Process Of Policy Transfer Research Articles

The adoption of dual Vocational Education and Training in Spain: Analysis of descentralised decision-making in educational policy transfer

This paper examines the adoption of dual VET in Spain as a process of educational policy transfer. Using Phillips and Ochs’ (2003, 2004) policy transfer spectrum and decision-making classification and Perry and Tor’s (2008) model of transfer forms, the study relies on semi-structured interviews with key decision-makers in the Spanish central government and the Autonomous Communities of the Basque Country and Andalusia. Findings indicate that EU diffusion activities facilitated adoption, involving first-order learning. Initially, adoption at the central level was uninformed, driven by quick-fix decisions, but later shifted to informed transfer through second- and third-order learning, enhancing realism. In Andalusia and the Basque Country, decision-making consistently adapted to the real context, progressing from second- to third-order learning. Ultimately, this analysis concludes that dual VET adoption at the central, Andalusian, and Basque levels falls between ‘negotiated under constraint’ and ‘borrowed purposefully’, though not at the same point.

Comprehensive power shifts in the making: China's policy transfer partnerships with the United Nations

AbstractChina and the United Nations (UN) have set up a growing number of partnerships to transfer Chinese domestic development policies across the South. By examining these partnerships through a power shift lens, we suggest that UN‐endorsed policy transfer processes can function as a window into shifting international cooperation dynamics. The paper first provides an overview of the evolution and key characteristics of China–UN policy transfer partnerships, focusing on China's trajectory as a provider of policy solutions. It then analyses the extent to which the evolving partnership landscape contributes to and reflects shifts in China's compulsory, institutional, structural and productive power. Overall, we argue that policy transfer partnerships contribute to comprehensive power shifts in the making: while empirical data point to China's often (still) limited and evolving ability to influence the actions of others, our findings provide evidence for increasing levels of Chinese influence in and through policy transfer partnerships across all power types.

Individual agency in South-South policy transfer: China and Ethiopia’s industrial park development

This article process-traces Ethiopia’s adoption and implementation of the industrial park development strategy from the mid 2000s to the late 2010s. How does policy transfer unfold, and what characterizes China’s influence on Ethiopia’s Special Economic Zone (SEZ) strategy? Drawing on extensive interviews conducted during multiple field trips to Ethiopia and China between 2017 and 2023, complemented by secondary sources, we argue that policy transfer involves navigating both structural opportunities—providing incentives and resources for individuals—and individual agency to surmount structural constraints. Contributing to the growing body of literature on South-South policy transfer, our study underscores the pivotal role of individual agency in overcoming prevalent structural constraints within South-South contexts, characterized by fluid power relations and less defined policy transfer networks. Additionally, we emphasize the importance of scrutinizing the agency of host-country actors in their engagements with a rising China, rather than assuming China’s impacts in a deterministic manner. Our detailed documentation offers a nuanced perspective on China’s influence in Ethiopia’s industrialization. We show that primary agency in the policy transfer process should be attributed to Ethiopian actors, whereas the roles of Chinese actors range from initiation, facilitation, and occasionally, reluctant responses in this intricate process.

Cooperation with international organizations as a factor in increasing the state’s competitiveness and modernization of public administration in the field of regional development (the example of Turkey)

The article is devoted to analyzing the role of international organizations in enhancing the competitiveness of the state and modernizing public administration in regional development. The authors examined how the “policy transfer” takes place and affects the state’s competitiveness in Turkey’s example. Based on the concept of Rose on “policy transfer” and the study of E. Ertugal on the interaction of Turkey with the EU in this sphere, the authors explored the causes and methods of policy transfer of regional development; what roles do international organizations, such as the EU and the OECD, play in this process, what stages and results of policy transfer of regional development in Turkey. The authors characterized the features of the stages of policy transfer of regional development, determined the dynamics of integration of Turkey to the EU depending on the adaptation of its regional standards, legislation, and institutions to the European requirements, and increased Turkey’s competitiveness level. This improved the image of Turkey as a reliable and progressive partner and increased its attractiveness to foreign investors, trade partners, and tourists. Policy transfers of regional development also contributed to the modernization and diversification of Turkey’s economy, as it stimulated the development of regions that traditionally lagged the central and coastal areas. This enabled the country to use its potential in agriculture, industry, energy, transport, education, science, and innovation. This also helped to reduce regional inequality, poverty, and social tension, especially among the Kurdish population. The authors note that policy transfer of regional development also contributed to the enhancement of democracy and decentralization of governance in Turkey, as it strengthened the role and responsibility of regional and local authorities, as well as involved the public and civil society organizations in the process of planning and implementation of regional policy. This also enabled the country to increase its transparency, objectivity, and openness and prevent and fight corruption and clientelism. Keywords: cooperation, international organizations, competitiveness, public administration, regional development.

