Public policy slides for students of education

INTRODUCTIONTO
EDUCATION POLICY;
THEORIES MODELS AND
PRINCIPLES
DR. MUHEREZA MARTIN, ASSOCIATE CONSULTANT, UMI
MUHEREZAM@YAHOO.COM, MUHEREZAMK@GMAIL.COM
0782431423/0704946532

INTRODUCTION
• Educational leaders and managers are required to render policy advice, sensitization and
implementation.
• To perform these roles effectively, the leaders ought to have a good grasp of the nature of
education public policy, the process of policy formulation, and monitoring and evaluation of
education policies.
• The course is designed to equip the participants with the relevant/appropriate skills in
appreciating the myriad issues related to education policy analysis with the objective of
informing and improving educational practice.

INTRODUCTION
• The participants will be introduced to the mechanics of the creation of
policy enabling them to critically explore policy formulation.
• The participants will be made familiar with the implementation of policy
allowing them to critically investigate policy practice.
• Finally, the participants will be acquainted with policy outputs and outcomes
initiating them to a systematic examination of the effects of policy.

MODULE AIM
•To develop the participants’ knowledge,
skills, competencies and attitude to
strategically manage public and education
policy processes.
•

LEARNING OUTCOMES
• By the end of the module, participants should be able to:
(i)Appreciate the concept of public policy and how it is linked with
the education policy.
(ii)Describe the parameters of policy formulation, policy
implementation and policy effects
(iii)Identify the education problems, and formulate education policies

AN ACT
• AN ACT is A written law enacted by Parliament, to enforce the implementation of a
policy
• BYE LAWS: Rules and regulations are enacted by an organization such as a Local
Government to provide a framework for its operation and management

REGULATIONS
• A form of laws, which define the application and enforcement of legislation. Policy
regulations are made under the authority of an Act, called an Enabling Act.

POLICY GUIDELINES
• Documents that are used to interpret a policy and/or a programme and act as a guide at
implementation level. Policy guidelines are often used to advise how one should comply
with the policy, and have no force of law. Unless otherwise stated, policy guidelines
normally do not have the force of establishing rights, requirements and responsibilities

INTRODUCTION TO EDUCATION POLICY
Concepts
Theories
Models
Principles

POLICY CONCEPTS
• ‘Public Policy Making’: Concepts and Theories In its simplest sense,‘policy’ refers to a
broad statement that reflects future goals and aspirations and provides guidelines for
carrying out those goals. Hill (1993: p.47) defines ‘policy’ as ‘the product of political
influence, determining and setting limits to what the state does’.To be more precise,
when a government takes a decision or chooses a course of action in order to solve a
social problem and adopts a specific strategy for its planning and implementation, it is
known as public policy (Anderson 1975).

POLICY CONCEPTS
• Policy scientists argue that public policy is best conceived in terms of a process (Jenkins,
1978, Rose,1976;Anderson, 1978).This is because policy decisions are not ‘something
confined to one level of organization at the top, or at one stage at the outset, but rather
something fluid and ever changing’ (Gilliat, 1984:p.345).
• Rose (1969: p.xi) also made a similar argument when he said,‘policy making is best
conveyed by describing it as a process, rather than as a single, once-for-all act’.This
process involves negotiation, bargaining and accommodation of many different interests,
which eventually give it a political flavour.

POLICY CONCEPTS
• Political interactions happen within the network through which decisions flow,
programmes are formulated and implemented
• Inter organisational dependencies and interactions take place.Thus ‘policy making’ is not
a simple rather a complex dynamic process involving series of actions and inactions of
varieties of groups with varieties of interests at different stages.
• It is important to note that public policy making not only involves the public bodies or
public officials as policy actors; Lassance,Antonio (2020-11-10

POLICY CONCEPTS
• Private or non-official groups also play a very active role in policy making.
• Public private interaction constitutes the structure of the political system within which
policy actors influence the policy process.

POLICY CONCEPTS
• Easton’s (1965) ‘Political System Model’ can be employed to explain the policy making
process of developing countries.
• Easton’s (1965) ‘political system’ model views the policy process as a ‘political system’
responding to the demands arising from its environment.
• The ‘political system’ as defined by Easton is composed of those identifiable and
interrelated institutions and activities in a society that make authoritative decisions (or
allocations of values) that are binding on society (Rinfret, 2018)

POLICY CONCEPTS
• In developing countries policy making does not always follow the chain of actions
identified by Easton.
• The presence of feedback mechanisms is very infrequent in policy making of developing
countries.
• Support from the society as input for decision making is less significant in the developing
country context.
• Walt (1994) rightly observes that in developing countries, there exist huge examples of
retaining power by the governments without popular support.

POLICY CONCEPTS
• But where the matter is complex and/or contested – where intentions are confused
and/or disguised – it may not be possible to define the policy ideas clearly and
unambiguously.
• In this case it may be useful to identify a policy in terms of what actually happens.

