RESEARCH CONSULTANCY
4 a) With specific examples, analyze the importance of social culture and the political environment in the policy making process. (10 marks)
Social culture and the political environment in the policy making process.
Sociology understands culture as the languages, customs, beliefs, rules, arts, knowledge, and collective identities and memories developed by members of all social groups that make their social environments meaningful. Sociologists study cultural meaning by exploring individual and group communication; meaningfulness is expressed in social narratives, ideologies, practices, tastes, values, and norms as well as in collective representations and social classifications.
According to Brodhead, (2019) Culture refers to the ways of life of the members of society, or of groups within a society. It includes how they dress, their marriage customs, language and family life, their patterns of work, religious ceremonies and leisure pursuits
Sociocultural is a term related to social and cultural factors, which means common traditions, habits, patterns and beliefs present in a population group. The term is mostly used in sociologic and marketing contexts and refers to the most remarkable drivers behind the way people makes decisions in a society.
It enhances the respect of a society’s history and cultural perspectives.
Culture is a strong part of people’s lives. It influences their views, their values, their humor, their hopes, their loyalties, and their worries and fears. It is therefore important to consider the culture of the people when designing a public policy so that policy is in line with their beliefs their culture and customs.
Through culture and political environment it is possible to determinant the needs of the people and therefore the country will be able to formulate the policies that best service the interest of the people for example the culture of the people in china is very different from that in Uganda, therefore the same public policies which work in work in Uganda will not be able to work in china.
The political system determines the allocation of resources basing on the future needs therefore before a public policy is made the political system is taken into consideration their helps in understanding the challenges the country is facing and designing appropriate political system that suites its ability to survive.
Policy ideas developed by considering culture is normally in line with the interest of the people and therefore it represents the vice of the people. A better understanding of national culture and differences between national cultures could thus inform international policy transfer practices and joint policy learning exercises. This therefore ensure that the policy made is in line with the interest of the people.
It enhances the success of a given policy since it will not be rejected by the masses if it is in line with their cultural perspectives and understanding. This is imperative in ensuring acceptability therefore the fact that the policy makers have a good understanding of the cultural perspectives of the good community it therefore enables them to make an informed decision in making public policy, A better understanding of national culture and differences between national cultures could thus inform international policy transfer practices and joint policy learning exercises
Having an effective public administration which is in line to the social culture of the community is able to lead to better service delivery of the citizens. Efficiency in services delivery, these include education and health and many other services that the government has the responsibility of delivering to the people in a given country, according to Bola, ( 2011) Service delivery is a contemporary issue for most governments and researchers alike. Most scholars are in agreement that public service delivery is critical to ensuring the national welfare and stimulation of economic development. This is because often governments undertake a number of activities to provide citizens with services and at the same time guarantee that these services are provided in accordance with the service delivery requirements within the rule of law.
Consideration of the social culture of the members of the given community also helps to reduce poverty and improve the standard of living , according to Shan (2005) In an interrelated global society, governments must take on new roles in creating and sustaining viable economies, reducing poverty, and raising standards of living, by specifically intergrating their policies with the cultural aspects of the people. Over the past decade, an increasing body of knowledge has emerged to describe a set of fundamental roles or functions that innovative governments perform effectively in a globalizing society. These roles and functions can all contribute to achieving the equitable, sustainable, and participative economic and social development reflected in the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals and in other international declarations of human aspirations.
Consideration of social culture leads to the development of
- b) Of the many different forms of decentralization, which form do you think is more appropriate for your country? Support your answers with relevant examples. (10 Marks)
Decentralization is also one of the most vigorous policy choices in creating a more democratic and responsible government. In spite of its impacts and benefits so far, there is almost no contention among countries in promoting decentralization. It is not surprising, therefore, that there is a large and growing theoretical literature on decentralization (Cheema and Rondinelli 1983 and 2007).
Decentralization, or decentralizing governance, refers to the restructuring or reorganization of authority so that there is a system of co-responsibility between institutions of governance at the central, regional and local levels according to the principle of subsidiarity, thus increasing the overall quality and effectiveness of the system of governance, while increasing the authority and capacities of sub-national levels.
Decentralization could also be expected to contribute to key elements of good governance, such as increasing people’s opportunities for participation in economic, social and political decisions; assisting in developing people’s capacities; and enhancing government responsiveness, transparency and accountability.
