Policy lab is an innovative and novel idea to promote evidence-based policy, decision-making and problem-solving approaches for effective public service delivery in the world. Kathmandu University is the pioneer in introducing the KUSOM policy lab that connects the state and society for improving policy governance based on the principle of ‘University for state and societal transformation’ and offers unique opportunities for improving policy governance, indicating effective service delivery at federal, provincial, and local levels.
The High-Level Meeting (https://www.prasashan.com/2022/04/22/315556/) on KUSOM Policy Lab between the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration (MOFAGA) and Kathmandu University at the Singha Durbar held on April 21, 2022 also illustrates the importance of policy lab for effectual policy-making and governance. The main objective of this meeting was to institutionalize the KUSOM Policy Lab into the government system in order to promote evidence-based policy making, and improve policy governance and law-making processes in Nepal.
KUSOM Policy Lab (http://policylab.ku.edu.np/) is the credible policy think tank and center of excellence in public policy and governance in Nepal. It promotes systematic and rigorous policy engagement for informed policy decision-making. Kathmandu University believes in USR-University for State and Social Responsibility. As an outreach of academic programs on public policy and management, Kathmandu University is committed to state and societal transformation based on the ‘University for State and Societal Transformation’ principle.
The Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development (SDG 2030) has also highlighted the critical role of public institutions in the sixteenth SDG[1]in exploring paradigm shifts in government-society interactions that have had a significant impact on public administration and services. These are i) the demand for more people-centered governance, and ii) demand for high-quality human resources in the public sector to deal with increasingly more complex development imperatives. So, it requires sincere and judicious efforts to innovate the approaches of policy governance and effective public service delivery in the context of localizing the SDGs for inclusive transformation and solving the various policy governance issues of Nepal.
Thus, the policy lab is unique in terms of offering a variety of ways to solve the policy related issues and problems in order to improve the policy governance and making effective public service delivery of federal, provincial and local governments. It has been prioritizing the following strategies for the same:
i. Reorienting the traditional ways of policy-making: The policy lab reorients the traditional ways of policy formulation process in terms of having democratic institutions and inclusive policy processes. It is the magical breakthrough and paradigm shift for improving traditional methods of policy formulation, monitoring, and evaluations.
ii. Culture of evidence generation for policy decisions: It creates the culture of evidence generation to promote the evidence-based policy processes. It gathers and analyses the facts and information related to policy and people’s problems for informed and evidence-based policy decision-making.
iii. Connecting the academia and public institutions: It connects the academia and state institutions based on University for State and Societal Responsibility (USR) to serve the state whereas the critical role of a public institution is the key to effective public service delivery.
iv. Policy watch and monitoring: After the promulgation of the Constitution in 2015, it is the state’s responsibility and obligation to formulate the policies/laws in the spirit of the Constitution. But, policies are not being formulated considering this reality and the whole process is truncated. In this context, the policy lab monitors the policy formulation and implementation processes in regard with policy goals and constitutional spirit. It also assesses whether the public service delivery is effective or not, in line with policy goals and objectives, etc.
v. Policy evaluation: By and large, the practices of policy evaluation are lacking in Nepal. The structures, functions, and processes of KUSOM’s Policy Lab can help to address evaluation challenges mainly related to explaining why solutions work, translating research findings into decision-making involving policy stakeholders, and providing platforms for safe learning through experimentation. Hence, it will be instrumental for gaining a deeper understanding of challenges that relate to establishing what works, as well as valuing public interventions, incorporating systems thinking and complexity, and scaling-up solutions.
vi. Design Thinking and Human Centric Innovation: Methodologically, the Policy Lab employs multi-pronged strategies, such as design thinking and human-centric innovation, institutional and capacity building, policy advocacy and strategies, networking, and collaborating for synergy. The Policy Lab accomplishes its objective by using a four-stage process i.e. i) Discover, ii) Design, iii) Evaluate, and iv) Scale up. Based on the evaluation of the designed policies and services, we then disseminate and scale it up that suits best for better service delivery.
vii. Globally connected with policy initiatives: The lab connects public institutions with global policy initiatives and best practices from different parts of the world to adapt the national and local policy processes including local/community-based initiatives. The novel and innovative ideas should be locally rooted for their sustaining and impactful effects.
