scholarly journals Philanthropic Foundation Strategies to Advance Systems Reform: Perceptions from Frontline Change Implementers

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tara Kolar Bryan ◽  
Kimberley R. Isett
Keyword(s):  
Policy Change ◽  
State Policy ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
Systems Change ◽  
Skill Sets ◽  
Policy Actors ◽  
Operational Change ◽  
Building Activities ◽  
Traditional Approaches ◽  
Philanthropic Foundation

AbstractThis article examines the strategies and processes pursued by one foundation aimed at accelerating systems change reform efforts in four states. The findings suggest four strategies the Foundation employed in reform efforts: partnering with state policy actors to accelerate systems change efforts, providing technical assistance to support implementation, leveraging the reputation of the Foundation toward systems change goals, and facilitating the dissemination of innovation to states and localities. This study contributes to the literature by documenting the combination of strategies the Foundation applied in their effort to advance systems change, and by exploring the perspective of system professionals on what Foundation activities were viewed as more or less successful. Because systems change entails both policy and operational change, this study suggests foundation strategies need to harness both traditional approaches, such as targeting policy change, as well as approaches less traditionally used that may require new skill sets for foundations, including field building activities that enable system professionals to implement the change effectively.

scholarly journals The Food & Fitness Community Partnerships: Results From 9 Years of Local Systems and Policy Changes to Increase Equitable Opportunities for Health

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 92S-114S
Author(s):  
Laurie Lachance ◽  
Martha Quinn ◽  
Theresa Kowalski-Dobson
Keyword(s):  
Policy Change ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Systems Change ◽  
The United States ◽  
Community Partnerships ◽  
Community Change ◽  
Local Systems ◽  
Intermediate Outcomes

The Food & Fitness (F&F) community partnerships, funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation from 2007 to 2016, were established to create community-determined change in the conditions that affect health and health equity in neighborhoods. The focus of the work has been to increase access to locally grown good food (food that is healthy, sustainable, fair, and affordable), and safe places for physical activity for children and families in communities with inequities across the United States through changes in policies, community infrastructure, and systems at the local level. This article describes the outcomes related to systems and policy change over 9 years of community change efforts in the F&F partnerships. Characteristics of the F&F communities where the work took place; the change model that emerged from the work; efforts and changes achieved related to community food, school food, and active living/built environment; overall factors in the community that helped or hindered the work of the partnerships; and a depiction of the community-determined process for change employed by the partnerships are described. Local systems and policy change is a long-term process. Community-determined efforts that build capacity for systems change, commitment to long-term funding, and provision of technical assistance tailored to community needs were elements that contributed to success in the F&F work. Achieving intermediate outcomes on the road to policy and systems change created a way to monitor success and make midcourse corrections when needed.

The Role of Government Backbenchers

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meg Russell ◽  
Daniel Gover
Keyword(s):  
Policy Change ◽  
Legislative Process ◽  
Role Of Government ◽  
Policy Actors ◽  
Corporate Manslaughter ◽  
Party Cohesion ◽  
Government Legislation

This chapter explores how government backbench parliamentarians in both chambers at Westminster influence the content of government legislation and the dynamics of politics. Government backbenchers are often thought to be Westminster’s most influential policy actors, operating through the ‘intraparty mode’. As summarized here, governments have recently become less able to rely on their votes, thanks to declining party cohesion. Yet governments are rarely defeated as a result of rebellious votes. This chapter analyses government backbenchers’ amendments proposed to the 12 case study bills—some of which served purposes other than immediate policy change—and their role as ‘pivotal voters’ in resolving legislative disputes with other (particularly opposition) actors. It also emphasizes their influence on legislation before it is introduced, and the importance of ‘anticipated reactions’. For example, ministers introduced the Corporate Manslaughter Bill only reluctantly, following backbench pressure. Backbenchers hence have subtle, and often hidden, influence in the legislative process.