Decentralization stimulates the search for program and policy innovation, first of all because it is, per se, an innovative practice of governance. Second, because through its implementation, local governments are required to assume new and broader responsibilities in order to provide public services for all. The assumption of new responsibilities through decentralization often requires improved planning, budgeting and management techniques and practices; the adoption of new tools; and the development of improved human resources to operate the decentralized programmes.”
The following are some of the types of decentralization
Delegation
Delegation involves the assigning of certain responsibilities along with the necessary authority by a superior to his subordinate. Delegation is not a process of abdication. The person who delegates does not divorce himself/herself from the responsibility and authority with which s/he is entrusted. He remains accountable for the overall performance and also for the performance of his/her subordinates (Gaurav Akrani, 2010).
Delegation does not mean surrender of authority by the higher level manager; it only means transfer of certain responsibilities to subordinates and giving the subordinates the necessary authority, which is necessary to discharge the responsibility properly.
Categories of delegation
1) Specific: This is the type of delegations related to particular jobs or areas of responsibility.
2) General: this extends over a board area such as assisting in the general management of personnel production.
3) Verbal: Delegation could be given by word of mouth
4) Written: This is where duties and authorities are laid down in written words i.e. in black and white.
The following are the principles of delegation to be effective;
Principle of Functional Definition: The related or similar activities should be grouped together according to enterprise function. When the definition of a position is clear then delegation of authority becomes simple. In the words of Koontz and O’Donnell “the more a position or a department has clear definitions or results expected, activities to be undertaken, organization authority delegated and authority and informational relationships with other positions understood, the more adequately the individuals responsible can contribute toward accomplishing enterprise objectives.”
It is very difficult to define a job and the authority required to accomplish it. If the superior is not clear about the results expected then it becomes all the more difficult. It should be clear who should do what so that right amount of authority is delegated. Dual subordination results in conflicts, division of loyalty and lack of personal responsibility for results.
Principle of Unity of Command: The basic management principle is that of unity of command. This principle states that a subordinate should report only to single superior. This will give a sense of personal responsibility. Although it is possible for a subordinate to receive orders from more superiors and report to them but it creates more problems and difficulties. An obligation is essentially personal and authority delegation by more than one person to an individual is likely to result in conflicts in both authority and responsibility. This principle is also useful in the classification of authority-responsibility relationships.
Principle of Delegation by Results Expected:The delegation of authority should be based on the basis of results expected. The authority should be sufficient to achieve the desired results. If the authority is insufficient then results will not be achieved. So there should be a balance between the results expected and the authority required.
Principle of Absoluteness of Responsibility: The responsibility of a subordinate, once he has accepted the work, is absolute to his superior. The responsibility of the superior does not decrease once he has delegated authority. A person can delegate authority and not responsibility. He will remain accountable for the work even if it is delegated to the subordinate. So the responsibility of superior and subordinate remains absolute.
Principle of Parity of Authority and Responsibility: Since authority is the right to carry out assignments and responsibility is the obligation to accomplish it, there should be a balance between the both. The responsibility should bear logical relationship with authority delegated. The subordinate should not be burdened with high performance responsibility with delegating enough authority. Sometimes the authority is delegated but the concerned person is not made accountable for its proper use. This will be a case of poor management. The parity between authority and responsibility will be essential for achieving efficiency.
Authority Level Principle: The principle that decision-making should remain at the level at which authority is delegated. The managers delegate authority to subordinates but have the temptation to make decisions for them. They should allow the subordinates to take their own decisions as per the authority delegated to them. The delegation of authority will be effective only when it is clear and understandable to subordinates. The subordinates should know the area of their decision-making and should avoid the temptation of referring things to higher ups. In the words of Koontz and O’Donnell, the authority level principle would be “maintenance of intended delegation requires that decisions within the authority competence of individuals be made by them and not be referred upward in the organization structure.”
The Scalar Principle: The scalar principle refers to the chain of direct authority relationships from superior to subordinates throughout the organization. The ultimate authority must rest somewhere. Subordinates must know to whom they should refer the matter if it is beyond their authority. The more clear the line of authority from top manager to every subordinate the more effective will be responsible decision-making.
Deconcentration
Deconcentration is a term used to describe the process whereby a central organization transfers some of its responsibilities to lower-level units within its jurisdiction. This process redistributes the balance of power and authority between the central administration and the other units in varying proportions.
Devolution
Devolution as the relocation of power away from a central location. In this sense, power can be equated with the capacity or authority to contribute to decision-making.
For Uganda’s case the best method of administration would be devolution
Enhance better performance; Today’s leaders and managers are driven to succeed, and for this reason, they often take on more projects than they can handle alone and therefore when the government to ensure that the government is running effectively there is need to adopt the system of devolution so that the powers are given to the local authorities who have better grasp of the challenges faced by the local population whom they serve.