POLICIES IN MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
1. The technical vocational education and training (tvet) policy
2. Gender in Education Policy
3. Early Child Hood Development (ECD) Policy
4. National Physical Education and Sports Policy
5. The Education Sector HIV and AIDS workplace Policy
6. Information and Communication Technology in Education Sector Policy
7. The Uganda Students’ Higher Education Financing Policy

POLICIES IN MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
8. Basic Education Policy for Educationally Disadvantaged Children 2006

THEORIES AND MODELS
• Elite theory
• GroupTheory
• SystemsTheory
• IncrementalTheory
• Rational ChoiceTheory
• Pluralist theory
• Mixed Scanning model,

ELITETHEORY
• This model posits/suggests that, contrary to the belief that pluralism has in-built
mechanism for ensuring equity in the share of power and influence in society, in reality
public policy is by and large the mirror image of the ruling elite’s interest.
• Vilfredo Pareto in his book „Mind and Society argues that persons of ability actively seek
to confirm and aggrandize/exagerate their social position.The elite group is divided into
governing and non-governing ones.

ELITE
• a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth,
privilege, political power, or skill in a group.
• the "elite" are "the richest, most powerful, best-educated, or best-trained group in
a society (Cambridge Dictionary, 2024).
• a plausible or scientifically acceptable general principle or body of principles offered to
explain phenomena

ELITETHEORY
• These few that possess unique qualities such as skills, material wealth, cunning and
intelligence have the rights to supreme leadership, while the bulk of the population
(masses) is destined to be ruled.
• Thus social classes are formed (Obi et al, 2008). In his own work entitled „The Ruling
Class Gaetano Mosca, an Italian sociologist, posited that in the history of man, only one
‟
type of government had existed which was Oligarchy.

ELITETHEORY
• He argued that: In all societies, right from societies that are very meagrely developed and
have barely attained the dawn of civilization down to the most advanced and powerful
societies- two classes of people appear, a class that rules and a class that is ruled.
• The first class, always the less numerous, performs all political functions, monopolises
power and enjoys the advantages that power brings, whereas the second, the more
numerous class is directed and controlled by the first, in a manner that is now more or
less legal (Emma, 2018).

ELITETHEORY
• now more or less arbitrary and violent and supplies the first, in appearance at least, with
the instrumentalities that are essential to the vitality of political organism. (Mosca, 1939).
• Mosca was also of the belief that apart from the fact that the minority is usually
composed of superior individuals, the fact of their being few helps them to be more
organised.
• He also wrote that the larger the political community, the smaller will be the proportion
of the minority and the more difficult it will be for the majority to organise for reaction
against the minority

GROUPTHEORY
• According to this, public policy is the product of the group struggle.What may be called
public policy is the equilibrium reached in this group struggle at any given moment, and it
represents a balance which the contending factions or groups constantly strive to win in
their favor.
• Many public polices do reflect the activities of groups (Anderson, 1997). This theory
attempts to analyse how each of the various groups in a society tries to influence public
policy to its advantage at the policy formulation level.

GROUPTHEORY
• The central practice of this model is that interaction among groups is a critical ingredient in
politics.
• Public policy is thus a temporary point of compromise reached in the course of competition
between mosaics/ varietis of numerous interest groups with cross-cutting membership.
• The ability of the group that is favoured at one point to sustain its gain depends on its power
to counteract the powers of other groups that would make efforts to tilt decisions to their
favour.
• This determines the pattern of allocation of societal resources (Enemuo, 1999:24).

GROUPTHEORY
• The locus/position of power in the society changes from time to time, depending upon
the group that succeeds in exerting its own supremacy over the others.
• The power to determine policy direction changes with the changes in the fortunes of
each or a combination of these groups.
• It is in appreciating the fluidity of power base in society that Latham contends that what
we regard as public policy is in reality a temporary equilibrium reached in the course of
the inter-group struggle (Latham, 1965).

GROUPTHEORY
• As soon as the equilibrium point is altered in the favour of new groups another policy
will emerge or the old policy will be modified. Politics in essence entails a dynamic
equilibrium created by the struggle between different groups.
• In Latham’s opinion the legislature acts only as a referee to the inter-group struggle and it
ratifies the victories of the successful coalitions, as well as record the terms of the
surrender, compromises, and conquest in the form of statutes or Bills (Latham, 1965).

CRITICISM OFTHE GROUPTHEORY
• The group theory has been criticized on the following grounds:
• First, the group theorists did not really define in clear terms what they mean by the two
key concepts in the analysis; group and interests.
• Thus, while Bentley sees groups as a relation between men, a process of adding man to
man,Truman defines it as any collection of individuals who have some characteristic in
common. None of these definitions clearly tells us what a group that is really relevant to
politics and decision making is.

CRITICISM OFTHE GROUPTHEORY
• Second, the theory was so concerned with the role of groups that it leaves out the
individuals and society in their analysis. While not disputing the fact that politics is a
struggle between and among groups, one can also not forget that the role of particular
individuals is a very important variable.
• This is particularly important in third world countries, where one-man dictatorship has
proved that an individual could indeed hold a whole country to ransom and dictate what
happens mostly after decimating all competing groups.Also, the role of the society in this
competition for power is completely left out which is a defect.

