as Scopus, Ovid, Science Direct, Web of Knowledge, PubMed, IranMedex, Magiran, and SID to further pinpoint the desired articles. To evaluate and validate the quality of the selected articles, critical tools appropriate for the type of study were utilized (e.g., the SRQR tool for qualitative studies and the MMAT tool for mixed-methods studies), and finally, the research team conducted content analysis and categorized the findings.
 Results: Findings revealed that the health policy-making cycle is an extensive and intra-sectoral concern. Good governance in the health system results in specialized and individualized opportunities for better health and reduces inequality. To accomplish this purpose, it is necessary to emphasize cross-sectoral participation, social responsiveness, and transparent processes, and incorporate the viewpoints of experts and implementers of the health policy-making system. Furthermore, the health system's sovereignty and progress toward good governance should be evaluated, which results in effective policies and health justice.
 Conclusion: Considering the legal mission of the Supreme Council of Health and Food Security (the highest policy-making authority in the Ministry of Health), it is recommended that the council implement the practical recommendations of this research in actualizing and incorporating the good governance approach into the health policy-making cycle.

Strategic Foresight and Policy Evaluation: Insights for an Integrated Approach

AbstractGrand challenges are shaping twenty-first-century politics. Threats connected to health, climate, demographics and welfare are increasingly intruding on the lives of citizens. Still, governments are often found off-guard, and policymakers need strategies grounded in longer-term perspectives. Strategic foresight (SF) helps us to design and shape policies to prepare to withstand shocks, anticipating and adapting to changes. However, as governments work towards embedding SF into their policymaking processes, the empirical evidence suggests that applications are still piecemeal and predominantly limited to the agenda-settings and policy formulation stages. In this article, we argue that to drive anticipatory governance, foresight needs to be applied at all stages of the policy cycle, including in evaluating policies to draw lessons for future interventions. We maintain that considering SF systemically throughout the policymaking cycle, from agenda setting to evaluation, strengthens anticipatory governance.

Foreign Investors of the World, Unite! The International Association for the Promotion and Protection of Private Foreign Investments (APPI) 1958–1968

Abstract This article studies lobbying efforts by the actors that investment treaties protect – namely, foreign investors. It uses a legal-historical approach to analyse the activities of the International Association for the Promotion and Protection of Private Foreign Investments (Association internationale pour la promotion et la protection des investissements privés en territoires étrangers or APPI), a transnational business interest association that lobbied for better protection of private foreign investment under international law. The article considers the role of this group in lobbying for three multilateral investment treaties (an investment code, investor-state arbitration and investment insurance) during the 1950s and 1960s, using unexplored archival sources. The article makes three substantive contributions to the literature. First, it shows that the key actors involved in APPI were a transnational advocacy network of businessmen and lawyers at multinational companies, mainly in the oil and banking sector. Second, it shows how these two types of actors (businessmen and lawyers) acted symbiotically. The businessmen provided access to policy-makers and introduced company lawyers into the policy-making cycle. The company lawyers provided expertise and specific legal texts with which civil servants could work. Third, it argues that, despite the group members’ common goal to improve foreign investment security, competing individual initiatives and institutional competition, next to state preferences, often impeded more effective lobbying.

Institutionalisation of participative and collaborative governance: Case studies of Lithuania 2030 and Finland 2030

Engaging active citizenry in public policy decisions using participative and collaborative processes is increasingly recognized as a critical step in implementing the open government concept. In this paper, we examine challenges and success factors as well as specific instruments and good practices in implementing participatory and collaborative governance in different governance contexts. Drawing on a comparative analysis of the approach adopted for the development and implementation of long-term strategies in Lithuania and Finland, we specifically focus on institutionalization of participative and collaborative processes along the policy-making cycle. The findings suggest that the most serious challenges associated with transitioning from ‘old’ to ‘new’ governance modes can be expected in countries associated with classical bureaucracy and legalistic institutional culture. In particular, such systems create internal and external pressure to focus on outputs as proof of results, which often trump efforts to enhance learning and consensus-building. Lessons learned from “Finland 2030” and “Lithuania 2030” suggest that institutionalization through leadership, clear responsibilities, a wide consensus within the society and administrations, and permanent stakeholder involvement platforms, is crucial to enable cultural change. The paper proposes a participative and collaborative governance maturity model that could be applied for benchmarking countries or policies.

