Policy capacity matters for capacity development: comparing teacher in-service training and career advancement in basic education systems of India and China

Capacity development is central to the study and practice of public policy and administration, but ensuring its effectiveness requires a substantial amount of policy capacity from government agencies tasked to design and implement it. Identifying the right mix of policy capacity that governments should possess has been made difficult due to conceptual and operational problems. This article addresses the gap by developing a framework that conceptualizes policy capacity as the ability of governments to perform analytical, operational, and political functions. Drawing on the results of an original teacher survey and complementary sources, the article shows that variations on different dimensions of policy capacity have led to significant differences in the effectiveness of capacity development initiatives, especially as perceived by teachers. Therefore, without understanding and catering to the needs of the targets whose capacity is supposedly being developed, capacity development initiatives meant to be supportive are likely to be dissatisfying and disappointing instead

Bringing Governance Back into Education Reforms

Educational systems around the world have undergone major reforms since the 1980s, with largely disappointing results. The objective of this paper is to understand the reasons behind the lackluster results with the purpose of devising ways to address them. Analysis in the paper is based on the understanding that the education sector is characterized by distinct functional imperatives that need to be addressed in policy responses that must involve a wide array of actors to be effective. In this view, education policy is fundamentally about establishing a governance structure to ensure that all the essential functions necessary to achieve the chosen policy goals are performed. Accordingly, the paper proposes a governance framework for education comprising political and operational functions, which it then applies to education policy reforms in the Philippines since the 1970s. The analysis finds that the reforms have focused on financing and decentralization issues while overlooking many other critical governance functions. The lackluster results are unsurprising given that the sector has been beset by many problems unrelated to centralized bureaucratic administration and which have been left unattended. The conclusions regarding the importance of comprehensive governance to emerge from this study are relevant not only for understanding education policy reforms in the Philippines and elsewhere but will also help develop a fuller understanding of the functioning of the education sector in general

The Politics of De-privatisation: Philippine Higher Education in Transition

Journal of Contemporary Asia533471-49

Enhancing Policy Capacity for Better Policy Integration: Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in a Post COVID-19 World

The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the UN, in 2015, established a clear global mandate for greater integrated policymaking, but there has been little consensus on how to achieve them. The COVID-19 pandemic amplified the role of policy capacity in mounting this kind of integrated policy response; however, the relationship between pre- and post-pandemic SDG efforts remains largely unexplored. In this article, we seek to address this gap through a conceptual analysis of policy integration and the capacities necessary for its application to the current SDG situation. Building on the literature on policy design, we define policy integration as the process of effectively reconciling policy goals and policy instruments and we offer a typology of policy integration efforts based on the degree of goal and instrument consistency including: policy harmonization, mainstreaming, coordination, and institutionalization. These forms of policy integration dictate the types of strategies that governments need to adopt in order to arrive at a more coherent policy mix. Following the dimensions of policy capacity by Wu et al. (2015), policy capacities are identified that are critical to ensuring successful integration. This information, thus, contributes to both academic- and policy-related debates on policy integration, by advancing conceptual clarity on the different, and sometimes, diverging concepts used in the field

Why we must reimagine capacity building to strengthen education after COVID-19

The efforts to sustain global education during the COVID-19 pandemic suggest ways to reimagine education systems for a post-pandemic world; To enable this reimagination, policy-makers must be capable of devising and acting upon measures and engaging a wide range of stakeholders; It is crucial that the capacity of these policy-makers and stakeholders is built as education systems are reformed

A POLICY DESIGN APPROACH TO DEVELOPMENT POLICY: CASES FROM THE PHILIPPINES

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (SPP

La capacité d’élaboration des politiques est cruciale en matière de renforcement des capacités: une comparaison de la formation continue et de l’avancement professionnel des enseignants dans les systèmes éducatifs de base chinois et indien

Le renforcement des capacités constitue un élément fondamental de l’étude et de la mise en œuvre de la politique et de l’administration publiques. Toutefois, les entités publiques chargées de sa conception et de sa réalisation doivent disposer de pouvoirs substantiels en matière d’élaboration des politiques pour garantir sa mise en œuvre effective. Déterminer de quelles capacités politiques devraient disposer les gouvernements n’est pas chose aisée en raison de difficultés conceptuelles et opérationnelles. La présente publication se penche sur cette question en élaborant un cadre conceptuel définissant la capacité politique comme l’aptitude des gouvernements à remplir des fonctions analytiques, opérationnelles et politiques. En s’appuyant sur les conclusions d’une étude originale menée auprès d’enseignants et sur des sources complémentaires, cet article montre que l’existence de variations touchant à diverses composantes de la capacité d’élaboration des politiques a entraîné des différences importantes s’agissant de l’efficacité des actions destinées à renforcer les capacités, en particulier du point de vue des enseignants. Par conséquent, si les besoins des groupes cibles dont les capacités sont prétendument renforcées ne sont pas compris et satisfaits, les actions de renforcement des capacités conçues pour apporter un soutien risquent au contraire de s’avérer insatisfaisantes et décevantes

Capacity, control, and content: the supply of think tank policy advice in India

10.1080/01442872.2018.1557624Policy Studies404-3337-35

Two logics of participation in policy design

10.1080/25741292.2022.2038978Policy Design and Practice1-1

Policy work and capacities in a developing country: evidence from the Philippines

10.1080/23276665.2018.1436427Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration4011-2