E-mail: yuri.misnikov@undp.org
Mirko Vintar, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Public Administration
E-mail: mirko.vintar@vus.uni-lj.si
NISPAcee Project Manager:
Theme 2004:
"Knowledge Management and ICT for Public Administration"
Furthermore, before reaching the Service Production layer, administration has a hard task to address. Administration supports the political system to prioritize societal needs. Prioritizing stands in the core of policy making. Only needs that will be considered as important will find the way towards production. This process of prioritizing is considered to be particularly information-intensive. A new challenge exists here for ICTs: Can ICTs enhance not only the production and distribution of public services but also the capacity to policy making?
A dichotomy concerning policymaking occurs usually and globally, due to the fact that design and implementation are two quasi- independent and loosely linked sub-processes. Policy formulation constitutes a top-down process involving political -or highly politicized- personnel. It is outcome oriented and operated on the basis of general criteria such as mission and vision concepts, organizational and environmental values and strategies, political priorities etc. On the other hand, policy implementation is mainly a bottom-up process involving P.A. professionals: middle management and low-level personnel. Therefore implementation activities are guided by intra-organizational priorities and day-to-day management requirements and restrictions. They are short-term output oriented with only vague references to the “big picture” and loose links to the organization’s long-term objectives and strategic priorities and goals.
On the other hand, public policies become even less effective insofar as the vertical breach couples with a horizontal one, as is usually the case. Policy outcomes are mostly the conjunction of distinctive processes in different policy fields. The inability of full communication and cooperation between all these distinctive policy constituencies and networks often results in poor policy outcomes. Loose and ineffective horizontal communications is a very common and widespread defect of contemporary policymaking and administrative systems.
Applying KM techniques in the policy formulation and implementation process can be considered a powerful tool for overcoming the problematic situation described above as it can
- facilitate an integrated knowledge handling,
- reduce the inherited vagueness and fuzziness of the policy making process, and
- create a systemic framework for addressing bottlenecks and inconsistencies
Additional background information could be obtained from the paper written by the working group coordinators and presented during the last NISPAcee conference in April, 2003 “e-Governance as a Public Policy Framework”
Call for Papers
a. How ICT can help deal with shortcomings identified in various stages of the overall public policy circle including policy design, policy implementation and service delivery.
b. Knowledge management theories, techniques and practical examples for ameliorating the policy making process.
c. ICT applications that can improve,
- the policy making process,
- the information flow from society to the administrative and political system and vice versa, and
- the provision of public services