Managing a PSIA process

1. Managing a PSIA process Marianne Mensah International Poverty Centre Nairobi, 8 December 2006

2. Policy Process • Is a non linear , iterative, fragmented, often multi-sectoral process • Often politicized, factional and contested context • The right timing is crucial for ‘evidence’ to be referred to • Key milestones: budget negotiations, parliamentary hearings, PRS consultations, working groups meetings, donors coordination and negotiations • For PSIA to be effective as a body of evidence in policy making it has to feed into a transparent policy process

3. PSIA should be an integral part of the policy process • Ex- ante: inform choice, design and alternative policy options • During implementation: refinement of the reform, reconsideration of paces, strengthening of mitigation measure • Ex-post: analysis of actual impact to assess impact of future reforms

4. Reasons for paying attention to process. We already said….. • A PSIA which is conducted with due concern to national policy processes and stakeholders interests can strengthen ownership for reforms and expand the evidence basis of policy. • Increasing the utilisation of evidence is a complex process, which strongly depends on political and historical circumstances. • Understanding and addressing issues related to political economy improves the likelihood that the results of the PSIA will influence decisions, and enables successful policy implementation.

5. Principles of good PSIA process • PSIA has to be built on an understanding of policies and policy processes. It should be embedded in local policy cycles and be (a transparent) part of the policy process • Institutional anchoring in government units is key to secure political support for results and getting the timing right (e.g. PRSP Secretariat, Poverty Monitoring Units, Development Planing Units, MoF, but possibly also line ministries) • The key actors leading the PSIA process need to understand their complementary roles: Commissioners, Researchers, Donors, watch out of inter-government communication • The timing is essential, must be conducted at a time when the policy environment is still fluid and positions have not solidified • The selection of reform area for PSIA can be transparent and consultative, including relevant stakeholders.

6. Principles for Good Process PSIA • Consultation, communication and dialogue can be promoted to encourage stakeholder participation • Flexibility: PSIA process should be organized to allow for policy adjustments, through on-going learning by doing • Design communication strategy at the outset, • Disseminate early and widely • Wherever possible, build the capacity of local partners: including: research practitioners, policy makers and civil society organizations

7. Stakeholder participation in the PSIA process • Understood here as: direct involvement of people in the choice, design and analysis of policy reforms analysis • 2 categories of stakeholders: • Stakeholders directly involved in designing, managing and carrying out the PSIA • Stakeholders who have a stake in the reform

8. Stakeholder participation in the PSIA process • Potential: • promotion of a consensus, • strengthening information base, • transparency, empowerment of the poor and vulnerable • Challenges: • undermining official structure of representation, • Risk of bringing in parties w/o a legitimate mandate, • Risk of increasing conflicts

9. Stakeholder participation in the PSIA process • Entry points for wider stakeholder participation: • Selecting the topic for the PSIA • Refining the specific questions to be analysed • Drawing up the ToRs and selecting the research team • Participating in the actual analysis, e.g. being part of the research team • Using participatory techniques for data collection and analysis [see TIPS for details] • Discussing Draft Reports • Being informed about the results of the PSIA (Dissemination) • Giving views/preferences for the policy options to be recommended by PSIA • Monitoring the implementation of PSIA-recommendations

10. Stakeholder participation in the PSIA process • Steering committees • as multi-stakeholder governance structure and decision making body • Committees/ working groups: • focused on uniting middle- and high-level decision makers in order to secure political ownership and leadership, or pooling specialized expertise, to secure a high technical standard or on combining both decision-makers, experts and civil servants in a “change management team”. • Stakeholder Workshops: • can expand the dialogue to additional relevant stakeholders, can help to define questions, refine the methodology and derive policy recommendations from the actual analyses. • (Public) Information: • In some cases, just presenting objective information to the public can help to demystify misconceptions, improve accountability, and act as an incentive to key actors to pursue their interests within the democratic policy making processes. It is important that information is presented in a manner that can be easily understood, including in relevant local language(s).

11. Thank You