SYSTEMSTHEORY
• The systems theory in political science owes its origin to David Easton who is reputed
to be the scholar that attempted to analyse politics from the perspective of systems in
his famous work political system which appeared in 1953.
‟
• His work outlined eight major characteristics described as the intellectual foundation
stone of behaviourism which are regularities, verification, techniques, quantification,
values, systemisation, pure science, and integration.

SYSTEMSTHEORY
• According toVarma, Easton was able to distill these characteristics from a range of
behavioural literature and while they are not unique to systems theory, they do form the
basis for the natural linkage between systems thinking and behaviourism (Obi et al,
2008). In other words, a political system may be that system of interactions in any society
through which authoritative allocations are made and implemented in the form of
policies and decisions.

SYSTEMSTHEORY
• Public policy may also be seen as a political system’s response to demands arising from
its environment.The political system, as Easton defines it, comprises those identifiable
and interrelated institutions and activities (what we usually think of as government
institutions and political processes) in a society that make authoritative allocations of
values (decisions) that are binding on society (Anderson, 1997).

SYSTEMSTHEORY
• This environment consists of the social system, the economic system, the biological
setting - that are external to the boundaries of the political system.Thus, at least
analytically one can separate the political system from all the other components of a
society (Easton, 1965).
• The issues to reflect on include the nature of the components of the system which
constitute the sub-systems, and the outside components that impinge on the system
directly, which is referred to as supra-system (Dlakwa, 2004

SYSTEMSTHEORY
• Support is rendered when groups and individuals abide by election results, pay taxes,
obey laws, and otherwise accept decisions and actions taken by the political system in
response to demands.
• The amount of support for a political system indicates the extent to which it is regarded
as legitimate, or as authoritative and binding on its citizens.
• On the other hand, outputs of the political system include laws, rules, judicial decisions,
and the like. Regarded as the authoritative allocations of values, they constitute public
policy.

INSTITUTIONALTHEORY
• One of the oldest concerns of political science and public administration is the study of
government institutions since political life generally revolves around them.These
institutions include legislatures, executives and judiciary; and public policy is
authoritatively formulated and executed by them.
• Traditionally, the institutional approach concentrates on describing the more formal and
legal aspects of government institutions: their formal structure, legal powers, procedural
rules, and functions. Formal relationships with other institutions might also be
considered, such as legislative-executive relations.

INSTITUTIONALTHEORY
• Usually, little was done to explain how institutions operated as opposed to how they
were supposed to operated, to analyse public policies produced by the institutions and
to discover the relationships between institutional structure and public policies.
• Social scientists turned their attention in teaching and research to the political processes
within government or political institutions, concentrating on the behaviour of
participants in the process and on political realities rather than formalism. In the study of
legislators, attention shifted

INSTITUTIONALTHEORY
• from simply describing the legislature as an institution to analysing and explaining its
operation over time, from its static to its dynamic aspects.
• In the academic studies legislature usually came to be about the legislative process.
• Institutionalism, with its emphasis on the formal or structural aspects of institutions can
nonetheless be usefully employed in policy analysis.An institution is, in part, a set of
regularised patterns of human behaviour that persist over time and perform some
significant social function. It is their differing patterns of behaviour that usually distinguish
courts from legislatures, from administrative agencies, and so on.

INSTITUTIONALTHEORY
• This model studies the official structures and functions of government departments and
institutions in an attempt to learn how public policy takes shape.
• It focuses on the organization chart of government.While the systems approach is
dynamic and process-oriented,

INCREMENTALTHEORY
• Incremental decisions involve limited changes or additions to existing policies, such as a
small percentage increase in ministry of education’s budget or a modest tightening of
eligibility requirements for central government scholarship.
• According to this approach, the policy-makers examine a limited number of policy
alternatives and implement change in a series of small steps.
• It may be noted that each of the alternatives available to the policy-maker represents
only a small change in the status quo.This approach recognizes the less than ideal
circumstances under which administrators must make policies.

INCREMENTALTHEORY
• Because of these limitations, the policymakers, though they try to be rational, accept the
past policies that satisfy them as legitimate and suffice to deal with the issue.
• Charles Lindblom is associated with this model. He contends that incrementalism is the
typical policy-making in pluralist societies such as the United States.
• Decisions and policies are the product of give and take and mutual consent among
numerous participants in the policy process.

INCREMENTALTHEORY
• Incrementalism is politically expedient because it is easier to reach agreement when the
matters in dispute among various groups are only limited modifications of existing
programmes rather than policy issues of great magnitude or of an all-or-nothing
character.
• Because policy makers operate under conditions of uncertainty about the future
consequences of their actions, incremental decisions tend to reduce the risks and cost of
uncertainty.