‘What we lacked was the courage to take decisions that differed from the rest of the world’: expert perspectives on the role of evidence in COVID-19 policymaking in Iraq

IntroductionIraq reported its first COVID-19 case on 24 February 2020 and formed a national committee and advisory committees to support its response. While global experts have suggested that the COVID-19...

Performing social policy diffusion: Reflections on agents as social protection policy entrepreneurs in Africa

A growing literature explains the diffusion of social protection policies and, in particular, cash transfer programmes throughout Africa since the early 2000s as a paradigmatic policy transfer process. Most contributions emphasise the central role of transnational development agencies in this process, which is typically characterised as ‘donor-driven’. This article argues that individual agents, notably consultants who were commissioned by agencies to perform various roles in persuading African governments to introduce social protection, played a dual role insofar as many also shaped the positions of the agencies that hired them. They achieved both by deploying a range of influencing strategies associated with policy entrepreneurship, such as rhetorical persuasion, demonstration, and advocacy events. Other tactics, identified by the author from in-depth interviews conducted with 26 influential agents, include ‘piggybacking’, ‘Trojan horse’, and ‘accelerator events’. Although these agents believe in the value of their work, some expressed concern about their role in driving policy changes in African countries that appear to reflect the ideas and preferences of the international community, rather than aligning with the policy priorities of national governments.

Local private actors in transnational policy networks: A relational approach to studying policy transfers in Asia

AbstractMany documented cases of policy transfer in Asia involve small and medium enterprises as well as public enterprises but little is known about how and why these local private actors participate in transnational policy transfer networks. We propose a relational view of policy transfer to examine how agency is exercised in these kinds of transfer networks. We develop a typology of the engagement of these private actors—solutionist and entrepreneur—based on their relational position in the policy transfer process and illustrate its usefulness using two cases of policy transfer between: (1) Yokohama (Japan) and Cebu (Philippines) and (2) Singapore and New Clark City (Philippines). A common theme in these networks is the diffused nature of agency where local private actors are pulled in to provide epistemic resources.

Education Policy Transfer and Policy Change: Examining the Case of the National Assessment and Examination Center of Georgia

Policy change is an integral part of the modern education policymaking process. Policy changes can be done with different tools, one of which lies in policy transfer. The cons and pros of the education policy change and transfer can be seen comprehensively in post-socialist states, as the education system changed fundamentally in line with transferring policies and its aims, content, and instruments. The article deals with the process of education policy transfer and change based on the National Assessment and Examination Center (NAEC) case of Georgia. Based on the orthodox framework proposed, elaborated with the policy change concept, the article tries to determine the links between policy change and policy transfer and to identify facilitating and hindering factors of education policy change in the case of NAEC. Results show that all hindering factors are more or less linked to Soviet Inertia and post-soviet heritage: societal fears and pressure and the supra-centralization way of policymaking slow down the path of education policy transfer. However, if political, financial, and organizational support, both from outside and inside the country, coincides, it is more likely that education policy transfer and change to be successful. The article's findings can benefit the education policy theory in terms of developing and criticising the proposed assumptions, focusing on either post-soviet education transformation or policy administration.