Social media use for public policymaking cycle: a meta-analysis

Social media use for public policymaking cycle: a meta-analysis

A New Conceptual Framework and Approach to Decision Making in Public Policy

In this conceptual paper, we bring forward a new theoretical proposition in the form of an Integrated Policy-Making Process Framework. This tool arose from the discussion and hypothesis that the main models used to analyse public policies have practical and theoretical limitations and/or are due for an update, especially when it comes to the study of phenomena with many actors involved, vast legislation, large timeframes, and high degrees of complexity. Our original model encompasses the three fundamental stages of the public policy cycle (agenda; decision making; implementation). Our approach can have a wide spectrum of applications and contribute to the field of knowledge of political sciences. Our proposal of using three frameworks in an integrated way enables researchers and users to gain a holistic vision concerning policy processes, and it offers the possibility to compare and rank categories. The Integrated Policy-Making Process Framework is thus proposed as a new tool to tackle research and studies on decision making in public policies and the policy-making cycle.

The European Council as a crisis manager and fusion driver: assessing the EU’s fiscal response to the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT As with previous crises, the European Union’s (EU) reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic has again highlighted the European Council’s pivotal role in the EU’s institutional architecture and development. In creating the ‘Next Generation EU’ recovery package in July 2020, it provided the Union’s main instrument for coping with economic damage resulting from the pandemic. In both the run-up to and aftermath of this history-making decision, the European Council acted as the driver of a horizontal and vertical fusion of responsibilities: horizontally, it instructed and partly relied on other EU institutions; vertically, it satisfied and further developed close links between the EU and national levels of government. Scrutinising the different phases of a policymaking cycle (preparation, decision, implementation, control), this article highlights and puts into perspective the European Council’s key activities at each stage.

School funding in Australia: A critical policy analysis of school sector influence in the processes of policy production

The distribution of government funding for schooling can lead to significant differences in educational opportunities and outcomes for students. Unsurprisingly, school funding policy has been a site of intense political and public debate in many countries. In Australia, the Public, Catholic, and Independent school sectors, which collectively make up the Australian education system, all receive government funding. This article examines the representation and influence of the three school sectors at key moments in the policymaking cycle of the Review of Funding for Schooling, a pivotal 2011 report that shaped the trajectory of school funding policy in Australia. This case study focused on the report's development and found a disproportional representation of the Independent and Catholic school sectors at key points in the Review's policy cycle. In light of this critique, the article includes recommendations for more equitable policymaking processes in the future.

Enhancing the use of exposure science across EU chemical policies as part of the European Exposure Science Strategy 2020–2030

BackgroundA scientific framework on exposure science will boost the multiuse of exposure knowledge across EU chemicals-related policies and improve risk assessment, risk management and communication across EU safety, security and sustainability domains.ObjectiveTo stimulate public and private actors to align and strengthen the cross-policy adoption of exposure assessment data, methods and tools across EU legislation.MethodsBy mapping and analysing the EU regulatory landscape making use of exposure information, policy and research challenges and key areas of action are identified and translated into opportunities enhancing policy and scientific efficiency.ResultsIdentified key areas of actions are to develop a common scientific exposure assessment framework, supported by baseline acceptance criteria and a shared knowledge base enhancing exchangeability and acceptability of exposure knowledge within and across EU chemicals-related policies. Furthermore, such framework will improve communication and management across EU chemical safety, security and sustainability policies comprising sourcing, manufacturing and global trade of goods and waste management. In support of building such a common framework and its effective use in policy and industry, exposure science innovation needs to be better embedded along the whole policymaking cycle, and be integrated into companies’ safety and sustainability management systems. This will help to systemically improve regulatory risk management practices.SignificanceThis paper constitutes an important step towards the implementation of the EU Green Deal and its underlying policy strategies, such as the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability.

Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process )AHP( of Good Governance Components for Health System Policy-Making in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Background: Good governance in the last two decades attracted the attention of scientific and international circles around the world. It is a type of governance that is committed to supporting and promoting human health. In order to achieve good governance, components have been identified that knowledge of the weight and importance of each component is undoubtedly necessary to achieve the desired results in the policy-making of the Iranian health system. Methods: This research is descriptive-survey in terms of goal setting and methodology. The multi-stage stratification and availability method was used for sampling and the theoretical saturation rule was used to determine the sample size. In order to define and explain the concept of components of good governance and health policy-making, the library method and review of reference sources were used. 100 survey managers and experts in the Ministry of Health and Golestan, Mazandaran and Neishabour Universities of Medical Sciences were interviewed using a survey method and using a checklist tool (researcher-made (pairwise comparisons)). To analyze the data, Chang's improved fuzzy AHP method and Expert choice software were used. Results: Among the components of good governance (for the policy-making process of the Iranian health system), the rule of law included the most important component. After the rule of law, consensus and agreement, transparency, accountability, justice and fairness, effectiveness and efficiency and ethics were in the next ranks. Conclusion: Good governance is a new narrative of concepts such as democracy, human rights and justice to pursue people-centered human development goals. The rankings obtained from the analyses of this research indicate the need to pay more attention to the rule of law in the health policy-making cycle. It is suggested that in designing the health sector of the seventh economic, social and cultural development plan, executive strategies are paid attention to strengthening the components of good governance, respectively.

Developing a Study Protocol for Analyzing Policies to Promote Physical Activity Among Urban Middle-Aged People: A Case of a Metropolitan City in Iran

Background: The level of physical activity (PA) among middle-aged Iranians is less than optimal. This study will be carried out to analyze and recommend policy options to promote PA among urban middle-aged adults in Tabriz, one of the metropolitan cities in Iran. Methods: This multi-method policy analysis study will include the following four phases: First, a qualitative content analysis to explore the reasons for lack of PA. Second, a comparative study of successful PA programs and policies in Iran and other similar developing countries. Third, a qualitative thematic analysis based on the policy triangle to analyses PA promotion policies using the key informants’ views. Fourth, analysis and prioritizing the policy options suggested by a panel of experts using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) techniques. Conclusions: Prospective policy analysis promises the systematic process of selecting potentially effective policy options to promote PA in metropolitan settings of developing countries. The results of this study will provide a comprehensive vision of the most appropriate policy options based on the criteria of acceptability, effectiveness, and feasibility for addressing PA at the local and national levels. Considerations on the challenges of PA policymaking cycle and the barriers to the implementation of current policies in the Iranian context will also be identified.

A Model for Determining the Number of Health Technologies in the Health Systems: An Approach Combining Multiple Attributes Decision Making and Goal Programming

In recent years, health technology policy-making science has gone beyond just a health technology assessment or systematic review or economic evaluation study and the science of operational research in decision making, i.e. multi-attributes and multi-objective decision-making has been included. Hence, currently, health technology policy-making follows a seven-step process. After a technology undergoes these steps and is proven that it is useful for the health system, it must be determined how many of it is needed in the health system. Determining the required number of health technologies is a challenge that remains to be considered. Therefore, this study was designed to overcome this problem. The authors intend to introduce a multi-objective decision-making methodology considering the limited budget, to determine the number of technologies required to complete for the health technology policymaking cycle.

From Dusk to Dawn: Analysis of Anti-Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) through Policymaking Stages in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyz Republic

