Better policy-making: Antidote to policy failures in Nigeria

Governance is the raison d’etre of any government. It is, as one dictionary puts it, “the action or manner of governing a state”. But governance is done through the instrumentality of policy, for it is policy that translates government’s objectives into programmes and courses of action to deliver desired changes.Making policies that achieve worthwhile outcomes for a country and its people is, therefore, a sine qua non of good governance. As the UK-based Institute for Government (IFG) puts it, “Good government depends on good policy making”. Put differently, policy successes or failures determine the ability of a government to govern well and to meet the needs of its citizens.

In his book, “Understanding Policy Success”, Allan McConnell argues that a policy is only successful when, among other things, it delivers programme outcomes and creates tangible benefit for the target group. This should be achieved without any significant unintended consequences that undermine the rationale and sustainability of the policy. The Institute for Government’s study, titled “The ‘S’ Factors: Lessons from IFG’s policy success reunions”, based on a survey of policy practitioners,also lists the following criteria for successful policies: social impact, economic impact, successful implementation, sustainability and durability of the policy, public/stakeholder approval and efficiency or value for money. These success criteria or factors are, of course, universal and should be familiar.

But, looking at the policy environment in Nigeria through the prism of these criteria, the truth is that most policies, programmes and projects initiated by successive Nigerian governments failed the “S” test. Indeed, the literature on policy failures in Nigeria is so rich and extensive that the issue is beyond debate. I won’t bore you with the litany of policy failures. Most Nigerians have their own examples. But one thing is clear: no area of policy is immune from this epidemic – from agriculture, where there have been many failed initiatives, to industry, where manufacturers have their own unpleasant experiences of incoherent government policies. Or take the wider economy. We have seen several failed or abandoned policy reforms, including the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS), Visions 2010 and 2020 and the Transformation Agenda. Recently, President Buhariasked the central bank and the ministries of finance and trade to come up with a new economic policy for the country. Surely, when Buhari leaves office, his successor would jettison that policy and have his own too!

Nigerians are broadly agreed on the causes of theendless policy failures. For most, the main culprits are poor implementation and lack of continuity or “policy somersault”, a phrase that President Buhari used recently when he said: “We will gladly have policy somersaults if it means more jobs”. Of course, Buhari can reject any past policy that is not working or that is not in line with the values and direction of his government. But my point is that policy somersaults are too common in Nigeria, which is a consequence of poor policy-making. A key characteristic of a successful policy is its durability and ability to weather political change. But most policies, programmes and projects in Nigeria do not survive a change of government, even when that change is within the same party. Successful policy-making involves the ability to build a wider constituency of support for a policy. Yet, there is hardly any policy in Nigeria that enjoys political consensus across party lines. Indeed, policy-making in Nigeria is so politicised and partisan that it is difficult for any government to build a sustainable coalition around any agenda. As such, for partisan-politicalreasons, successive governments have often reversedeven sensible policies of their predecessors.

But the consequences of policy failures are serious for the country and for the citizens. The effects can be seenin the poor quality of public services, and in the wastage of public funds. For instance, a huge amount of money is spent by all tiers of government on a wide range of programmes and projects across the country. But, leaving aside the problem of corruption, whereby some of the money is stolen by politicians and officials, the truth is that a lot of the allocations are also wasted because several projects are not properly executed or executed at all. For instance, last year, DanladiKifasi, Head of Civil Service of the Federation, lamented the reckless abandonment of government projects in the country, saying that “the act of abandoning projects in some ministries is a worrisome trend”. Surely, when publicly-funded projects are delayed or abandoned or cost more than expected, there are serious value for money issues, and wider governance concerns.

But, let’s be clear, policy failures are a symptom of a much bigger problem: the inability to make proper policy in the first place. As the IFG points out, “the roots of a policy’s success or failure often lie in decisions made early on”. In other words, every problem of policy failure stems from poor policy design, implementation and maintenance, the latter covering what are often referred to as monitoring and evaluation. The true and common-sense view, of course, is that if policies are not well designed and implemented, they will, inevitably, fail. Yet policy-making in Nigeria is generally haphazard and involves a lot of muddling through and hoping for the best rather than following proper policy process.

For instance, policy makersin Nigeria often treat policy design and implementation asseparate and distinct activities; in other words, policy design is what someone doesnow and policy implementation is what someone else does later. Yet policy formulation and implementation are not separate, but intrinsically linked, and one of the key insights on policy-making is to “think implementation from the outset”. The policy maker needs to ask key delivery questions from the outset, such as:Who will implement this policy, programme or project? Do they have the capacity and resources to do so? What contingency plans should be put in place to deal quickly with any implementation problem?

Good evidence, analysis and problem definition are, of course, the bedrock of successful policies. And one key piece of analysis that must be done at the policy design stage is behavioural analysis. The policy maker needs to know, ab initio,how the policy is likely to affect those at whom it is directed, both the implementers and the beneficiaries, and how they are likely to react. If a policy is not communicated or marketed sufficiently to those likely to be affected by it, and their buy-in is not secured, delivery may be problematic as they may only be half-heartedly committed to the policy or even resist it. Countless policies have been developed in Nigeria over the heads of those who are affected by them, and failed because of weak stakeholder support.

At the heart of the policy making challenge in Nigeria is, of course, poor policy skills and expertise. Ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) are responsible for formulating and implementing policies. But, as I argued last week, there is a serious paucity of policy skillsin Nigeria’s civil service and wider public sector. I also wrote a column last year titled “Nigeria’s bureaucratic deficit: The failure of governance”, bemoaning the chronic and acute capacity deficit in Nigeria’s public sector. There is a tendency, of course, to say, as some might, that Nigeria is still a developing country. But if the country truly wants to be among the 20 greatest countries in 2020 or at any foreseeable future, it needs to start thinking and behaving like one, and benchmarking itself against the developed countries, and learning from them, is one way of achieving this.

A few years ago, the UK Cabinet Office published a report, which listed the following as some of the key skills needed to meet the demands of modern policy-making: well-developed presentation skills, analytic and problem-solving skills, a broad understanding of information technology, an understanding of project management disciplines, an ability to manage risks and a grounding in economics, statistics and relevant scientific discipline in order to act as “intelligent customers” for complex policy evidence. Basically, the “intelligent customer” concept means that while the policy maker may not be an economist or a statistician or a scientist, he or she should have sufficient knowledge ofthe fundamentals of these subjects to be a competent consumer of research that is based on them, andto analyse trends in quantitative and qualitative data when designing policies.

But, truth be told, few civil servants in Nigeria even have proficiency in ICT, let alone other skills! Furthermore, in many developed countries, the civil service has strong links with universities, research institutes and think-tanks so as to access external expertise and tap into high-quality current thinking and development in different policy areas. But this too is rare in Nigeria. Finally, as I argued last week, successful policies require a combination of the political and the technocratic, that is, ministers and civil servants should play their respective roles well and also work together in order to formulate practical, deliverable policies that meet the needs of the citizens. But few ministers in previous administrations provided the individual leadership needed to ensure the success of policies, programmes and projects under their ministerial control. Now, put all the above together, and it’s easy to see why policy failures are rampant in Nigeria.

I have both intellectual and practical interests in policies and policy-making. I have had the opportunity to train public sector officials, and have researched the subject extensively. For me, policies and policy-making are strongly linked to governance. Indeed, I believe that most governance problems are policy problems because if a government can get policies right, in a holistic sense, it can ensure good governance. Given this, it is imperative that policy skills and expertise are taught and embedded within government. I intend to return to this theme next week by discussing the policy process!

 

Olu Fasan