"What Makes Education Policy Transfer Successful? The Case of the National Assessment and Examination Center of Georgia "

In education policymaking, policy transfer can be seen as one of the practical tools. The cons and pros of the process are clearly manifested in post-socialist countries where the education system started to change fundamentally after regaining independence in line with increased interest from donor organizations. The article deals with the process of education policy transfer based on the case of the National Assessment and Examination Center of Georgia. The proposed orthodox framework of policy transfer and data analysis allows us to draw main conclusions to answer the research question: what makes education policy transfer successful? Besides hindering factors, such as challenging socio-cultural environment and vertical administration of the education system, there are some facilitating factors: continuous political support, a motivated team that knows how to build organizational culture, communicate effectively with all stakeholders, feels the local context, and tries to establish foreign policy transfer networks. These key determinants can make education policy transfer successful. The methodological approach and conclusions of the article can be used by scholars from post-socialist education research and beyond who are interested in determining the causes and results of education policy transfer.

A Federalism-Based Comparative Analysis to Diminish National Security Threats in Contemporary Policy Transfer

This essay reviews the source of national security threats embedded in contemporary policy transfer processes. The subject of this research are the processes within policy transfer tied to NGO’s and international organizations. The goal of this exercise consists on designing a replicable framework to policy transfer to be implemented by the state in all its stages in the absence of external entities as a mean to diminish the threats to national security. This essay begins by analyzing the worldwide demand for knowledge under the Dolowitz-Marsh approach to review the role of NGO’s and other international organizations involved in the contemporary processes of policy transfer. The author analyzes Stone’s concept of methodological nationalism according to evaluation of policy results in relation to international standards. Under this framework is concluded that NGO’s and international organizations can contribute to the production of knowledge, however their relationship with the state typically expands beyond the results of activity thereafter increasing the risks to national security by their influence beyond accountability and control. In order to achieve the set research goal, this essay provides a novel framework to policy transfer based on federalism-base comparative analysis due to the availability of multidimensional data. The author concludes on the need to disassociate external entities from policy transfer processes according to a federalism-based comparative analysis and provides a series of steps to perform it. In this manner, the state will remain interconnected to global sources of information and processes while retaining its sovereignty in a contemporary setting.

Policy transfer and health policymaking process: The case of social health insurance in Ghana

Since the introduction of the user fee system of healthcare financing in 1969 and its subsequent modifications, the burden of healthcare expenditure on residents of Ghana created health inequality. This system encouraged the poor and vulnerable to have limited access to essential drugs and services. Policy entrepreneurs contributed to raising awareness about the poor and vulnerable people in Ghana not having access to health due to the user fee system as a public policy problem. This awareness began to spread among political leaders, the masses, and professional groups, warranting the attention of policymakers. As significant public dissatisfaction and agitation against the user fee policy continued, the media continued to hold the government responsible for initiating the policy. The democratization process and election period between 1998 and 2000 provided a window of opportunity that led to the idea of health policy change. In 2003, Ghana established the National Social Health Insurance, a form of Social Health Insurance. This study examines the process of establishing the social health insurance scheme through policy transfer framework. First, the paper examines Ghana’s health policy after independence, the National Health Service, and the User Fee Policy that was implemented in 1985. Second, the paper accessed the policy transfer framework and applied it to the transfer of social health insurance. Third, the paper explains the radical change from the user fee policy to the social health insurance model. This essay uses time series analysis and comparative analysis to assess the impact of the social health insurance on the under-five mortality ratio, maternal mortality ratio and out-of-pocket expenditure. The assessment results show that the social health insurance scheme has a positive impact on under-five mortality, maternal mortality and out-of-pocket payment compared to Nigeria without social health insurance for the poor and other vulnerable groups. The paper concludes that policy transfer alone cannot be a single variable to explain radical health policy change, but when combined with other complementary perspectives, an empirically grounded account of policy change can be developed.