The article looks into Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) policy issues through all stages of a policymaking process, across two Central Asian nations, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyz Republic . It does so through the prism of the role of key actors at each stage of policymaking. Among the key findings of this paper is that the implementation of anti-laundering policy in Kyrgyzstan has constantly been confronted with opposition from a range of key actors, specifically fractions within the parliament, as well as business communities and NGOs, while Kazakhstan faced policy implementation hurdles in a much less degree since both chambers of the national parliament did not express open resistance to the adoption of new amendments to the basic Law. Despite the higher resistance to AML/CFT policy implementation in the Kyrgyz parliament vis-à-vis its Kazakh counterpart, Kyrgyz Republic succeeded in passing the new Law due to a change in political power in 2017. Although both Kazakhstan and Kyrgyz Republic appear to move in the same policy direction overall while taking adequate measures to improve their AML/CFT policy systems in accordance with international standards, the specific stages of policymaking reveal interesting discrepancies, especially at the policy formulation and decision-making stages. This research appears to be the first and somewhat unique scholarly attempt to analyze a policy issue through a comprehensive policymaking cycle, i.e. all the way from agenda-setting to policy evaluation. More importantly, it looks into Central Asian context, the region that remains largely understudied.

Shaping Policy on Chronic Diseases through National Policy Dialogs in CHRODIS PLUS.

Policy dialogs are deliberative dialogue that gather policy makers and relevant stakeholders from across disciplines to discuss a topic of mutual interest. They typically serve as a single element in a broader policymaking cycle, either informing the content of new policy or forming a component of policy evaluation and review. In the joint action CHRODIS PLUS, national policy dialogs were conducted in fourteen EU Member States. The aim of the dialogs was to identify new policies or changes to existing policies and legislation that are capable of tackling major risk factors for chronic disease, to strengthen health promotion and prevention programs and to ensure health systems are equipped to respond to priority issues within the chronic diseases field. In this paper, we present the CHRODIS PLUS policy dialog methodology, as well as results and lessons learnt from three national policy dialogs held in Ireland, Portugal and Spain. After discussion of the results, we conclude that the CHRODIS PLUS methodology is an effective mechanism to provoke deliberative discussion around chronic disease prevention and management in different countries. However, it is essential to ensure adequate human and financial resources—as well as political commitment—to accomplish objectives set out during the policy dialogs. We argue that priority-setting across sectors can improve the resilience of health systems and opportunities for investment in Health in All Policies (HiAP), both at European Union and Member State levels.

How countries link forest monitoring into policy-making

Providing decision-makers with information is often seen as an important development strategy. Wishful thinking aside, to what extent do countries actually take up forest monitoring results in policy-making? And where this does happen, how are forest monitoring systems particularly suitable for informing policy-making? This paper reports on an indicator-based assessment of 38 developing countries. First, the contributions of forest monitoring were investigated throughout the stages of the policy-making cycle. In most countries, forest monitoring is instrumental in setting the agenda of decision-makers, defining solutions and evaluating outcomes. There may be an underused opportunity, however, to leverage forest monitoring in policy implementation, such as by guiding decision-making in government programmes or by underpinning fiscal incentive schemes. Second, an indicator set on the accessibility, transparency, reliability and credibility, relevance, and sustainability of forest monitoring was the basis for exploring how suitable current forest monitoring systems are for informing policy-making. The assessments showed that countries have invested more in the transparency, reliability and credibility of forest monitoring than in making sure that data and analysis are accessible and relevant to policy-makers. Moreover, in most countries, the sustainability of forest monitoring systems is at risk. Although there may therefore be the opportunity and requirement for continued investment in forest monitoring, efforts to leverage forest monitoring as a development strategy need to acknowledge that information can at best catalyse but not directly drive change. Where the point of departure is not data and analysis alone but an open window of opportunity for policy change, forest monitoring can powerfully enable better policy-making.

Public policies based on scientific evidence: child road safety.

Road traffic accidents are a global public health problem. In Latin America, the mortality rate among children due to road traffic accidents almost doubles the global average. We describe our experience formulating a public policy on child road safety in Panama, based on the scientific evidence produced by our research group. Moreover, we propose a model for public policy-making that may be used in other Latin American countries. It is a formulation vector that is part of the public policy-making cycle and entails identifying a public problem, conducting scientific research, publishing and disseminating scientific products for public policy-making with the participation of scientists, the civil society, and decision-makers by sharing spaces for dialog.

An Analysis of Modern Public Administration in the Context of Policy-Making Cycle (Case Study)

An Analysis of Modern Public Administration in the Context of Policy-Making Cycle (Case Study)