 Introduction

 Goals of policy
 Types of policy
 Policy cycle management in Nigeria
 Policy formulation
 Policy implementation
 Strengths and weaknesses of policy design and
implementation in Nigeria
 Reasons for failures
 At the end of this session, participants will
be able to:
• Identify key issues in Nigeria’s policy
environment
• Articulate the rationale for public policy
• Identify the types of public policies
• Describe the steps in policy formulation
• Discuss policy implementation process
• Identify major reasons why public policy
fails in Nigeria
What is policy?
 A plan or course of action in
directing affairs, as chosen by a
political party, government,
business company
 A definite course or method of action
selected by a government, institution, or
individual from among alternatives and in the
light of given conditions to guide and usually
determine present and future decisions
 An aggregation of people’s hopes,
aspirations and values which may be
contained in official documents or merely
taken as being the current stand on given
problems
 In practical terms, it consists of a course
of actions and measures deliberately
taken to direct the affairs of society
towards the realisation of predetermined
goals or objectives.
 "Stated most simply, policy is the sum
of government activities, whether
acting directly or through agents, as it
has an influence on the life of
citizens“.
 The term public policy always refers to
the actions of government and the
intentions that determine those
actions“ - Clarke E. Cochran, et al.
 Public policy is "Whatever
governments choose to do or not to
do"
 "Public policy consists of political
decisions for implementing programs
to achieve societal goals"
Need for public policy making in the
development process:
 National economic management
 Driver of economic development
 No “no policy” (avoid a situation of
lawlessness)
 Governance-public policy-economic
performance nexus
 Public policy is influenced by a variety
of factors:
 Philosophy of governance
 Goals and objectives
 Strategy and quantum of resources
available – in terms of human and
financial capacity, including technical
and managerial capacity
 Public goods
 Externalities
 Market failure/limitation – “invisible
hand” fails to produce pareto
efficiency
 Government failure/limitation – no
nation or political system is
completely successful in
accomplishing what it wishes
Vision of governance
 Has to do with government or
political party
 Usually contained in the party
manifesto
 Vision-goal/objective-policy-
performance relationships
• Goals/objectives dovetail from
philosophy/vision
• A goal is what is to be achieved over a
long period of time
• Standard of achievement and a criterion
of success
• Basis for development of performance
indicators
• Must be clearly specified
Political goals/objectives:
• Active encouragement of national integration
and prohibition of discrimination on the
grounds of place of origin, sex, religion, status,
ethnic or linguistic association
• Fostering of a feeling of belonging and of
involvement among the various peoples of the
federation, to the extent that loyalty to the
nation shall override sectional loyalties
◦ Abolishment of all corrupt practices and abuse
of power
Economic goals/objectives:
• Harnessing the resources of the nation
and distributing them to serve the
common good as well as promoting
national prosperity and an efficient,
dynamic and self-reliant economy
• Promoting a planned and balanced
economic development
• Operating the economic system to avoid
the concentration of wealth or the
means of production and exchange in
the hands of a few individuals or group
• Ensuring the provision of suitable and
adequate shelter and food, reasonable
national minimum wage, old age care
and pensions, and unemployment, sick
benefits and welfare of the disabled to
all citizens
Social goals/objectives:
• All citizens have the opportunity to secure
adequate means of livelihood as well as
adequate opportunity to secure suitable
employment
• Conditions of work are just and humane
• The health, safety and welfare of all persons in
employment are safeguarded and not
endangered or abused
• There are adequate medical and health
facilities for all persons
• There is equal pay for equal work without
discrimination
• Children, young persons and the aged are
protected against any exploitation whatsoever
• Quality education for all
• The evolution and promotion of family life is
encouraged
 Rational Decision Making Model – tries to
maximize social gains, i.e governments
choose policies which result in gains to
society exceed costs
 Incremental Policy Making Model – views
public policy as a continuous activities with
only incremental changes, i.e policies are
modified incrementally as a result of
successive limitations of time, information,
and cost
 Mixed Scanning Policy Making Model – views
decision making from the perspective of
fundamental and incremental, i.e fundamental
decisions are radical changes in policy as they are
based on facts, while incremental decisions are
used to fine-tune fundamental decisions after
some of their consequences have been identified
 Elite Theory – views public policy as a reflection of
the preferences and values of a governing elite.
That every human organization is controlled by
small, cohesive minority (holding that the
development of elite is inevitable)
 Aviation policy
 Communications and Information Policy
 Domestic policy
 Education policy
 Economic policy
 Energy policy
 Environmental policy
 Foreign policy
 Health policy
 Housing policy
 Macroeconomic policy
 Monetary policy
 National defense policy
 Population policy
 Social policy
 Transportation policy
 Urban policy
 Water policy
 Policy cycle is a tool used for analyzing the
development of a policy. The four(4) stages
of policy cycle are:
• Agenda Setting (Problem Identification)
• Policy Formulation
• Policy Implementation
• Policy Evaluation
Stakeholders in policy cycle
management in Nigeria
 The Executive Councils
 The Legislature
 Interest/pressure groups
 Experts/professionals/technocrats
 Others
 The public becomes aware of an issue as a
problem and, because of demands being
made by certain groups and dominant
values in society, this problem is defined as
a problem on which action needs to be
taken (problem definition).
 This problem then becomes a part of the
political decision-making agenda, meaning
that a decision has to be made as to when
and who will deal with the problem and in
what form (agenda setting).
 This is the pre-decision phase that
encompasses the steps in the decision-
making process . These are:
• identify alternatives,
• gather and analyze alternatives; and
• apply a decision tool.
 It requires policy analysis
 Policy analysis can be defined as
"determining which of various alternative
policies will most achieve a given set of
goals in light of the relations between the
policies and the goals". However, policy
analysis can be divided into two major
fields.