INCREMENTALTHEORY
• . Incrementalism is also realistic because it recorgnises that policy makers lack the time,
intelligence, and other resources needed to engage in comprehensive analysis of all
alternative solutions to existing problems.
• Moreover, people are essentially pragmatic seeking not always a single best way to deal
with a problem but, more modestly, something that would work. In a nut-shell,
incrementalism utilises limited analysis to yield limited, practical, acceptable decisions.

CRITICISM OFTHE INSTITUTIONALTHEORY
• It is too conservative, to focused on the current order; hence, it is a barrier to
innovation, which is often necessary for effective policies.
• Another is that in crisis situations, incrementalism provides no guidelines for handling the
tasks of decisions.
• Incrementalism may discourage the search for or use of other readily available
alternatives (Anderson, 1997).
Incrementalism does not eliminate the need for theory in policy-making, are some of the
more enthusiastic advocates contend

INSTITUTIONALTHEORY
• Unless changes in policy are to be made simply at random or arbitrarily, some theory is
needed to guide the action and to indicate the likely effect of proposed changes (Hayes,
1992:2).
• Non-withstanding reservations of these sorts, incrementalism has become a form of
conventional wisdom.
• Statements to the effect that policy-making in Uganda is incremental are common.

RATIONAL CHOICETHEORY
• The rational-choice theory, which is sometimes called social-choice, public-choice, or
formal theory, originated with economists and involves applying the principles of micro-
economic theory to the analysis and explanation of political behaviour (or nonmarket
decision-making). It has now gained quite a few adherents among political scientists
(Anderson, 1997).
• Perhaps, the earliest use of rational-choice theory to study the political process is
Anthony Downs s Economic Theory of Democracy.
‟

• Downs assumes that voters and political parties act as rational decision-makers who
seek to maximise attainment of their preferences. Parties formulate whatever policies
will win them most votes and voters, and seek to maximise the portion of their
preferences that could be realised through government action.
• Political parties move toward the centre of the ideological spectrum to appeal to the
greatest number of voters and maximise their voting support.Thus, rather than providing
„meaningful alternatives , parties will become as much alike as possible, thereby providing
‟
an „echo rather than a choice (Downs, 1957).
‟

• This approach is based on economic principles such as the cost-benefit analysis.
According to Henry:
• One tries to learn all the value preferences extant in a society, assign each value a
relative weight, discover all the policy alternatives available, know all the consequences of
each alternative, calculate how the selection of any one policy will affect the remaining
alternatives in terms of opportunity costs, and ultimately select the policy alternative that
is the most efficient in terms of costs and benefits of social values (Henry, 2004:314).

• The rationalist model is conceptually quite simple. Policy-makers using it are expected to take
the following steps:
• 1. Identify all the value preferences currently existing in a society.
• 2.Assign each value a relative weight,
• 3. Discover all the alternative policies available to accomplish these values,
• 4. Know all the costs and consequences of each alternative policy,
• 5. Select the best alternative which is also the most efficient in terms of the costs and benefits
of social values

CRITICISM OFTHE RATIONAL CHOICE
THEORY
• The rationalist model deals with construction of public policies that ensure better public
policies. It thus aims at improving public policy-making process.
• It is the opposite of incrementalism.
• How much of each value is equal to how much of each other value (Lindblom, 1980).
• For the above steps to be taken, the rational-choice theory according to Ikelegbe (1996)
assumes the following:

THEORY
• That perfect information can be obtained:
• to objectively assess policy alternatives;
• that there is commonality of values and preferences particularly in the setting of goals
and objectives,
• that the rational actor thinks of the greatest good of the greatest number as a guide to
decision-making,

THEORY
• that objectives and alternatives can be quantified and compared on a single monetary
measure;
• that the conditions and parameters for the decision are static within the decision-making
period.
• There is no doubt that these assumptions are simply not realisable in the real world
situations, hence making the implementation of the model clearly impossible.

THEORY
• The rationalist model is appealing in its simplicity. But, there are problems that lie with its
implementation. It lacks explicit concern for the political environment in which public
policy must be carried out.
• According to Braybrooke and Lindblom (1964), the rational policy-making process,
ideally, is based on knowledge of all of society’s value preferences, and their relative
weight, all of the alternatives, all of the potential consequences (costs and benefits) of
each policy alternative.

THEORY
• The final selection must be that alternative that maximises the weighted value
preference.The obvious limitation of this approach is its demand for knowledge (facts
and information) not within the reach of mere mortals.
• The prospects of the successful application of this model in developing countries like
Uganda is very dim indeed given the paucity/scarcity of data (in coverage and quality)
needed for policy-making

THEORY
• Some scholars have argued that the average developing country has neither the
technology, the resources nor the time to effectively employ this model in policy-making
(Braybrooke and Lindblom, 1964).
• This model has a bias toward efficiency to the exclusion of other values such as equity
and responsiveness. Rationalist model has its limitations but, it can be useful to policy-
makers and administrators as a tool of policy output analysis.
• Rational-choice studies of political behaviour are usually characterised by rigid and
narrow assumptions, mathematical equations, abstractions, and remoteness from reality.

