Management Systems International

Managing Policy Change

For more than 25 years, MSI has been at the forefront of global efforts to improve and professionalize the policy reform process in developing and emerging market countries. In partnership with host governments, donor agencies, and other stakeholders, MSI has provided hands-on technical assistance, training, and process consulting in more than 60 countries; and conducted applied research on policy implementation resulting in three books, scores of monographs, and 22 technical notes. It has also developed tools for policy implementation now widely applied across a range of sectors and political settings. This experience spans the full gamut of policy, legal, and regulatory reform, and the public processes that underlie these reforms.

MSI’s approach to the management of policy change starts from the premise that managing policy change is quite different from managing projects and programs. The context is political, the needed resources are rarely in hand, and nobody is fully in charge. We have developed specialized expertise assisting national leaders convert policies into action under these difficult circumstances by applying state-of the-art policy management tools to solve these problems.

Our involvement in supporting meaningful policy reform includes:

Determining the political and organizational assets and obstacles for implementing specific policies
Analyzing stakeholder interests and concerns
Assessing public and private sector capacity to carry out policy change
Engaging citizens, increasing transparency and resolving conflicts associated with policy change through the design of innovative structures and processes
Supporting and guiding organizations, and networks of organizations, charged with implementing particular policies
Monitoring and evaluating policy implementation and policy impact
Conducting short seminars on comparative experience in policy implementation

PROJECT EXAMPLES

Implementing Policy Change Program (IPC): For 11 years, MSI directed USAID’s flagship program developing, applying and disseminating the state of the art for managing policy change. The project included long- and short- term technical assistance in a more than three dozen countries and resulted in a wide range of publications and training materials. Mexico Government Reform Project: MSI provided technical assistance to the government of Mexico to improve public policy reform and accelerate innovation. The Public Policy Reform element of the project focused on public administration, decentralization, and corruption and resulted, among other things, in the passage and implementation of the country’s first Civil Service Law. The Innovation element of the project responded to a Mexican effort to “reinvent government” to be more citizen driven and results oriented. Two additional significant accomplishments were the implementation of more than a hundred specific reforms and Mexico’s hosting of a conference on Government Innovation attended by delegates from more than 50 countries.

Establishment of Policy Management Units in Zambia, Honduras and Afghanistan: Recognizing that heads of State and Cabinets often lack the machinery they need to develop, vet and monitor the implementation of policy, MSI helped these governments to create units able to perform these functions.

Enhancing the Rule of Law and Fighting Corruption in the Philippines, Albania, Ukraine, Russia and Mexico: MSI assisted the formation and operation of public-private partnerships, citizen oversight and improved government institutions to make and enforce policies on fighting corruption and advancing rule of law. Direct results included new transparency procedures, enhanced conviction rates, and adoption of new citizen rights such as the right to confront one’s accuser.

Strengthening Decentralization in Mali, Uganda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Bulgaria, and Colombia: Building on national decisions to decentralize key government functions and authorities, MSI provided long-term technical assistance to support implementation of these policies in a variety of countries in Latin America, Africa, and Eastern Europe.

Strategic Management of HIV/AIDS Policy Change: MSI produced a widely-used manual applying strategic management tools to HIV/AIDS policy change and delivered training workshops on the application of the tools contained in the manual.

Scaling-Up Innovations in Maternal and Child Health in India, Mexico and Nigeria: With support from the MacArthur and Packard Foundations, MSI helped scale up a range of promising innovations in maternal and child health through necessary changes in government policy and practice.

Strengthening the Capacity of Civil Society to Influence Government Policy in Armenia, Georgia, Nigeria and Zambia: MSI assisted civil society groups in a variety of countries to enhance their ability to analyze and affect government policy. The support provided by MSI included capacity building and direct grants to local NGOs and NGO networks on a range of topics including policy mapping, budget analysis and advocacy.