CRITICAL DIMENSIONS OF STAKEHOLDERS’ ENGAGEMENT IN EDUCATIONAL POLICY IMPLEMENTATION IN CAMEROON HIGHER EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

Policies are living documents that require various inputs to assist in fulfilling their goals, and as such attention to policy issues does not end at the creation of the policy. Its implementation is increasingly a multi-sectored endeavour and a successful policy process requires democratic public participation, wherein the national sphere, different stakeholders get involved in order to reduce the political pressure on the government and thus achieve its objectives. Yet, this engagement might not continue during the policy implementation stage. Thus, it is crucial to consider the dimensions of stakeholder engagement in policy implementation. The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the dimensions of stakeholders’ engagement in policy implementation and the factors associated with implementation failure due to this gap. Some practical strategies are suggested to overcome implementation performance (way forward) and conclude with the proposition that implementation failure is partly due to a lack of stakeholders’ engagement