This study originated from a professional interest of the researcher in competency standards and their implementation in the professions. The study was conducted with the aim of informing policy development and implementation in Namibia in this area by drawing lessons from the Australian experience. It set out to identify the factors that influenced the implementation of this policy in Australia, the importance of these factors and the strategies employed by implementors to enhance successful implementation. The study is grounded in policy implementation theory. Twenty professions have been involved in developing and implementing competency standards in Australia under the guidance and with the support of a national government organisation called the National Office of Overseas Skills Recognition (NOOSR). The main objectives of the Australian government in implementing this policy were the improvement of migrant skills recognition and the achievement of recognition for professional qualifications across state and territory borders. Time and budgetary constraints would not allow the involvement of all the professional groups in this study, so four groups were selected based on their size and progress made in developing and implementing the standards. The groups ranged from a very large professional group (more than 250 000 members) to a very small professional group (approximately 3 500 members). Eleven respondents from NOOSR and the professional groups participated in the study. Data was gathered by structured interview, a rating schedule and document analysis. The study found that there were seventeen factors that influenced this process as perceived by the respondents. These factors were classified into five categories: technical, political, economic, administrative and political, and then placed on a matrix with the levels at which they exerted their greatest pressure: external, internal to the professional body, and on the steering group. This classification of factors gave indications of the types of strategies and the level of intervention which may address implementation problems best. The study compiled a list of the factors in order of importance as rated by the respondents. This ranking showed that leadership was the most important factor, followed by experience and expertise of the steering group and the need for and appropriateness of the standards for the professions. The study also found that the Australian government employed inducement, capacity building and facilitation strategies to enhance the successful vii implementation of the standards, while the professional bodies employed mainly staff development and training as strategies. The study concluded that Namibian policy makers and implementors can draw the following lessons from the Australian experience: 1. there is a need for a balance between pressure and support from government; 2. there is a role for a national implementation plan; 3. the main attraction of national competency standards is still the many uses it can be put to and the many purposes it serves for different organisations; 4. assessment strategies need to be considered from the beginning; 5. the methodology of using a representative steering group to lead standards development is one of the best features of the Australian approach; 6. Over time, the original objectives of the policy became low priority for NOOSR and the government; 7. the classification matrix can be used as a planning tool; and 8. the ranking of the factors indicates the importance of organisational, technical and economic factors.

Diss. KTH : Univ., 2008.

Successfully designing and delivering a large-scale information technology (IT) system to meet new organizational objectives is a difficult undertaking in any context. The failure of the federally-facilitated online health insurance exchanges – known most commonly by their website address Healthcare.gov – to properly function when they opened for operations in 2013 provides a case study in how politics and policy-making can uniquely complicate IT projects in the public sector. Analysis reveals several instances where the legislative and regulatory process contributed to the project’s initial failure: from the project’s inception, elected representatives oversold the familiarity and simplicity of the site; statutory and regulatory law amplified the underlying technological complexity of the exchanges; partisan tensions extended the uncertainties around project scope until much too late in the process; legal and political concerns for maintaining stated delivery deadlines came at the cost of adequate testing and site functionality when it first opened; and the team appointed to oversee the project was more sensitive to political challenges then technological ones. Based on these findings, several recommendations are provided to help future representatives and government administrators minimize the negative toll that politics and policy-making can exact on a public sector IT project’s success. These include actively managing expectations, increasing information flow, simplifying functionality, providing fluid but reasonable delivery timelines, and appointing independent and technically savvy project leadership. Using Healthcare.gov as a case study on the effects politics and policy can have on developing IT systems can better prepare legislators and the public for future challenges of developing and implementing technology solutions in the public sector. / text

Context and rationale – This work originates from policy priorities established within Defra to manage exotic animal diseases (EAD); specifically to understand the causes of low probability events, and to establish contingencies to manage outbreak incidents. Outbreaks of exotic animal diseases, e.g. FMD, CSF and HPAI, can cause economic and social impacts of catastrophic proportions. The UK’s government develops and implements policies and controls to prevent EAD and thus minimise these impacts. Control policies to achieve this are designed to address the vulnerabilities within the control systems. However, data are limited for both the introduction of an EAD as well as its resurgence following the disposal of infected carcasses, i.e. the pre-outbreak and post-outbreak phases of an EAD event. These lack of data compromises the development of policy interventions to improve protection. To overcome these data limitations, predictive models are used to predict system vulnerabilities. Cont/d.

