Neetishala Day 1

DAY-1
Samriddhi, a same old familiar name but “Neetishala- the public policy discourse” was something new with more expectation.
Saturday, July 23, 2011 was the day when I reached Dhulikhel Village resort with all the people selected for the campaign.

Heard about policies, rules, public policy & lots more whenever I reach to any coffee station in the market, but I’m here to learn about it.

The very first session from Mr. Sagar Prasai , deputy Country representative, The Asia Foundation was the person who described about “Basic of Policy”
1. Why it is needed?
2. How to add new policies?
Those were some of the question, which were on my mind hitting before he arrived. But as he arrived, his questions “Where is public in public policy?” & “Where is policy & public?” made me out of the mind.
Moving further with the session, the arguments regarding the need of Policy were discussed. It’s needed, sometime to regulate things, to solve problems, guide decisions and lots more. For eg; marriage policy in South Africa, loan interest subsidy by NRB due to maximum investment in real state in Nepal.

While talking about where does Public lies on Public policy, the discussions came-up with some thoughts as listed below
1. Problem settlement (like poverty eradication)
2. Analysis {causes, response, cast, capacity, tools, institutions}
3. Articulate the policy
4. Implementation & enforcement strategy
5. Monitor (how it functions)/ evaluation/ refine

To derive the policy, little stuff to consider might be the facts, values, worldview, rationality, temporality, deliberation and lots more.

On some ways, now I can say that the Policy refers that “Public policy as government action is generally the principled guide to action taken by the administrative or executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs. In general, the foundation is the pertinent national and subnational constitutional law and implementing legislation such as the US Federal code. Further substrates include both judicial interpretations and regulations, which are generally authorized by legislation. Other scholars define it as a system of "courses of action, regulatory measures, laws, and funding priorities concerning a given topic promulgated by a governmental entity or its representatives." Public policy is commonly embodied "in constitutions, legislative acts, and judicial decisions."
“

But right after this session, another glass of “Public Policy Advocacy” was broken over my head with the thoughts of Mr. Nirajn Rai, Program Officer of The Asia Foundation. He had his different thought prospect of thoughts. What is Politics, why it’s needed & rest of “Wh” questions were introduce regarding Politics. At the mean time even “Democracy” was not forgiven.
“Public Policy” is a purposive and consistent course of action produced as a response to a perceived problem of a constituency formulated by a special political process and adopted, implement by a public agency.”
The mean time, the idea of “8th fold path” of Public policy was introduced, of which the procedure is bulleted below:
1. Define problem
2. Assemble evidence
3. Construct alternatives
4. Criteria for evaluating alternatives
5. Project outcomes
6. Tradehouse
7. Decide
8. Tell a story
Regarding advocacy, policy comes on 4 stages:
1. Agenda setting
2. Formulation in action
3. Implementation & enforcement
4. Monitoring & evaluation


At the end of all these policy talkies, we need to be some creative resulting the campaign registration for these 6 days @ Neetishala.
Adding some more, we were screwed with the “critical analysis” regarding “Why economic Growth matters?”