It builds trust, open communication, and engagement among team members; Another benefit of delegation has to do with building trust, a feeling of openness, and engagement among team members. Leaders who fail to devoluve their powers adequately often have employees who are not afraid to take initiative or who feel apprehensive about bringing new ideas to the table. Managers who devolve tasks adequately help to build trust, and that trust is driven even further when those managers remain open for communication and listening. When employees truly feel that their skills and talents are being put to good use, they are engaged and happier overall.
It stimulates creativity and develops skills in your team; Leaders who give their team members the freedom to tackle tasks in their own way are actually empowering their team and giving them a creative license. These employees become driven to succeed, not only for themselves and their own futures, but also for the future of their employer. What’s more, this personal initiative can lead to creativity breakthroughs, which can benefit everyone involved, and it helps team members build some very specific skills along the way.
It creates a positive business culture; Perhaps the best reason to delegate tasks to others has to do with the type of business culture a leader hopes to create. Devolve helps to boost team moral, improve efficiency and productivity, and promotes enthusiasm, innovation, and cooperation – all of which are vital to a company’s bottom line. It can also help reduce turnover rates, minimize safety risks, and supply the company with a group of highly-qualified employees who are experts at getting the job done right.
One of the main advantages of devolution is that the actions are based on deeper knowledge of local particularities and clienteles, for example the people at the lower levels are closer to the community members and therefore they are the ones who understand the key priorities of the people they represent.in Uganda it may be hard to understand the culture of some tribes like Baganda, Bateso, Karamojong and therefore it is imperative that the people at local administrative unites are the ones with the power to effect the change that is desired.
The system of devolution enables the country at local level to make better Decisions are better adapted to local contexts and taken more rapidly. This is further because the local people feel that they are part of the decision making process and therefore they quickly adopt the decision.
Devolution develops team spirit. Due to evolution effective communication develops between the central authority and lower level departments. This brings better relations and team spirit among the superiors and subordinates and the local levels are able to make mature and better decisions.
5 a) Good Policy implementation calls for prudent budgeting. How does budgeting facilitate successful policy implementation? (10 marks)
Budgeting enables the government in planning. Budgeting allows a government to create a spending plan for the resources at hand, it ensures that the government will always have enough money for the things the country needs and the things that are important to the country. Countries which have good budgeting planning following it like south Korea have been able to develop so fast that with in the 30 years they were able to develop.
Budgeting enables the country in resource allocation. Successful budgeting enables the government in allocation of resources. Poor resources allocation has affected the ability of many countries especially in the developing world. For example Nigeria which invests only 3.4% of its GDP on Health this is therefore indicates that the country has poor health facilities and therefore it is a sign of poor budgeting unlike the United States which by 2020 it invested around 19% of its budget on Health.
Budgeting also enables the country in identify the critical sectors that needs liberalization .Given the wide acceptance of the ideas of liberalization, privatization and globalization, both public and private administrations have to compete in the same area to provide services to people. Here both are dealing with customers, who pay for their services, in such a situation it narrows down the differences between the public and private administration.
Through budgeting the country is able to prepare itself for the challenges accompanied by globalization. The process of globalization not only includes opening up of world trade, development of advanced means of communication, internationalization of financial markets and services, growing importance of multinational corporations, population movements and, more generally, increased mobility of persons, goods, capital data and ideas, but also of infectious diseases and environmental problems like pollution.
Budgeting helps in determining the type of technology to employ in its effort to provide the essential services to the people. Due to the rapid changes in the world technology has been changing and likewise its relevancy has also been questioned by most scholars therefore through proper budgeting the country is able to plan well and meet its demand for an effective system for service delivery.
It helps in determining the revenues for the previous years. In some countries, the executive part of the government also plays an important part regarding the revenues and expenditures of the government and the legislative is reduced to just an approving and reviewing authority, e.g. in UK where the budget process is primarily dominated by the executive (the House of Commons).
The dominance of executive or legislature in the budgeting process is a matter of debate as many consider the legislative to be an obstacle in the fast paced globalized economy where foreign direct investment and monetary funding from organizations like IMF and World Bank is of crucial importance to several democracies. There are several measures suggested to expedite the decision making process from fixing the term of the legislatures, introducing citizen panels, attaching funding power at local levels to bringing in two year budgetary cycle and special legislation regarding expenditure management.