PLURALISTTHEORY
• Pluralism, in political science, is the view that in liberal democracies power is (or should
be) dispersed among a variety of economic and ideological pressure groups and is not
(or should not be) held by a single elite or group of elites. (Robert A Dahl)
• Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems
of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political
behavior, and associated constitutions and laws. (Lexico, 2020)

PLURALISTTHEORY
• Pluralism assumes that diversity is beneficial to society and that autonomy should
be enjoyed by disparate/different functional or cultural groups within a society,
including religious groups, trade unions, professional organizations, and ethnic
minorities.
• Pluralism is a political philosophy that holds that people of different beliefs,
backgrounds, and lifestyles can coexist in the same society and participate
equally in the political process.
• Pluralism assumes that its practice will lead decision-makers to negotiate
solutions that contribute to the “common good” of the entire society.

MIXED SCANNING MODEL
• Mixed scanning is a hierarchical mode of decision-making that combines
higher-order, fundamental decision-making with lower-order, incremental
decisions that work out and/or prepare for the higher-order ones.
•

MIXED SCANNING MODEL
• The term “scanning” is used to refer to search, collection, processing, and evaluation of
information as well as to the drawing of conclusions,
• All elements in the service of decision-making.
• Mixed scanning also contains rules for allocation of resources among the levels of
decision-making and for evaluation, leading to changes in the proportion of higher versus
lower levels of scanning based on changes in the situation (Etzioni, (1967)

CRITICISM OFTHE MIXED SCANNING
MODEL
• The Mixed Model has received some criticism from scholars who find it to be less
scientifically proven, and more akin to popular psychology.

COURSE WORK QUESTION
• You are the district education officer and you have been nominated by the Permanent
Secretary in the ministry of education to be part of the team developing a policy to
address the problem of children in schools in Uganda who have learning difficulties.
• (a) Discuss the theory that would choose justifying with reasons your choice
• (b) Discuss the steps you go through in developing the policy of your choice

PRINCIPLES OF PUBLIC POLICY MAKING
• In order to choose a good policy, it is important to have at the back of your mind the following
factors;
• the goodness of different economic states of affairs and the government as the determinant.
• the role of the state, and the personal freedoms which limit its authority.
• The individual rights which arise from the desire of people to live together in a viable society.
• The state which has the duty of protecting persons and their property, and ensuring the rule of
law.

• The issue at hand is whether the state ought to take away property from some one to
improve the welfare of others.
• It is concluded that such an infringement of property rights is unjust, but that
nevertheless there may be an overriding welfare argument for redistribution.

• Utilitarian theory (an ethical theory that evaluates actions by their consequences for
happiness or pleasure) and the question of whose utility the state should try to
maximize this involves discussion of the value of life
• There are some overriding constraints—things which no government or person may do
to people whatever the consequences; equality is a guiding principle for government
intervention.

• Justice is about protecting persons and property, enforcing contracts, and supporting
important social conventions.
• Those in authority, both persons and government, have duties towards those over whom
they have authority.
• The exercise of these duties often involves some distribution of benefits or burdens.
• There is then a distributor and something to distribute: and this is a requirement of the
concept of distributive justice.

PRINCIPLE ONE
• Build and compile rigorous evidence about what works, including g costs and benefits.
• The available body of facts and other information indicating whether a belief or
proposition is true or valid, in this case regarding the impacts of programs.
• The evidence produced by rigorous evaluations, such as randomized controlled trials and
well-designed quasi-experimental studies, that measure program impact Impact is the
net effect of a program relative to the status quo

PRINCIPLE ONE
• To conduct research and evaluations to identify social programs and policies that
produce desirable outcomes (e.g., educational skills attainment) by employing a range of
rigorous methodologies.
• There is need to assemble evaluations in what works to clearly describe programs, and
the methodology by which they were evaluated, and their effects.
• To analyze how much a program or policy costs per outcome achieved (cost analysis)
and, in some cases, also measure the monetary value of benefits produced by the
program so that costs and benefits can be directly compared (cost-benefit analysis).

PRINCIPLE ONE
• Several other elements are critical to the evidence-building process. One is
independence: evaluators must be impartial to ensure the validity and rigor of new
evidence.
• Agency leaders can help evaluation staff identify the most relevant questions to examine,
but the evaluation itself and the publication of results must be free of influence from
program or political leadership that might have a vested interest in a particular
outcome.

PRINCIPLE ONE
• Another tool is cost-benefit analysis, which measures both the costs and benefits of
programs to calculate a return on investment.
• Cost-benefit analysis can help policymakers compare the relative benefits of spending on
programs with the same general goals (e.g., boosting school readiness) or programs with
different goals (e.g., boosting school readiness versus reducing delinquency).