Opening the curtains: Adaption of transparency policy for eliminating in confidentiality of the faith groups

Transparency policies, which have become increasingly important in recent years, have become one of the most important implementation tools of accountability, especially for public administrations. The main purpose of this study is to examine a public policy that can be planned to be implemented in Turkish public administration under the leadership of the Presidency of Religious Affairs (PRA). In the public policy literature, policy transfer and adoption processes are considered a quick solution for developing countries. Because developing countries have two important constraints, such as time and resources, to produce a solution. The adoption process of the policy that is planned to be implemented in Turkey, compared to the transparency policies in faith group services carried out by the UK public institutions, is the focus of this study. Although belief groups are important for the spread of civil society, they can cause certain social and political problems. It is not possible to produce qualified solutions to these problems by ignoring belief groups or making them illegal with a radical approach. The principle of transparency in public policies plays a key role in solving the problems encountered in civil society. This case study and content analysis will both provide the PRA with a theoretical assessment of its transparency policy and provide a roadmap for academics to work on different public policies.

Private-led policy transfer: the adoption of sector skills councils in Chile

ABSTRACT This study investigates the adoption process of a TVET policy, usually driven by the state, by private actors. Considering a Cultural Political Economy analytical approach, we use the adoption of Sector Skills Councils in three Chilean sectors (mining, wine, maintenance) to examine the different factors that explain the process. We draw on interviews with key informants at the sectoral and national levels, sectoral documents, and press articles. Our analysis shows that the framing actions of a local policy entrepreneur and their interaction with neoliberal political-economic institutions were key to explaining the policy’s attractiveness for private actors. Furthermore, economic and organisational conditions at the sectoral level explain why these three sectors adopted SSCs. We offer further insights about the TVET policy transfer process from the perspective of local and sectoral actors, and in particular, the role of non-state actors.

International Policy Transfer in Post-Communist States

This study aims to explore international policy transfer (IPT) through examining educational reforms in Kazakhstan. Literature on policy transfer lacks cases between Western countries and post-communist states with a Soviet legacy. This study used the IPT framework as a heuristic device to analyze the Bologna Process (BP), an intergovernmental higher education process. Empirical data included semi-structured interviews with BP stakeholders and thematic analyses of official documents to examine the stages of accession transfer. The findings demonstrated that a Soviet legacy constrains the policy transfer process during accession stages, limiting the policy transfer process from the West and leading to incomplete transfers.

International evaluation of the National Natural Science Foundation of China: A process of evaluation-enabled policy transfer

ABSTRACT Evaluation-enabled policy transfer plays an important role in global policy formulation and change. This paper examines the National Natural Science Foundation of China’s international funding and management evaluation to identify the characteristic of evaluation-enabled policy transfer. Findings include: first, performance accountability, learning motivations, and desire for commitment of policy legitimacy are policy transfer inducements of policymakers; second, evaluation-enabled policy transfer realizes framing-transmitting and embedding-localizing through evaluation design from policymakers, matching of international ‘best practices’ by experts, and adaptive construction; third, it is necessary to introduce ‘information broker’, cultivate harmonious engagement between evaluation experts and policymakers, and ensure adaptive knowledge localization.

Dual Vocational Education and Training Systems’ Governance Model and Policy Transfer: The Role of the European Union in Its Diffusion

Some southern member states have undertaken the reform of their vocational education and training (VET) systems so as to promote dual apprenticeship, such as that which is promoted in Germany. During this process, the European Union (EU) has exercised an extensive influence. This paper advances the analysis of the role exercised by the EU in this stage of cross-national attraction by analysing the model of VET governance promoted by European institutions. The methodology consists of a reflexive thematic analysis of the EU VET texts. A total of 35 texts from the EU institutions was analysed by using NVivo. This produced three themes under the overarching theme of fostering a more pluralistic governance system: promoting cooperation among stakeholders in the design, management and financing of the system, enhancing social dialogue and strengthening responsiveness to change in the world of work. This analysis concludes that the EU, as an agent of the policy transfer process, encourages the implementation of a cooperative governance model of VET systems, such as that present in the dual VET systems of certain member states with collective skill formation governance regimens such as Germany, Austria and Denmark.

