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DVA3703 EXAM PACK 2024
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lOMoARcPSD|42036583DVA3703 EXAM
PACK 2024
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
, lOMoARcPSD|42036583
DVA3703 EXAM PACK 2024
MODULE CODE: DVA3703
MODULE: DEVELOPMENT OF POLICY AND STRATEGIES
QUESTION: 1
DUE DATE: 02/11/2023
SECTION A
QUESTION 1
Describe and discuss the requirements for effective policy evaluation
Introduction
Policy review and formulation is the final stage of the policy making process. This
stage can be described as the stage in the political process where it is determined
how successful the public policy was or how it worked. It refers to the evaluation of
the means used and the realization of the objectives. According to Cloete (2006: 246
in Du Plesis & Kotze 2016: 59) the aforementioned steps in the policy-making
process to improve policy outputs and outcomes are meaningless if their impact and
success are not assessed and evaluated. This essay describes and discusses the
requirements for effective policy formulation.
Policy Evaluation
Policy evaluation is necessary to determine whether the desired results have been
achieved and whether the policy should be continued, limited, terminated or
expanded. Policy evaluation is the assessment of the effectiveness of public policy
based on its perceived intensions and outcomes (Du Plesis & Kotze 2016: 59). It
can initiate action to fully develop the policy; for example, the problem and solutions
can be completely rethought. Policy analysts gain new knowledge about the potential
, lOMoARcPSD|42036583
consequences of public policy regulation, the tools it uses, and the goals it serves.
For policy evaluation, analytical research methods should be used to measure
effectiveness to improve the policy. An important part of evaluation is to focus on the
effects of policies on real conditions. This involves comparing stated and implied
policy objectives with actual or expected outcomes, results or effects (Du Plesis &
Kotze 2016: 59).
In the words of Larry Garston (Howlett & Ramesh 2003: 207 cited in Du Plesis &
Kotze 2016: 59), “policy evaluation assesses the effectiveness of a public policy in
terms of its perceived intentions and results’. After evaluating the policy, it may be
necessary to completely reform the policy (the problem and solutions may have to be
rethought entirely). This suggests that the policy process may need to begin anew
from agenda-setting or another stage of policy development, Alternatively, the
current state may remain unchanged (Howlett & Ramesh 2003:206, cited in Du
Plesis & Kotze 2016: 59). Assessment often targets bettering social systems or
advancements, methods or ways of acting that result in ethical or belief modifications
within a group or culture. Cloete (2006: 249 in Du Plesis & Kotze 2016: 59), states
that the forci of strategy assessment might incorporate the accompanying seven
thoughts:
1. The description of intended and unintended changes that the policy
brings about. The intended consequences of the policy relate to its goals and
objectives. In some cases, policies can have unintended consequences. Wynberg,
Laird, Van Niekerk and Kozanayi (2015) report on such unintended consequences of
policies directed at the trade in natural products (specifically baobab trees and the
Umckaloabo plant) in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Lesotho. They document how
such policies have blurred the lines between bio-trade (selling fruits and crafts for
direct consumption) and bio-prospecting (granting harvesting licences to
international companies). The granting of harvesting rights drew powerful elites into
the industry to which they did not belong before and marginalised women and poor
people who should have benefited from these arrangements even more.
2. The goal-effectiveness of the policy. In essence effectiveness measures
the extent to which the policy outputs contribute to the achievement of outcomes.
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Although efficiency and effectiveness are related, a policy can be efficient (u sing its
resources well) without having an effect (no change in the problem), or an effective
intervention can be implemented in an inefficient way (e.g. leading to a waste of
implementation resources). To measure goal-effectiveness, the policy evaluator
would need to have baseline data (or information on the situation prior to the policy
implementation), and data pertaining to changes that can be attributed to the policy
intervention.
3. Calculating cost–benefit ratios. With these evaluation tools, a policy
evaluator can quantify the total monetary costs and benefits of a policy. Although this
approach is steeped in economic rationality, contemporary analysists also employ
social cost– benefit frameworks that take issues of social justice into account.
4. The efficiency of the policy. This can ascertain if resources (inputs) have
successfully been converted into the desired results. Currently policy evaluators tend
to assess both the quantity and the quality of inputs and outputs. This is because the
most cost-effective input may not necessarily be the most appropriate. So
assessment of efficiency requires a comparison of alternative approaches.
5. Participation, empowerment and satisfaction of the stakeholders or
target policy population. Democratic participation in the policy evaluation process
refers to the bottom-up approach already discussed. Empowerment evaluation
warrants further discussion. It is defined as “an evaluation approach that aims to
increase the probability of achieving program success by (1) providing program
stakeholders with tools for assessing the planning, implementation, and
selfevaluation of their program, and (2) mainstreaming evaluation as part of the
planning and management of the program/organization” (Wandersman, SnellJohns,
Lentz, Fetterman, Keener, Livet,
Imms & Flaspoler 2005:28). In other words, when policy evaluation focuses on
empowerment of the target population, criteria such as participation,
selfdetermination, capacity building and social justice should feature prominently.
The notion that a policy evaluation can be focused on assessing whether the policy
beneficiaries are satisfied is also not unfamiliar, although of the three foci grouped
together here (participation, empowerment and satisfaction) it is the least directed at
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