PRINCIPLE.2 MONITOR PROGRAM DELIVERY AND USE IMPACT
EVALUATIONTO MEASURE PROGRAM EFFECTIVENESS.
• To clearly define the key components of a program model and track the inputs, activities,
outputs, and outcomes of program service delivery through process evaluation and
performance management
• To check whether services are delivered as intended, in terms of quantity and quality, and
whether programs are meeting their goals

PRINCIPLE.2
• The systematic collection of information about a program to identify
• (or estimate) the specific contribution of that program to intended
• Outcomes. That specific contribution, in the language of evaluators, is known as a
program’s impact There are two key elements to this principle: monitoring a program as
it is delivered and evaluating the
• success of the program. Both steps are important for building knowledge about what
works and acting on that knowledge (as discussed in principle three).

PRINCIPLE.2
• Monitoring program delivery ensures basic accountability by making sure that programs
operate as intended. Monitoring programs is also critical for identifying problems or
opportunities for
• improvement in program delivery so that programs can continually improve. In cases
where programs

PRINCIPLE.2
• are replicating established models—such as a job training program in Moroto that aims
to use the same approach as one in Arua.
• Monitoring can help ensure fidelity to the model by tracking how well the new program
is implementing the core characteristics or intentions of the original Impact evaluation,
on the other hand, it aims to answer a specific question:
• how are things different because of this program relative to the status quo that would
have existed without it? Rigorous impact

PRINCIPLE THREE
• Use rigorous evidence to improve programs, scale what works, and redirect funds away
from consistently ineffective programs.
• To adapt a program so that it produces better results, particularly around participant
outcomes
• To take a program that has worked for one population and implement it in a larger
population, a different population, or a population in a different context
• To defund a program that has failed to achieve desirable outcomes in favor of a program
that is more effective or is likely to be more effective

PRINCIPLE THREE
• Program evaluation is too often thought of as a “thumbs up or thumbs down”
determination—does this
• program work or not? In reality, evaluation can also be an important tool for program
improvement.
• Impact evaluation can test different approaches within the same program, such as when
the National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies compared the effects of two
available strategies for

PRINCIPLE THREE
• preparing welfare recipients for employment.
• Findings from program evaluations can and should be used to refine program strategy
and improve results.
• Scaling programs is another way to apply impact evaluations and is an important way to
broaden the reach of approaches backed by strong evidence.A program proven effective
in one region, for

PRINCIPLE FOUR
• Encourage innovation and test new approaches.
• Building on theory and existing research to develop new ways to address specific program or policy
challenges.
• To determine with rigorous evaluation whether new approaches actually work and achieve desired
outcomes.
• Although a key goal of evidence-based policymaking is to focus resources on approaches backed by
• strong evidence, only using approaches backed by strong evidence prevents us from finding new and
• innovative ways to address the nation’s challenges

WHY ISTHIS PRINCIPLE IMPORTANT?
• Encouraging innovation should always be an important part of evidence-based
policymaking.
• This is especially true in policy areas where the evidence base is thin and there is limited
research to guide funding and programmatic decisions.
• Testing innovative approaches in these areas is an essential way to advance evidence-
based policy.

WHY ISTHIS PRINCIPLE IMPORTANT?
• For grant programs, a tiered-evidence design can be a useful strategy to spur innovation.
Tier edevidence grant programs include a dedicated funding tier for innovative and
relatively untested
• approaches, often called the development or proof of concept tier. Funding in this tier
supports both

PRINCIPLES OF PUBLIC POLICY PRINCIPLE 5
• Strategy
• The government ensures a strategic vision and leadership for an agile, innovative and
continuously improving public administration responsive to new challenges.
• A comprehensive, credible and sustainable public administration reform agenda is
established and successfully implemented, fostering innovation and continuous
improvement.

• Public administration reform (PAR) is acknowledged as a political priority and is reflected
in the relevant political agendas.
• A comprehensive PAR agenda, established through dedicated planning documents, covers
all reform areas and fosters continuous improvement, agility and responsiveness of the
public administration to evolving national and global priorities and challenges.

• PAR is coordinated at political and administrative levels; sufficient resources are allocated
and the planned reforms are effectively implemented and monitored.
• All relevant stakeholders are regularly consulted and involved in PAR planning and
monitoring; PAR is effectively communicated and values of good public administration are
promoted.
• Public administration bodies encourage and share innovative solutions and approaches
across the whole public administration.

PRINCIPLE 6
• Public policies are coherent and effectively coordinated by the centre of government;
decisions are prepared and communicated in a clear and transparent manner.
• The center of government enables and facilitates policy co-ordination across ministries
and relevant institutions to ensure overall policy coherence and better and more
sustainable policy outcomes.
• CoG institutions and their internal units co-ordinate and collaborate actively to ensure
good policy outcomes.

PRINCIPLE 6
• Government decisions are prepared, approved and followed up in a transparent, effective
and timely manner, based on clear rules and procedures, through the relevant decision-
making structures, including government sessions.
• Central co-ordination of government communication, both internal and external, helps
advance the national policy agenda and counters both mis-information and dis-
information.

PRINCIPLE 6
• Effective and agile procedures and mechanisms ensure continuous government decision-
making in crisis situations and management of external risks; the government uses
strategic foresight to anticipate and prepare for future scenarios.

