Chris de Neubourg Professor of Public Policy Analysis and Management

Chris de NeubourgProfessor of Public Policy Analysis and Management

An introductory example

2005

Ministry Social Affairs reformed Social Assistance in The Netherlands

Social Assistance (Bijstand) = cash benefits for the poor guaranteeing a minimum income to all residents

Devolution (= decentralisation of [part of] the financing and the implementation)

Governance

• Many definitions, many ways to describe/analyse its elements

• For this presentation focus on 2 elements

• TRANSPARENCY

• ACCOUNTABILITY

TranparencyTranparencyClarity in policy decision making

Clarity in policy design

Clarity in policy process

Transparency in Policy Design

• Policy Objectives

• Policy Instruments

• Policy Results– Expected results– Risks (an their impact on the expected results)– Analysis of the unintended consequences

• Financing– How much– Paid by whom– (unfunded) mandates

• Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) plan

Transparency in Policy Process

• Decision makers and consultations

• Who are the actors – single actor – multiple actors (governance)

• Their roles and weights

• Consultations• Who is listened to formally and informally (voters,

beneficiaries, interest groups, private interests, NGO’s, parliament, commissions, …)

AccountabilityAccountability Amenibility (giving and account)

In political terms

In technical terms

Accountability in political context

Formal accountability – Regulations for (semi) public sector institutions– Regulations for private sector institutions– Oversight procedures– Accounting rules– Control rules (of processes, of adequacy of control

mechanisms – e.g. IT, internal – external)

•Informal accountability – Accountability to voters (all voters?) to beneficiaries (also

non-beneficiaries?), to sponsors (taxpayers? International sponsors?)

Accountability in technical terms

• Monitoring– Is policy implemented according to formal processes ?– Is policy implemented according to the procedures ?– Are the direct results attained ?

• Evaluation– Are the objectives met ?– Is the financing secured over the longer term ?– Unintended and unforeseen consequences ?– Incentives and adverse (perverse) incentives ?– Impact evaluations

(Public) Policy Analysis (Public) Policy Analysis

Policy Design

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Too many aspect in the policy analysis process to be discussed today (MSc. in Public Policy)

• Focus: illustrating how getting the diagnostics accurate = contributing to better governance

• Getting the diagnostics as accurate as possible helps in many steps of POLICY DESIGN and in M&E

• But one preliminary remark

All elements in Policy Design are important

• Policy Objectives

• Policy Instruments

• Policy Results– Expected results– Risks (an their impact on the expected results)– Analysis of the unintended consequences

• Financing– How much– Paid by whom– (unfunded) mandates

• Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) plan

Getting the diagnostics accurate helps in all the elements of Policy Design

• Policy Objectives

• Policy Instruments

• Policy Results– Expected results– Risks (an their impact on the expected results)– Analysis of the unintended consequences

• Financing– How much– Paid by whom– (unfunded) mandates

• Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) plan

An example on children

• UNICEF and many (if not all) governments think that it is important to improve the situation of children

• In order to improve the situation of children we need to know the situation of children at the start of our policy design process

• Situation Analysis is made by UNICEF in all programme countries (SitAN)

• A tool to describe the situation of children in a country

• MODA (Multiple Overlapping Deprivation Analysis)

MODA Ultimate Objectives

• Identifying, locating and profiling poor and deprived individuals/children

• Understanding why individuals/children are- and remain poor and under what conditions poverty is reproduced over the generation

• Multidimensional poverty research = relatively new tool

Poverty and deprivation

• Child is poor when he/she lives in a household with not enough financial means

• Child is deprived when he/she lacks things that are needed for its development (clean water, adequate sanitation, schooling, health services, …)

• They overlap but are not the same

Overlap between monetary poverty and deprivation among children below the age of five in Dominican Republic (DHS, 2007)

The single framework: MODAMultiple Overlapping Deprivation

AnalysisEncompassing:-Single indicator analysis-Single dimension analysis-Multidimensional deprivation counting-Multidimensional overlap analysis-Multidimensional poverty indices and their decomposition-Profiling in single deprivation and dimension analysis-Profiling in multidimensional overlap analysis

-Focussed on children in current application but applicable to adults-Possible thanks to abundant availability of data

Figure 2 – Life-cycle stages and dimensions used for the CC-MODA analysis

Application: deprivations: dimensions and indicators

EU-MODA: Dimensions of deprivation

Age 17-18: no data for BE, CZ, DK, FI, IS, NL, NO, SE, SI, UK due to high incidence of missing values

• www.unicef-irc.org/MODA

• www.devinfolive.info/eumoda/index.php

Single deprivation analysisFrance 0 – 4 years

Deprivation distribution among children under the age of five in Ethiopia (DHS, 2011)

Multidimensional analysis: COUNTING

Deprivation overlap of nutrition, health and water dimensions for children <5 in Tunisia

Multidimensional analysis: OVERLAP 1

Deprivation overlap of nutrition, health and water dimensions for children <5 in Ethiopia

Multidimensional analysis: OVERLAP 2

Deprivation distribution among children under the age of five living in urban areas, depending on the relative wealth of their households (Ethiopia, DHS,

2011)

Profiling 1

Deprivation overlap of nutrition, health and water dimensions for children <5 in Ethiopia

Profiling 2

Concluding

• New available data in many areas of (public) policy • New statistical and IT options and technologies

• It is possible make better diagnoses (Situation Analyses)

• Better diagnoses lead to more transparency and accountability and thus to better governance

Better diagnoses lead to more transparency and accountability and thus to better governance

• Transparency in policy design (objectives, instruments, results and financing)

• Transparency in policy process: provides a better basis for multi-actors to discuss, to consult

• Accountability: provides a better identification of the items to be held accountable for; facilitates the definition of formal and informal processes

• Accountability: defines the terms in which M&E should be undertaken