viii. Scientific documentation and cases: The lab promotes and utilizes the case experimentation and scientific documentation of policy cases for informed and evidence-based policy decisions. It creates a culture of evidence generation for further policy advocacy. And, scientific documentation of policy processes is presented to relevant stakeholders and government ministries/departments of the government at the local, provincial, and federal levels to initiate dialogue with them on the promotion of such cases. The action makes use of the e-portal, to disseminate case stories on the topic as well as initiate public debate on the issue.
ix. Evidence-based dialogue series and policy advocacy: The lab promotes evidence-based dialogue series based on policy research and knowledge. It brings all the diverse stakeholders for their common understanding, validating, and confirming the findings for wider policy advocacy and campaigning.
x. Transdisciplinary social justice initiatives: The lab connects transdisciplinary social justice initiatives with policy processes. The Transdisciplinary Social Policy Justice initiatives aim to connect social movement actors and academia for discourses on social policy and social justice issues where academia and practitioners can interact and generate pragmatic solutions for the underlying causes of redistributive social justice.
xi. Policy and scientific communications via policy knowledge products: Policy and scientific communication are also understood as part of policy analysis i.e. it unfolds the policy discourse and jargon for the convenience and understanding of policymakers who are very busy and heavily loaded with many important tasks and obligations. The very short, brief, and clear policy knowledge products would be easy for them for an informed policy decision-making process.
xii. Policy result demonstration and showcase: After diagnosing and rigorous analysis, it would demonstrate and showcase the public policy analysis and making process, thereby prescribing for informed decision making. It would develop confidence and satisfaction of all possible stakeholders engaged in public policy-making processes while addressing the contentious public policy and management issues, thereby improving people’s well-being and prosperity.
xiii. Policy innovation: By using human-centered design thinking principles, policy projects in the Policy Lab experiments, develops prototypes, proposes innovative ways to tackle the burning issues, and drive for policy innovations to serve the needs of the changing environmental and technological landscape.
xiv. Policy endowment fund for sustainability: The KU has established Policy Endowment Fund as sustaining the center of excellence in public policy and governance for students and faculties’ research, scholarship, and fellowships which will assist to sustain and foster the student and faculties led innovations, projects, and research.
For these reasons, KUSOM Policy Lab is considered as an innovative, problem-solving approach to public policy issues for ensuring effective public service delivery. Hence, the lab can function as the center of excellence and policy think tank in Nepal for improving policy governance in Nepal. Based on scientific documentation of policy cases and generating knowledge-based policy, it can be a credible policy think tank and knowledge hub in Nepal. Hence, the KUSOM Policy Lab can act as a national policy hub, center of excellence, and national policy think tank for policy governance in Nepal.
In a nutshell, KUSOM’s Policy Lab has been designed after realizing the need to bring evidence and policymaking closer together while acknowledging that academic evidence is only one ingredient in the policymaking process. Policymaking can be improved not only through access to the latest research, thinking, and evidence, playing the role of policy brokerage, but also through innovative approaches, tools, methods, practices, and interactive spaces to bring different stakeholders together.
Since it recognizes the sincere and honest efforts of state and non-state actors including political parties, civil societies, media, and local communities for policy-making and governance, the KUSOM policy lab can be an inclusive platform for all. Hence, it can be a hub for innovating the South-Asian perspective for public policy and governance.
While innovating public policy governance, KUSOM’s Policy Lab is likely to be a forum for open, honest conversations around a policy topic, creating new networks, collaborations, and partnerships between academics and policymakers, synthesizing available evidence on a policy topic in a robust and accessible format and providing timely access to evidence relevant to a policy issue. This process serves to build a coalition through the participation of diverse communities, work on the language and presentation of evidence and engage policymakers early to respond when policy windows emerge.
Furthermore, by working together to get evidence into the hands of policymakers, the media, civil society organizations, and other actors and think tanks, the KUSOM policy lab can influence public policy debates by promoting more objective, evidence-based decision-making. It can add policy relevance to academic research and theoretical and methodological rigor to think tanks’ research while improving the overall quantity and quality of evidence for policy-making.
(The author is Associate Professor and Program Director, Master of Public Policy and Management (MPPM) Kathmandu University School of Management (KUSOM), Balkumari, Lalitpur)
