Business and Economics College

Department of Management

Program: MPM-weekend program, 2nd year, 2nd semester (Adding)

Course: Public Policy for Public Management.

Individual Assignment

Title of the Assignment: Giving practical Examples and

Discuss the Experience in Public

Policy Making Process, Examine the limitation and Success in

the Process

By Soboksa Mulatu (ID No: WM0095/12)

Submitted to Ins. Daniel Amentie (PhD)

Jim
ma, Ethiopia

June, 2022

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 1. Experience of Ethiopia in Public Policy Making process

Ethiopian Government policies are based on the provisions of the Constitution as policies are
important statements of government plans. Policies are statements of overall purpose that set out
goals and provide principles that should be followed to achieve those goals. Several policies seek
to deliver public benefits, including the Health Policy, Population Policy, Women’s Policy and
the Ethiopian Water Resources Management Policy.

Public policy is created at all levels of government – federal, regional, zonal and woreda – but it
is not only governments that have policies. Organisations, and even families and individuals,
develop policies to guide their actions.

Policy development

Policies are designed to serve the public at large, so policy development should be participatory,
democratic and transparent. The process involves both top-down (initiating draft policies) and
bottom-up (getting responses and feedback) approaches. Policy development has five main
processes:identifying the need for a policy (Agenda setting); formulating the policy; policy
adoption; implementing policy; and Monitoring the policy and evaluating its effectiveness.

 Initiating a policy idea

Policy can be reactive or proactive. Reactive policy is formulated in response to issues or

concerns and to solve existing problems; proactive policy is designed to prevent a problem
arising. Proactive policies are more difficult to formulate because it is challenging to persuade
decision makers to allocate funds and other resources to a problem that is not yet perceived as a
problem.

Ideas for new policies may come from the House of People’s Representatives (the parliament),
from a specific ministry, or from the Council of Ministers through its Expert Group. The Expert
Group may identify policy gaps based on research or public opinion, which are then developed
and considered by the Council of Ministers.

Formulating the policy

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Formulating a policy and developing a draft document is done by the process owner (policy-
making institution). The draft policy document is disseminated to different audiences including
policy beneficiaries and other stakeholders who may include federal and regional ministries,
community and professional representatives, academic institutions, the donor community, etc.
The feedback from these interested parties enables the Expert Group to enrich and revise the
draft policy, which can then be submitted for approval. Once it has been approved internally it
can be submitted to the Council of Ministers. Further discussion follows and modifications and
additions are considered. The committee may call on public opinion in specially arranged
meetings to get additional inputs to shape the final draft.

Implementing and Monitoring/Evaluation

After the policy or proclamation is put into practice, its implementation should be monitored so
that its effectiveness and continuing relevance can be evaluated. Monitoring may involve routine
discussion of progress at meetings of the relevant ministry, annual meetings with wider
stakeholder groups, reports on performance delivered to parliament, or field evaluations. This
may lead to identification of policy gaps and then possible requests to the Council of Ministers
and parliament to repeal or modify the provisions. In this way, policy implementation can be
improved and kept up to date.

2. Practical Example of Policy Making in Ethiopia

Ethiopian Government’s Policy makingon health, National Hygiene and Sanitation (2004-
2015)

The Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia includes several articles that
are relevant to WASH, public health and the environment.Article 44/1 states that all persons have
the right to a clean and healthy environment (environmental rights).Article 89/8 states that
government shall endeavor to protect and promote the health, welfare and living standards of the
working population of the country (economic duty and objective).Article 90/1 to the extent the
country’s resources permit, policies shall aim to provide all Ethiopians access to public health
and education, clean water, housing, food and social security (social duty and objective).

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According to the article, constitution of the country states that all persons have the right to a
clean and healthy environment, and the government has a duty to ensure that all Ethiopians live
in a clean and healthy environment as far as it is able, which includes access to and use of clean
water, sanitation and hygiene facilities.

Health policies

The Health Policy specifies the need for ‘accelerating the provision of safe and adequate water
for urban and rural populations’, ‘developing safe disposal of human, household, agricultural and
industrial wastes and encouragement of recycling’, and ‘developing measures to improve the
quality of housing and work premises for health’.

National Hygiene and Sanitation Strategy

The National Hygiene and Sanitation Strategy (NHSS) of 2005 were developed by the Ministry
of Health to complement the Health Policy. The strategy starts with a ‘Sanitation Vision for
Ethiopia’, which is: ‘100% adoption of improved (household and institutional) sanitation and
hygiene by each community which will contribute to better health, a safer, cleaner environment,
and the socio-economic development of the country’.

3. Limitation of Policy making process in Ethiopia

The major challenges faced during policy making in Ethiopia are:

 lack of leadership in organizations who play coordination and effective decision-making

especially on all important issues especially related to the inadequate supply of commodity,
infrastructure and logistics, human resource and skills as well as other supporting
infrastructures;
 scarcity of basic technical knowledge and skills that is crucial to transform an unskilled
labor-force into a skilled labor force capable of absorbing new and high value technical and
technological skills;

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 inadequate preparation of the necessary for infrastructure, especially as related to
insufficient coordination in physical infrastructure investment such as supply of electricity,
clean water, telecommunication network, sewage and public service provision;
 limited financial market development that hinders the financing of industrial projects and
lack of financing mechanism for public and private sector projects; and
 issues related to labor market instability with inadequate supply of labor, decrease in
productivity and worse livelihood for the workers.
 Failure to establish the National Population Council; weak coordination and institutional
arrangement due to absence of legally defined structure for implementation, lack of
monitoring and evaluation system, absence of a comprehensive population program and
financial constraints, among others are the major barriers.
4. Success of policy making process in Ethiopia

The strength of policy making is integral to the strength of government as a whole, and that of
the country at large. When policies fail, the costs (whether monetary or otherwise) can be
significant. In the face of these challenges, policy making will need to change – both in its
function and its organisation.

The main idea of creating policy is to improve life for members of the public. Officials design
policies that move the public closer to a desired state or public goal. Even if the ideas come from
outside government, the creation of policy falls to public officials.

Conclusion

Policies set out government and regional plans and provide goals and principles to be followed.
Strategies and programmes provide details for how policies should be
implemented.Development of national policies has several steps from initial idea through
consultation to final approval by parliament and publication.The Health Policy established the
overall direction for health services in Ethiopia. The aim of the WASH policy development is to
improve the health and well-being of communities in rural and urban areas in an equitable and
sustainable manner by increasing access to water supply and sanitation and adoption of good
hygiene practices.

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 Reference
1. www.abyssinialaw.com
2. Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, (1994).
3. Getu, M. (1998). THE Ethiopian Environmental Regime Versus International Standards:
Policy, Legal, and Instituional Frameworks. 21(4).
4. M. Cheever, K. Graichen, D, Homeier, O.Kefauver, T. K. (2011). How environmental policy
facilitates or constrains the activities of environmental NGOs in Ethiopia.
http://web.colby.edu/eastafricaupdate/files/2012/01/Env ironmental-Policy-Review-
2011_color_small.
5. Mesfin, D. (2010). Environmental Protection Authority of the Federal Democratic Republic
of Ethiopia (EPA).
6. Environmetal Protection Authority Establishment Proclamation, (1997).