Background: Women who inject drugs continue to represent a disproportionate percentage of new cases of HIV in Canada (PHAC, 2006). However, in Nova Scotia, HIV has still not been conceptualized as a major health issue, especially among women (Gahagan, Rehman & Baxter, 2006). At the same time, recent research findings suggest that female injection drug users in Nova Scotia are engaging in unsafe injection and sexual practices and often lack access to harm reduction-based programming and resources (Ploem, 2000; PHAC, 2006; Jackson et al., 2010; Parker et al., 2011; Hodder, 2011). In a provincial context of high prevalence of injection drug use and HIV risk behaviours, preventing increasing rates of HIV infection will depend on the development of proactive and gender-informed HIV prevention policies. Purpose: This study had two main aims. First, it aimed to chart the development of provincial HIV prevention and harm reduction policies and to identify how, and if, the policy development processes address the HIV prevention needs of women who inject drugs. Its second aim was to identify key barriers and facilitators to developing HIV prevention policy for women who inject drugs in Nova Scotia. Methods: This study involved a review of key HIV prevention and harm reduction policy documents as well as interviews with 27 key informants directly involved with HIV prevention and/or harm reduction policy decision-making. Findings/Discussion: The existing Nova Scotia-based policy development network, their policies, their processes and the context within which they have functioned over the past ten years do not appear to be supporting the development of HIV prevention and harm reduction policy which addresses the needs of women who inject drugs. Policy committee composition lacked inclusivity and organizations that work directly with women who inject drugs held less influence in policy processes. In addition, gender was not prioritized by decision-makers and therefore not comprehensively addressed in policy content. As a result, the needs of women who inject drugs have not been prioritized in policy processes and subsequently few targeted resources are going to the community-based organizations that provide services to these women.

Many men seek to address their substance use issues in a variety of resources including hospitals, detoxification centres, treatment programs, supportive recovery housing and more. How policy is constructed and implemented has a direct impact on how effectively clients achieve their recovery goals. There is little literature on the topic of how policy is developed and implemented in residential addictions services. What research could be found did not include the voices of the recipients of these services. The goal of this research is to gain insight into the experiences of people accessing residential addictions services to inform policy development and implementation. Thorne’s (2008) interpretive description was the methodology used to guide this study. Eleven qualitative interviews with men accessing residential addictions services were conducted. Several themes were identified and an interpretive description was made. Eight theories are proposed. Several recommendations were formulated. Three suggestions for future research considerations are discussed. / Graduate / 0452 / mark_s@hotmail.ca

No description available.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (February 23, 2010) Includes bibliographical references (p. 80-82)

This study explores the necessity of stakeholder inclusivity, particularly the inclusivity of teachers, in the development of the national policy pertaining to the programme and promotion requirements of the National Curriculum Statement Grades R – 12 in the Department of Basic Education. Through the qualitative exploration of data drawn from in-depth interviews, the study found that bureaucracy and a top-down approach drives policy development in the basic education system of South Africa. While most of the stakeholders indicated that they are only consulted at a public comment phase of the policy development, they viewed this as asking for their endorsement as opposed to genuine and constructive inputs. As such, educational policy developer’s end up missing an opportunity to engage and learn from stakeholders and ultimately the policy reaches the implementation phase with loopholes. Therefore, adopting a consultative approach throughout the life cycle of the policy development with not only the body of stakeholders who have a say by virtue of their power, but also with those whose say was initially restricted as a result of having less influential power in the formulation of educational objectives, might be the breakthrough being strived for in developing policies that will lead to the achievement of quality learner outcomes. / Mini Dissertation (MPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Communication Management / MPhil / Unrestricted

This study explores the development and implementation of a tuition policy at the ‘single dedicated distance education institution in South Africa,’ which is the University of South Africa. The discussion focuses specifically on ‘how different stakeholders participated in the development and implementation of the Unisa tuition policy’. In this context, the author contends that the development and implementation of an institutional tuition policy is influenced by various factors relating to the determination of the roles to be played by various stakeholders in the process. A broader consideration is whether or not and how tuition policy development and implementation influence teaching and learning in distance education. The perspective taken in this study necessarily includes the different acts and policy documents that focus on the development of the higher education sector in South Africa, which consequently influence the practice and experience of distance education. The main findings of the study concur with the notion that there is contention in terms of Unisa tuition policy development and implementation, which leads to a measure of reluctance to implement the policy. Furthermore, the implementation has not been as effective as it might have been, and this defeats the purpose of the policy, which is to promote effective teaching and learning in distance education. The data derived from the investigation partly support this study’s concern that the development and implementation of this policy depend on participants’ and stakeholders’ mental models. The findings also show that the contention regarding the determination of roles in the development and implementation has negative impacts on the effectiveness of teaching and learning at Unisa, which may not be very obvious to the stakeholders involved. Crucially, it was also found that the stakeholders could not separate their institutional roles and positions from their roles in policy development and implementation. It is in the context of these findings that the author recommends that policy development and implementation for effective teaching and learning should critically define the institutional roles of those engaged in policy development and implementation in a distance education institution such as Unisa. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted