Introduction to and Concept of

Policy

Ambika Thapa Pachya

Lecturer, Module Coordinator
Health Policy and Financing Module
School of Public Health
Patan Academy of Health Sciences

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 Objectives of the session
• To review and discuss about the policy
conceptually
• To review and discuss fundamental concepts
and terms related to policy

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 Quick Think: 2 minutes
• What is the first thing that comes in your mind
when you think about policy?

• How do you think policy comes in play at

home/workplace/public area?

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 Policy: An Introduction
• An umbrella term for set of ideas/ plan of
actions/agreements followed by a group of
people, community, organization or state

• Guides on what to do in a particular situation

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 Policy: An Introduction
• A way of working- duties, responsibilities,
accountability

• Can be written or unwritten cultural or ethical

code that guides behavior

• Answers to the question on why do we do

things the way we do them
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 Policy: An Introduction
• It is about arguing and bargaining

• Policy making is always a matter of choice

under constraint

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 Policy: An Introduction
• There is always a winner and a looser when a
policy is formed

• Policy gets formed in response to the

problems, but what is perceived problematic
is itself not fixed, changes over time

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 Policy: An Introduction
• Intentions of government actors

• Interpretations of various stakeholders

• Political compromise among policymakers

• By product of games and relationships

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 Policy: An Introduction
• Includes both practices and also the inactions
of the government

• Images of an ideal society

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 Policy: An Introduction
• Policy as a Text

• Policy as Discourse Practice

• Policy as Social Practice

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 Policy: An Introduction
• Routine customs/practices that are taken for
granted often has a policy decision behind
them

• Different people experience it differently

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 Policy: An Introduction
• Example:
• Sample parking company policy

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 Policy: An Introduction
• [A] purposive course of action followed by an
actor or set of actors in dealing with a problem or
matter of concern. (Anderson (1990))

• Anderson puts forward policy as:

– being goal-oriented rather than random, although
goals could be loosely stated and unclear
– consisting of courses or patterns of action taken over
time by government officials rather than discrete,
separate decisions

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 Policy: An Introduction
Anderson puts forward policy as contd…
– consisting of the decisions and statements that
emerge in response to policy
– demands, or demands for action or inaction by other
actors
– involving what governments actually do, not what
they intend to do, including policy outputs in
pursuance of policy decisions and statements
• being positive or negative
• being accepted as legitimate, authoritative, and legally
based

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 Policy: An Introduction
• The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) defines policy as
“a law, regulation, procedure, administrative
action, incentive, or voluntary practice of
governments and other institutions.”

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 Policy: An Introduction
• Policy can embrace three strands
– Decision making process
– A set of decisions
– Political intentions/impacts of policy in terms of
government legitimacy, electoral prospects and
broad values and directions of the government

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 Policy: An Introduction
Policy is mainly deciding
- What are you going to
do?
- How are you going to
do? - An overarching course of
- Who will do it? action
- A series of objectives and
Political perspective how to reach them
- A statement of intent
- A long term plan
Programmatic Perspective

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 Policies
Policy help in
: Introduction
• Policies help in maintaining
– Safety
– Efficiency
– Clarity and consistency
– Accountability
– Capture and retain information
– Contractual and statutory requirement
– Quality assurance and improvement
–…

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 Policy : Introduction
• There is a real danger in creating a policy or
procedure for everything.
– People ignore them. When there are too many, they
are hard to manage and they can all start to sound
alike.
– The user goes on overload.
• It is acceptable, even desirable, to have unwritten
policies and procedures, since it is impossible to
write everything down. However, be mindful of
the signs that the informal, unwritten rules are
no longer working.

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• Policy can be implemented in different ways
– Through decree
– Through convention
– Through negotiation
– Through a shared understanding of an ethical
code of conduct

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 Group Work: 10 minutes
• A recently married couple, plans for a baby.
What are the issues that they should
consider?
• Make a mind map.

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 Policy: Some Concepts
• Vision
– Belief system
– A vision statement describes what is desired to
achieve in the long-run, generally in a time frame
of five to ten years, or sometimes even longer.
– It depicts how will it look like in the future and
sets a defined direction for the planning and
execution of strategies
– Aimed at bringing benefits and improvements to
the organization in the future

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 Policy: Some Concepts
• Vision
– Defines reason for existence and where it is
heading
– A cognitive construction or mental model used to
both understand system operations and guide
actions within the system

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 Policy: Some Concepts
Vision
• Elements of an effective vision statement:
– Forward-looking
– Motivating and inspirational
– Reflective of culture and core values

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 Policy: Some Concepts
• Vision statement is:
– easy to understand
– easy to remember
– Positive
– Motivational
– Inspiring
– Attractive
– challenging
– future-oriented

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 Policy: Some Concepts

• Mission
– The mission defines the space in which we create a
strategy.
– Unlike the vision that allows us determine direction and
indicates where we want to get to, mission defines the
space in to operate.
– Relates to the present and future directions
– mission itself has not a built-in time dimension
– Its purpose is to present the subject in its essence, in its
permanent and long-term sustainable way of being.
– Replies to the question on reasons of existence.

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 Policy: Some Concepts
• Mission
– shapes the identity, purpose and direction of an
organization.
– It is not only a source of direction for employees, it is
also there for customers, stockholders and the public
to know about the fundamental principles by which
an organization/institute operates.
– It may also explain values, beliefs, philosophy and
aspirations.
– It should be defined before we develop the strategy

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 Policy: Some Concepts
• Strategy
– The concept of strategy has been borrowed from
the military and adapted for use in other fields
– Strategy is the bridge between policy or high-
order goals and concrete actions
– Strategy straddle the gap between ends and
means.

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 Policy: Some Concepts
• Strategy
– It is a general framework that provides guidance
for actions to be taken and, at the same time, is
shaped by the actions taken.
– This means that the necessary precondition for
formulating strategy is a clear and widespread
understanding of the ends to be obtained.
Without these ends in view, action is purely
tactical and can quickly degenerate into nothing
more than a flailing about.

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 Policy: Some Concepts
• Strategy
– a complex web of thoughts, ideas, insights,
experiences, goals, expertise, memories,
perceptions, and expectations that provides
general guidance for specific actions in pursuit of
particular ends.
– Strategy is at once the course we chart, the
journey we imagine and, at the same time, it is
the course we steer, the trip we actually make

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 Policy: Some Concepts
• Strategy
– the framework which guides those choices that
determine the nature and direction of an
organization
– pattern of objectives, purposes or goals and major
policies and plans for achieving these goals stated
in such a way as to define what work the
organization/institution is or is to be in and the
kind of organization/institution it is or is to be.”

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 Policy: Some Concepts
• Laws
– Arrangement of controls that are made to govern
individuals, to help them in their conduct
according to the norms of the society
– Directs what can be done and cannot be done
with conduct directed not to be done taken as
punishable
– Set of rules and regulations enacted by the
Parliament to direct the conduct of people

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 Policy: Some Concepts
• Bills
– Underlying phase of the Act
– Proposal to make a new law
– It is an archive that runs down what is the
approach behind the proposed law and what is to
be the proposed law
– Once it gets approval from lower house and
passes to the upper house and get presidential
approval, it is then passes as an act

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 Policy: Some Concepts
• Acts
– A type of law that pertain to specific state of
affairs and circumstances
– They are passed by the Parliament
– Complete text of legislative writing with all
necessary statutory which is to be adopted,
changed or repealed with the indication of the bill
that was passed and the key findings of the
proposal, discussion and decisions

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 Policy: Some Concepts
• Rules and Regulations
– Rules can be described as the guidelines or
instructions of doing something correctly. These
are the principles that govern the conduct or
behavior or a person in an organization/
institution
– Regulations refer to the directives or statute
enforced by law, in a particular organization/
institution

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 Policy: Some Concepts
• Project
– An effort that involves a series of activities and
resources, aimed to achieve a certain output,
considering constraints like time, quality and cost
and which often introduces a change.
– A temporary endeavor that is needed to produce
a unique outcome or result at a pre-specified time
using predetermined resources

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 Policy: Some Concepts
• Project
– A temporary, unique and progressive attempt or
endeavor made to produce some kind of a
tangible or intangible result
– It usually includes a series of interrelated tasks
that are planned for execution over a fixed period
of time and within certain requirements and
limitations such as cost, quality, performance,
others.

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 Policy: Some Concepts
• Program/ Programme
– a group of related projects managed in a
coordinated way to obtain benefits and control
not available from managing them individually
– a collection of projects that are linked together by
a business need and clearly defined benefits.

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 Policy: Some Concepts
• Programmes
– consist of multiple projects.
– During the lifespan of a programme, projects can
be added to the programme or removed as the
overall strategy becomes clearer
– Overall expenditure on programmes is typically
significantly greater than that for projects
– Likely to involve a number of different
departments or functions within the organization
and can span several years.

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 Policy: Some Concepts
• Protocol
– Protocols are problem oriented
– Mandatory set of decision-making rules/
instructions/ standards based on best practice
specific to the practice.
– defines a set of procedures or steps to be followed
for the accomplishment of a given task.

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 Policy: Some Concepts
• Procedure
– Procedures are task oriented.
– Procedures provide step-by-step instructions on
how to do a task
– Procedures are developed with the user in mind
– Well developed and thought out procedures
provide benefits to the procedure user

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 Policy: Some Concepts
• Procedure
– Where policies provide the signposts or guidance,
a procedure specifies what will be done, when,
and by whom and what records are to be kept
– It is the ‘recipe’ by which the policies are enacted
– One procedure can be informed by a range of
policies

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 Policy: Some Concepts
• Guidelines
– A collection of statements which guide best
practice for use in specific circumstances.
– Provides direction for the action
– More broader than procedures

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 Policy: Some Concepts
• Directive
– A directive is an official instruction that is given by
someone in authority
• Circulars
– A circular is essentially a letter containing some
important information that is distributed to a large
number of people.
– Say for example you have to invite an entire
department for a meeting, or update the
dress policy for the whole office – a circular will be the
best mode of communication for these purposes.

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 Policy: Some Concepts
• Policy maker
– Usually a member of a government department,
legislature, or other organization who
is responsible for making new policy, rules, laws
• Policy Science
– A policy science is a systematic and scientific study of
public policy. Policy formulation and implementation
is governed through certain inherent principles. It is
these principles that govern the policy choice and
outcome. Policy sciences effort to discuss these
principles in a systematic method.

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 Policy: Some Concepts
• Meta And Mega Policies
– Meta policy refers to policies on how to create
policies. They deal with the features of the policy
making system, including, structure, and process
patterns, personnel, inputs and stipulated outputs.
– The term mega policy refers to master policies which
deal with overall goals, basic assumptions, conceptual
frameworks, policy instruments, implementation
strategies, and similar interpolicy directives.

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 Note
Tendency to prescribe what should be done
without clear instructions on how to do it and
without good explanation of why things go
wrong lead to policy failures

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• It may be part of human nature to err, but it is
also part of human nature to create solutions,
find better alternatives and meet the
challenges ahead
Kohn, L. T., J. Corrigan, and M. S. Donaldson. 2000. To Err Is
Human: Building a Safer Health System. Washington, DC:
National Academies Press

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Q and A

Thank you

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