E-mail: lesya@rocketmail.com
Frans Jorna, Associate Professor of Governance, Centre for Urban and Environmental Development, Enschede, Netherlands
E-mail: f.b.a.jorna@saxion.nl
Call for Papers 2013
Topic: "Regionalisation and Inter-Regional Cooperation."
Despite the fact that in recent years there has been asignificant effort to improve decision-making within
the public sector by developing capacity in policy analysis in CEE, Central
Asia and Caucasus countries, public policy analysis, as the basis for evidence-based
policy, is still in its initial stages. Many countries are still heavily
reliant on donor assistance and there continues to be issues, both on the
demand side (how much governments genuinely want evidence-based policy advice),
and on the supply side (e.g. skilled policy analysts within government
bureaucracy, teaching institutions, think tanks).
In the light of the main conference theme, the Working
Group has decided to tighten its focus and become a vehicle for discussions and
debates around capacity challenges to
professional policy analysis and concrete
remedies for those challenges. Multi-level governance and inter-regional
cooperation also further require the capacity for professional policy, e.g. in
the area of EU cohesion policies, and thus provide fertile ground for further
improvements on these issues.
These are especially important in the regions embraced
by NISPAcee. First, policy analysis has developed unevenly in different
countries. Cross-country learning is still in its infancy, academic training
and its link to the international fora are often weak, and the professional
capacity in governments for policy analysis is sometimes severely limited. Can
the countries in the targeted region overcome these obstacles and make a great
leap forward and if so, how? Second, the Working Group wishes to go beyond
diagnosis and encourage discussion on the ways forward, and this practical
orientation on public policy analysis makes the Working Group a place for a fruitful
meeting and discussion between practitioners and scholars.
In this framework, the contributors’ papers should provide both a diagnosis and possible
remedies for the shortcomings or bottlenecks in the capacity for policy
analysis, which in turn, might lead to emergent strategies across the regions.
More specifically, papers may focus on:
1. Specific weaknesses/strengths of policy analysis in a single country or region, either generally or in specific sectors;
2. Best practices and typical CEE development issues in the application of policy analysis techniques and methods;
3. Comparative analysis of similar challenges faced by a variety of countries (including an analysis of instances where capacity-building is being attempted)
4. Regional and inter-regional efforts to design and implement evidence-based policies.