PRINCIPLE 7
• The government plans and monitors public policies in an effective and inclusive manner,
in line with the government fiscal space. inclusive manner, in line with the government
fiscal space.
• A harmonized and coherent policy planning, monitoring and reporting system, with clear
procedures and key institutional responsibilities, is established.
• Political priorities and agenda, as articulated in the government programme or other
similar political statements, are effectively planned and implemented through relevant
policy planning documents.

PRINCIPLE 7
• Policy and financial planning documents are coherent and aligned with each other in
terms of policy priorities, objectives and activities.
• Policy planning documents meet quality requirements and contain adequate analysis and
information, including on policy objectives, indicators with targets and monitoring
framework.They are developed in a participatory manner and are publicly available.

PRINCIPLE 7
• Policy planning documents include financial cost estimates that are aligned with the
medium-term and annual budgets, and financial resources are available to ensure smooth
and full implementation.
• Performance and results, including achievement of policy objectives and outcome
indicators, are regularly monitored and reported on; monitoring reports are published on
time to enable public scrutiny.
• Guidance, quality assurance and methodological support are provided to institutions
during the planning, monitoring and reporting of policy planning documents

PRINCIPLE 8
• Public policies are developed based on evidence and analysis, following clear and
consistent rules for law making; laws and regulations are easily accessible.
• Government policy promotes better regulation, evidence-based and inclusive
policymaking is established and applied in practice during policy development and
legislative drafting.
• Ministries have clear internal rules and procedures for planning and managing effectively
the development of policies and legislative drafting.

PRINCIPLE 8
• Regulatory impact assessment (RIA), or other similar tool(s), is adopted and
systematically used to support policy development, facilitate consultation and inform
decision-making at all key stages of policymaking, covering both primary and secondary
legislation, including the impact on the environment and climate where necessary.

PRINCIPLE 8
• Alternative non-regulatory options, possibilities for regulatory simplifications and
effective monitoring and enforcement mechanisms are systematically considered and
analysed during policy development.
• All possible impacts of policy proposals are systematically analysed; reasonable efforts are
made to quantify and monetise key impacts, including additional costs on the state
budget, businesses and citizens.

PRINCIPLE 8
• The selection of specific analytical approaches and the level of analysis of policy options are
proportionate to the complexity of the issue under consideration and the scale of anticipated
impacts.
• The (RIA Regulatory impact assessment) oversight, quality control, support and guidance functions
ensure full and consistent implementation of existing rules and methodologies, enhance the quality of
policy analysis, strengthen capacities and enable continuous improvement of the system.
• Laws and regulations are clear, coherent and consistent in content, structure, style and language. i.All
primary and secondary legislation, including consolidated versions, is easily accessible and available
free of charge through a central online database(s).Administrative guidance documents,

PRINCIPLE 9
• All key external and internal stakeholders and the general public are actively consulted
during policy development.
• Procedures are in place and consistently applied and monitored to enable pro-active and
effective public consultations with stakeholders and the general public, allowing
businesses, non-governmental organisations and citizens, including from vulnerable
groups to participate in and inform government policymaking.

PRINCIPLE 9
• Consultation with the general public is conducted in an accessible and transparent
manner.
• Ministries hold constructive dialogue with key external stakeholders and collect, analyze
and use all responses when finalizing the policy proposal.
• They transparently report on the outcome of the public consultation process and how
consultees’ views have shaped and influenced policy.

PRINCIPLE 10
• Public policies are effectively implemented and evaluated, enhancing policy outcomes and
reducing regulatory costs and burdens.
• Preparatory activities necessary for effective implementation of laws and policies, such as
adoption of secondary legislation and harmonisation with other legislation, preparation
of guidance, communication and capacity building, are done prior to the policies taking
full effect.

PRINCIPLE 10
• Businesses and citizens receive advance notification about upcoming changes in the rules
and regulations that will affect them, and sufficient time is allowed for the affected groups
to adjust to and align with the new regulatory framework.
• The responsible institutions effectively monitor policy implementation and ensure
regulatory compliance, based on robust and relevant data, including evidence gathering
through direct feedback and consultations with affected stakeholders.

PRINCIPLE 10
• . Inspections are conducted based on risk analysis and considering the proportionality
principle.They are planned and conducted in a co-ordinated and transparent manner to
minimise burdens, increase compliance and ensure effective use of public resources
• Compliance with existing regulations is promoted through provision of information,
guidance, checklists and other tools. Enforcement actions take into account the profile
and behaviour of specific regulated entities.

PRINCIPLE 10
• The government engages in international and regional regulatory co-operation to
improve regulatory quality and coherence, increase compliance and achieve better and
more sustainable policy outcomes.

PRINCIPLE 11
• The parliament effectively scrutinises the government policymaking and ensures overall
policy and legislative coherence.
• The parliament effectively scrutinises and oversees government policymaking.The
parliament ensures that the legislation enacted is clear, concise and intelligible.
• Parliamentary committees debate and scrutinise legislative initiatives, with active
participation of government ministers and senior public servants, and ensure
consultation with key stakeholders, while also minimising any risks of undue external
influence.

PRINCIPLE 11
• The government co-ordinates its legislative work plan closely with the parliament and
regularly shares information about new legislative initiatives.
• The parliament ensures effective planning and timely consideration of all legislative proposals
• The government shares with the parliament all policy documents and supporting materials,
such as regulatory impact assessments and reports on the outcome of public consultation.
• Supporting materials are revised, if necessary, to reflect any major amendments agreed during
parliamentary debates.

PRINCIPLE 11
• Extraordinary and/or shortened procedures for adopting laws are not used excessively,
to allow adequate time for preparation and scrutiny.
• If such procedures are used, an ex post review of these laws is carried out at the earliest
possible time to assess the relevance and effectiveness of the regulatory rules and
procedures

PRINCIPLE 11
• The government reviews and provides comments on all new legislative proposals
initiated by the members of parliament to highlight possible policy incoherence and
implementation risks, such as creation of unfunded mandates.
• The parliamentary services provide expert advice and support to members of parliament
for initiating and drafting new laws based on evidence and with input from key
stakeholders.
• i.The parliament regularly reviews implementation of major laws and public policies to
assess their effectiveness and hold the government accountable.

PRINCIPLE 12
• The employment framework balances stability and flexibility, ensures accountability of public
servants and protects them against undue influence and wrongful dismissal
• The government has a clear policy on public service, and the political-level responsibility for the
area is established.
• Legislation on the public service provides for clear and adequate material, horizontal and vertical
scopes
• Public servants have the obligation to act professionally and neutrally and the right to reject
unlawful instructions, and they have protection against undue political and other interference in
their professional judgement.

PRINCIPLE 13
• Effective leadership is fostered through competence, stability, professional autonomy and
responsiveness of accountable top managers.
• 1. Ability to Influence Others; influence is “the ability to produce effects on other
people’s behavior.” Influencing others requires building a strong sense of trust
with your colleagues.
• 2. Transparency—to an Extent: Part of building trust is being transparent. The
more open you are about the organization’s goals and challenges, the easier it is
for employees to understand their role and how they can individually contribute
to the company’s overall success.

PRINCIPLE 13
• 3. Encourage Risk-Taking and Innovation; Experimentation is critical to
establishing and maintaining your institution’s competitive advantage. Great
leaders recognize this and encourage risk-taking and innovation within their
organization.
• 4. Integrity and Accountability
• One of the most important aspects of leadership is demonstrating integrity.
The ability to balance power and accountability can set successful leaders
apart from ineffective ones.

PRINCIPLE 13
• 5. Act Decisively; In today’s fast-changing, complex business environment,
effective leaders need to make strategic decisions quickly—even before any
definitive information is available.
• 6. Demonstrate Resilience; Every decision you make won’t result in success.
There will be times when you’re met with failure; it’s your job as a leader to
exercise resiliency.

REFERENCES
• Abdulsami, I. (1987).The Concept and Process of Public Policy.A paper presented at the
national workshop for chief nursing officers, in Zaria,Wednesday 3 rd June, 1987.
• [2] Anderson, J.E.(1997). Public Policy-Making:An Introduction 3 rd ed. Boston:
Houghton Miffilin Company. [3] Braybrooke, D. &Lindblom, E. (1964).A Strategy of
Decisions. Free Press of Glencoe, NewYork. [4] Dlakwa, H.D. (2014). Concepts and
Models in Public Policy Formulation and Analysis. Kaduna: PylamakServicies Ltd Nigeria.

REFERENCES
• [5] Downs,A. (1957).An Economic Theory of Democracy. NewYork: Harper and Row.
[6] Dye,T.R & Zeigler, L.H. (1990).The Irony of Democracy. 8 thedition. Monterey, Califf:
Books/Cole [7] Hayes, M.T. (1992). Incrementalism and Public Policy. NewYork: Longman.
• [8] Henry, N. (2004). Public Administration and Public Affairs. 9 thed. New Delhi: Prentice
Hall. [9] [9] Latham,E. (1965).The Group Basis of Politics, NewYork: Octagon Books [10]
Mitchell,W.C. (1982).Textbook Public Choice:A Review Essay. Public Choice, XXVIII. [11]
Mosca, G. (1939).The Ruling Class, (Translated by Hannah D. Kahn), NewYork: McGrow-
Hill Book Company.

REFERENCES
• [12] Obi, E.A, Nwachukwu, C.L. and Obiora,A.C. (2008).Public Policy Analysis and
Decision Making. Onitsha: Bookpoint Educational Ltd. [13] Simon, H.A. (1957).
Administrative Behaviour:A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative
Organisation. 2 nded. NewYork:The Macmillian Company. [14] Weischler, L.F. (1982).
Methodological Individualism in Politics. Public Administration Review, XL III, May/June.

GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTION
•The Uganda Students’ Higher Education Financing
Policy;
• Discuss the theory and principles that guided the
development of this policy. Highlight the challenges
experienced if any and show how they can be overcome.

Public policy slides for students of education

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