Budgeting enables the country to find the best ways of spending the tax payer’s money. The government expenditure is funded by a common pool of tax payer’s money and the policies that are formed with this money are further used to fund projects. The catch here lies in the fact that the people who actually are paying for these policies are the larger group while the people who benefit from these policies might be a much smaller group, which translates that one might not be enjoying the benefits for which one is paying money.
- b) Using examples from a country of your choice, analyze the failure of policies that have been imposed on Sub-Saharan African countries by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and “Partners” from the Western World. (10 Marks)
The World Bank is an international organization dedicated to providing financing, advice, and research to developing nations to aid their economic advancement. The bank predominantly acts as an organization that attempts to fight poverty by offering developmental assistance to middle- and low-income countries.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an organization of 190 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world.
Privatization in Uganda;
Privatizations is defined as the complete or partial transfer of control over publicly-owned assets to the private sector in exchange for a payment, this therefore further indicates that the assets are either fully or partially managed by the private sector and the government only collects the taxes.
The first mass privatization of state property occurred in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1937: “It is a fact that the government of the National Socialist Party sold off public ownership in several state-owned firms in the middle of the 1930s.
Privatization in Uganda was pursued as part of a comprehensive economic recovery package. Under the umbrella of the Enterprise Development Project, which incorporates the privatization program, the Government embarked on a program to improve the financial and material conditions of the public enterprises.
Some of the properties privatized ion Uganda include; Uganda Spinning Mills, Nile Breweries Ltd, East African Distilleries Uganda, American Insurance.
The partners from the west and world bank and IMF have always encouraged many of the countries from the developing world to always adopt privatization as a good model of the economy however the following are some of the challenges the Uganda has faced with idea of privatization.
The following are some of the challenges faced by Uganda after privatization
Privatization has also increased led to profit repatriation in Uganda that has further led to more poverty since the owners of capital are mostly foreigners, In another note most of the the strategic sector like Banking and transport is mostly owned by foreigners according to the, in another report Uganda’s banking sector has established that more than Shs528b, which accounts for 72 per cent of the total profits after tax made by banks in Uganda, was at risk of capital flight in 2019, some of the BANKS which repatriate profits include stanbic bank and ABSA from south Africa, standard chartered from UK, City Bank from USA , Equity and KCB from Kenya (Daily monitor Monday August, 24 2020).
Unlike the benefits of privatization like profitability of the companies however there has been a big down side which is mainly the fact that the cost of key items like electricity has become very expensive and currently Uganda has the second most expensive electricity in the world a, this therefore shows that most of the Ugandans cannot afford electricity despite Ugandan producing its own electricity for example Umeme charges the first 15 units that you consume UGX 250 per unit. 2. The proceeding units are charged UGX 755.1 per unit, while countries were electricity is owned by the government it in some cases given free of charge for example Turkmenistan (Sridharan, et al., 2019).
Uganda’s favorable enabling environment and broad presence of private sector investment presents a unique opportunity to deliver on Power Africa goals. Uganda is one of the few sub-Saharan African countries to have liberalized and financially viable energy markets, with generation, transmission and supply segments unbundled since 2001. There is an independent Electricity Regulatory Authority that undertakes sector regulation and oversight. The largest distribution company, UMEME (link is external), is privately owned and has a 20-year concession for distribution and retail. The country, however, is divided into 13 rural service territories, and 6 of these are being managed by small distribution companies. Independent power producers (IPPs) currently account for nearly 60% of generation capacity. Issues with integrated planning and the financial ecosystem persist.
Privatization has also led to corruption in Uganda since the senior government officials to some extend received the kickbacks from the company buyers. Most of the former government parastatls were sold off to the political class and this has completely left the majority of citizens in the country with poverty (Bassett, 2020).
Privatization has also led to more poverty in Uganda as most of the private companies in Uganda are owned by foreigners and to large extend they have not developed the local communities who own the land that has the natural resources like Tororo cement in Tororo they have exploited the resources at the expense of the community members. The communities’ members are spectators of their natural resources and this has led to more poverty in the area.
REFERENCES
Brodhead, M.T., 2019. Culture always matters: Some thoughts on Rosenberg and Schwartz. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 12(4), pp.826-830.
Sridharan, V., Broad, O., Shivakumar, A., Howells, M., Boehlert, B., Groves, D.G., Rogner, H.H., Taliotis, C., Neumann, J.E., Strzepek, K.M. and Lempert, R., 2019. Resilience of the Eastern African electricity sector to climate driven changes in hydropower generation. Nature communications, 10(1), pp.1-9.