 Analysis of policy is analytical and
descriptive, i.e. it attempts to explain
policies and its development. Analysis for
policy is prescriptive, i.e. it is involved with
formulating policies and proposals (e.g. to
improve social welfare)
 Policy analysis is methodologically diverse
using both qualitative methods and
quantitative methods, including case
studies, survey research, statistical analysis,
and model building among others.
 One common methodology is to define the
problem and evaluation criteria; identify all
alternatives; evaluate them; and
recommend the best policy option.
 Verify, define and detail the problem
 Establish evaluation criteria
 Identify alternative policies
 Assess alternative policies
 Display and distinguish among
alternatives
 Implement, monitor, and evaluate
the policy
 State the problem meaningfully:
 Determine the magnitude and extent
of the problem
 Continually re-define the problem in
light of what is possible
 Question the accepted thinking about
the problem
 Question initial formulations of the
problem
 Say it with data
 Locate relevant sources of data
 Eliminate ambiguity
 Clarify objectives
 Resolve conflicting goals
 Focus on the central, critical factors
 Is it important? Is it unusual? Can it be
solved?
 Identify who is concerned, and why?
 What power do concerned parties have?
 Make a quick estimate of resources required
to deal with the problem
 What are the important policy goals,
and how will they be measured?
 Identify criteria central to the problem
and relevant to the stakeholders
 Clarify goals, values and objectives
 Identify desirable and undesirable
outcomes
 Is there a rank order of importance
among the criteria? What will be the
rules for comparing alternatives?
• Administrative Ease
• Costs and benefits
• Effectiveness
• Equity
• Legality
• Political acceptability
 Consider a wide range of options
 Consider the status quo, or no-
action alternative
 Consult with experts
 Brainstorming, Scenario writing
 Redefine the problem if necessary
 Select appropriate methods and apply
them correctly
 Estimate expected outcomes, effects,
and impacts of each policy alternative
 Do the predicted outcomes meet the
desired goals?
 Can some alternatives be quickly
discarded
 Continue in-depth analysis of
alternatives that make the first cut
 Which policy alternative should be
adopted? In this step in the policy
analysis process, the policy analyst
takes each of the proposed policy
alternatives and, one by one, applies
each of the decision criteria to each
alternative.
 Sustainability: will implementation of the
policy be sustainable?
 Approach: Top-Down or Bottom-Up?
• In the top-down approach, policy is
imposed from the centre / top with no
thought given to involvement of those at
the local /bottom level
• In bottom-up approach, those at the local
/bottom level are involved
• A balance between the two is necessary
 A well designed and developed policy
and procedure document will be
effective only if it is implemented in
an appropriate way to ensure
maximum impact is achieved to
address the particular policy purpose,
issue or need.
 It is therefore critical to ensure that
the implementation process is well
thought out and effective
 For major policy and procedure
developments or changes, or where a
number of policy improvements are
occurring simultaneously, an
implementation plan should be
developed to ensure that maximum
impact of new policies and procedures
is achieved
 An implementation plan involves:
 Assigning responsibility to individuals
/ bodies for implementation tasks and
feedback.
 Specifying policy communication
requirements.
 Identifying the resources necessary to
carry out implementation actions.
 There are numerous ways of
implementing new policies and
procedures. The method chosen will
depend on the organisation and the
type of policy system being
implemented. These include:
• Direct cutover;
• Parallel;
• Phased;
• Pilot.
 Direct cutover -there is a set date and time
where the new policy overrides the old
system, or a brand new system is
implemented.
 Parallel -the new policy/system runs in
tandem with the old system for a
predetermined period of time. This
implementation process allows for the old
policy or system to act as a 'backup'
process while any issues or problems with
the new system are rectified
 Phased -the new policy/system is
implemented in stages as the old
policy is 'phased out'.
 Pilot -the new policy/system is
tried in a particular area, program
or department to rectify any
issues before wide-scale
implementation.
 A purpose statement, outlining why the
government is issuing the policy, and what
its desired effect is.
 A applicability and scope statement,
describing who the policy affects and which
actions are impacted by the policy
 The applicability and scope may expressly
exclude certain people, organizations, or
actions from the policy requirements
 An effective date which indicates when the
policy comes into force
 Retroactive policies are rare, but can be
found
 A responsibilities section, indicating which
parties/agencies or arm and organizations
are responsible for carrying out the policy
statements
 These responsibilities may include
identification of oversight and/or
governance structures
 Policy statements indicating the specific
regulations, requirements, or modifications
to organizational behavior that the policy is
targeting
 Background indicating the reasons
and history that led to the creation of
the policy, which may be listed as
motivating factors
 Definitions, providing clear and
unambiguous definitions for terms
and concepts found in the policy
document
 Disregard or oversight of recurrent
cost implications of capital projects
/expenditures
 Undue reliance on External Sector in
Revenue Projections
 Poor Monitoring
 Fiscal Indiscipline and Irresponsible
Public Investment
• Insufficient and unreliable data
• Dearth of skilled manpower
• Unexpected economic disturbances
• Institutional weaknesses
• Resistance to change and innovation
• Unhealthy inter-ministerial rivalry
• Political and bureaucratic corruption
• Lack of national interest
• Lack of commitment and political will to
implement policies
• Inadequate consultation
• Vague plans and policy objectives –
therefore, performance targets and
benchmarks cannot be meaningfully
specified
• Inconsistencies and policy summersaults
• Inadequate follow-ups and poor sequencing
 Commitment of our leaders to sincerely
address the concerns of the people they
represent
 Building capacity on leadership to resolve
the conflict of interest regarding policy
design and implementation
 Selfless service/value reorientation –
remove greed/self from our plans/actions
(leadership by example)