Up to date key policy making stages are
not clearly identified, basing on scholars regard key policy making stages is
still a controversial issues. For instance in Danny’s process model there are five stages of public policy making
namely, agenda setting, policy formulation, policy adoption, policy implementation
and policy assessment. Also Mutahaba and others have identified three policy making
stages which are policy formulation, policy implementation and policy
monitoring and evaluation. In our discussion we are going to discuss six
essential stages for public policy making and these are problem identification,
agenda setting, policy problem formulation, policy adoption, policy
implementation and policy monitoring and evaluation. Also in our discussion we
are going to relate these stages with policy making cycle of Tanzania which
have to pass to different stages from where the is identified, then to the respective ministries to the cabinet
secretaries, cabinet, and parliament so as to become a public policy. This
topic is important because it help us to know the different stages of public
policy making and how policies came into existence
The
first stage which involves in public policy making is identification of
problem. This is the process of cabinet to see a problem or government sees a
problem. Under this stage it asks the questions like where is the problem, what
is the problem and likewise. Under the problem identification relies on the
interests or the need of the interest group or society. the players at this stage are members of the
parliament who collect the problems from their constituencies and submit them
to the respective ministries, also ministers from respective ministries are
involved in collecting the problems from the society, these ministers can
collect problem such problems by going either direct to the public or by
indirect from the members of the parliament. For example the demands can be employment
to the youth, diseases, relief from poverty and among others. This is evidenced
in our nation, by taking example from health policy of 2003, the problems which
were identified were high number of disabilities, high mortality rate, poor
nutrition status and low life expectancy. Therefore these problems identified
resulted to the government’s attention.
Apart from identification of the
problem, the next stage is agenda setting. At this stage it is where we make
the government to consider the problems, here we ask ourselves question like
where the problem is presented. Involvers in this stage are appointed
officials, public managers, secretaries, director of policy and planning as
well as ministers from respective ministries. In order for agenda to be
formulated the problem should reach crisis proportion and can no longer be ignored by the government, another criteria is
the issues that have a wide impact to the society have a great chance of
reaching agenda setting. For example serious disease such as HIV/AID’s, Malaria
and Cholera are the diseases that can encourage agenda setting. This is
equivalent to our nation by taking health policy of 2003 as an example there were
formulated different agendas tossed on the serious diseases for example to
improve the health and wellbeing of all Tanzania with a focus on those most at risk and
encourage the health system to be more responsive to the needs of the people,
to facilitate the equitable, quality and affordable basic health services, to
do away with high level of infant mortality rate and to increase life
expectance to whole Tanzanians, after agenda setting leads to the next
stage which is policy problem formulation.
In addition to agenda setting another
stage is the policy problem formulation. In this stage it is where we try to
get or convince the government to consider the solutions, we ask the questions
like what are the proposed solutions. For instance the Tanzania’s national health
policy of 2003, there were different solutions which were proposed towards the
problems which face health sector, the solutions were provision of adequate and
equitable materials and health care to reduce mortality rate and increase of
life expectancy. This was to ensure that health services are available and
accessible to all people in urban and rural areas, to ensure availability of drugs,
reagents and medical supply and infrastructures.
Furthermore, policy adoption is another
stage of public policy making. In this stage the government is supposed to
adopt the solution or what is done about the problem and choose the solutions
to the problem identified. In order for public policy to be adopted there must
be majority collisions that support the suggested solutions to the problem. In
this stage the government can propose various laws, orders, regulations and rules
that support the proposed solution, so as to put the policy into effect. This
is done in Tanzania by the Member of Parliament, since they can propose various
laws and orders to the selected solutions. From the suggested solutions
especially in Tanzania’s national health policy of 2003 the solutions were to
ensure availability of drugs, reagents, medical care for example establishment
of health centres almost in all Tanzania’s rural areas and also they ensured the
creation of infrastructure.
On the other hand there is policy
implementation stage. This is the stage whereby the government applies the solutions
selected by the parliament to overcome the existing problems that have been
found in policy adoption stage. These solutions accompanied with laws, orders,
rules and regulations which ensure the effectiveness of the suggested solutions
to the particular policy. For example in Tanzania’s health policy of 2003 government implemented
numbers of solutions towards the problems associated with health sector, such
as reduction of maternal and infant
mortality rate, increase of life expectancy through provision of adequate and
equitable maternal and child health services, promotion of environmental health and sanitation, promotion of adequate
nutrition, control of communicable disease and treatment for common conditions,
ensure availability of drugs, reagents and medical supplies, infrastructure,
train and make available of competent and adequate number of staffs to manage
health services with gender respective at all levels, capacity building of
human resources at all levels in management and health services provision. All
are the examples of policy implementation in health policy of 2003.
The last stage is policy evaluation.
This is the systematic process of assessing the designed implementation and
outcomes of the public policy. An importatant of policy evaluation is to see if
the policy has achieved the intended objectives or otherwise. The policy evaluation
is needed in order to continue with the policy or not. In this stage we ask the
question like did the solutions work? Or not, respective ministry, public
sectors, private sectors, and stakeholders involves in policy evaluations. If
the policy had not succeeded the policy makers start again to identify the
problems. For example the national health policy of 2003 succeeded in large
extent to the solutions that were proposed towards the health problems, for example,
succeeded to increase life expectancy, succeeded in provision of medical supply,
succeeded in reduction of high degree of both infant mortality rate and maternal
mortality rate, succeeded in provision of drugs, reagents and control of
communicable disease, just to mention.
Generally speaking, despite the fact
that there is complications which we have seen in understanding the stages of
public policy making, in Tanzania there are several policies being made which
show future development in different ministries, but the most problem which
encounters the Tanzania’s policies are lack of enough capital to run different issues,
lack of committed leaders as well as poor implementation of policies might be
the basic problems.
REFFERENCES
James,E.(1994).
Public policy making: An Introduction
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin co.)
Mutahaba,G
and Balogun, J(1989), Strengthening
policy management in Africa: Hartford.
Kumarian
Press.
The
United Republic of Tanzania: Tanzania
National Health policy. (2003).
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