Deficits in implementing integrated water resources management in South Africa: The role of institutional interplay

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has been transferred from the Global North to the Global South. Decades after adopting IWRM in formal policies, countries in the Global South in particular are struggling to implement it in practice. We believe the interplay of formal and informal institutions to be a reason for the failed transfer, but institutional interplay is rarely considered when policies are transferred. Based on a case study of water governance in the uMngeni river basin in South Africa, we investigate how specific types of informal institutions affect the practical implementation of selected aspects of IWRM: subsidiarity, stakeholder involvement, and securing access to water and sanitation. We explore (1) informal institutions that supported previous formal legislation and are still actively reproduced, (2) bureaucratic cultures operationalised through governance modes, and (3) traditional governance as part of a dual governance system. We find that in most cases, a higher level of similarity between formal and informal institutions leads to the more frequent implementation of formal provisions, and hence converging interplay between institutions. Passed-down power structures, another aspect of informal institutions, proved particularly resistant to institutional change. We conclude that analysing the setting of informal institutions before making policy reforms would provide a more realistic assessment of the results to be expected. Understanding institutional interplay in policy transfer processes is hence essential to designing more effective policies and avoiding the pitfalls inherent to blueprint solutions.

Culture and Policy Transfer: From Insight to Impact

Culture has long been recognized and conceptualized as an important and indispensable influencing factor in policy transfer. However, inadequate attention has been devoted to the study of culture in this area of scholarship. Using qualitative data, mainly from interviews with policy-makers and policy-takers in Vietnam, this paper examines the relevance of culture in Vietnam’s merit-based policy transfer. It indicates how the conceptualization of culture is significant to policy transfer analysis. It also shows that culture at all levels—macro, meso, and micro—can influence both the policy transfer process and the outcomes. At the same time, it contends that despite this important role, culture acts more as a joint-influencing factor than a sole determinant in policy transfer. This paper argues that a multi-level and culture-sensitive approach to cultural analysis in policy transfer is a key to understand the dynamics of culture in the process.

Transferring transport policy problems: the instrumental role of social concerns in policy transfer

ABSTRACT The paper investigates the overlooked role of problem setting in policy setting and transfer. The prevalent rational approach to urban mobility issues in fact privileges problem solving over problem setting, overlooking the role of problems in policy transfer processes. Reviewing institutional and academic works, the paper develops a comparative reading of Bogotá and Santiago, two Southern cities that justified their mobility policies referring to social issues. The analysis shows that social concerns have played an instrumental role in aligning the problem to its solution and justifying the adoption of an already selected strategy.

How are global health policies transferred to sub-Saharan Africa countries? A systematic critical review of literature

BackgroundMost sub-Saharan Africa countries adopt global health policies. However, mechanisms with which policy transfers occur have largely been studied amongst developed countries and much less in low- and middle- income countries. The current review sought to contribute to literature in this area by exploring how health policy agendas have been transferred from global to national level in sub-Saharan Africa. This is particularly important in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) era as there are many policy prepositions by global actors to be transferred to national level for example the World Health Organization (WHO) policy principles of health financing reforms that advance Universal Health Coverage (UHC).MethodsWe conducted a critical review of literature following Arksey and O’Malley framework for conducting reviews. We searched EBSCOhost, ProQuest, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and Google scholar for articles. We combined the concepts and synonyms of “policy transfer” with those of “sub-Saharan Africa” using Boolean operators in searching databases. Data were analyzed thematically, and results presented narratively.ResultsNine articles satisfied our eligibility criteria. The predominant policy transfer mechanism in the health sector in sub-Saharan Africa is voluntarism. There are cases of coercion, however, even in the face of coercion, there is usually some level of negotiation. Agency, context and nature of the issue are key influencers in policy transfers. The transfer is likely to be smooth if it is mainly technical and changes are within the confines of a given disease programmatic area. Policies with potential implications on bureaucratic and political status quo are more challenging to transfer.ConclusionPolicy transfer, irrespective of the mechanism, requires local alignment and appreciation of context by the principal agents, availability of financial resources, a coordination platform and good working relations amongst stakeholders. Potential effects of the policy on the bureaucratic structure and political status are also important during the policy transfer process.