State Practices on Inclusion

1995 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 279-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANTONIS KATSIYANNIS ◽  
GREG CONDERMAN ◽  
DAVID J. FRANKS
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
General Education ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
State Policy ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
Classroom Setting ◽  
General Education Classroom ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Intense Debate

Inclusion, which promotes educating all students with disabilities in the general education classroom setting, has triggered an intense debate in the field of special education. the purposes of this study were to highlight issues regarding inclusion, present findings on state practices on inclusion, and explore implications for practice and further research. findings from state surveys indicated great variety in state policy, acceleration in inclusion activity, a commitment to providing inservice and technical assistance, emerging teacher certification guidelines specific to inclusion, and minimal empirical research regarding the benefits of inclusion.

After the Punctuation: Competition, Uncertainty, and Convergent State Policy Change

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas T. Holyoke ◽  
Heath Brown
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Charter School ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
State Policy ◽  
Punctuated Equilibrium ◽  
Rational Decision ◽  
Rational Decision Making ◽  
Competing Interest ◽  
New Policies

What happens after longstanding policies are overthrown in fierce political battles, events scholars refer to as punctuated equilibrium? Do these new policies remain static and unchanging until the next big punctuation, or do they continue to change in explainable and predictable ways? In this article, we develop a model of postpunctuation policy change grounded in theories of boundedly rational decision-making by policymakers. Uncertain about how well the new policy will perform, policymakers learn to rely on competing interest groups for information or, under certain circumstances, look to other political jurisdictions for cues on how their policies ought to be further refined. We test our predictions by studying changes in state charter school laws from 1996 to 2014. We find evidence of policy change, and even convergence, across states suggesting that policies after punctuation do change in ways explained as reactions to political pressures in an environment fraught with uncertainty.

The National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center Model for Long-Term Systems Change

2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynne Kahn ◽  
Joicey Hurth ◽  
Christina M. Kasprzak ◽  
Martha J. Diefendorf ◽  
Susan E. Goode ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
Systems Change

State Policy Innovation and Systems Change

2001 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 202-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha McGaughey ◽  
David Mank
Keyword(s):  
State Policy ◽  
Systems Change ◽  
Policy Innovation

scholarly journals Policy Preferences and Policy Change: Dynamic Responsiveness in the American States, 1936–2014

2017 ◽  
Vol 112 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
DEVIN CAUGHEY ◽  
CHRISTOPHER WARSHAW
Keyword(s):  
Policy Change ◽  
State Policy ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
Future Change ◽  
American States ◽  
Change Dynamic ◽  
Policy Shifts ◽  
Over Time

Using eight decades of data, we examine the magnitude, mechanisms, and moderators of dynamic responsiveness in the American states. We show that on both economic and (especially) social issues, the liberalism of state publics predicts future change in state policy liberalism. Dynamic responsiveness is gradual, however; large policy shifts are the result of the cumulation of incremental responsiveness over many years. Partisan control of government appears to mediate only a fraction of responsiveness, suggesting that, contrary to conventional wisdom, responsiveness occurs in large part through the adaptation of incumbent officials. Dynamic responsiveness has increased over time but does not seem to be influenced by institutions such as direct democracy or campaign finance regulations. We conclude that our findings, though in some respects normatively ambiguous, on the whole paint a reassuring portrait of statehouse democracy.

Ideas and Discourse: Reform and Resistance in the Canadian and German Health Systems

2003 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 715-739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vandna D. Bhatia ◽  
William Coleman
Keyword(s):  
Policy Change ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Normative Values ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Policy Actors ◽  
Policy Problem ◽  
Social Facts ◽  
German Health ◽  
The Social

This article examines the conditions under which policy discourses can serve as contributing factors to policy change, even in the absence of changes in institutions and interests. It begins with a discussion of the role of ideas in policy analysis and how they can play a "constitutive role" as frames for policy. Drawing on a distinction between "augmentative" discourses that serve to reinforce an existing policy framework and "transformative discourses" that seek to persuade various publics of the need for significant policy change, four types of policy discourse are defined and a methodology is suggested for identifying these types. Two of these types, "challenging" and "truth-seeking," are hypothesized to be more conducive to the occurrence of significant policy change. Drawing then on case studies of policy change in Canada and Germany respectively, the article shows that a "challenging" discourse emerges in both countries, but leads to significant policy change only in Germany. Based on the comparison of the two cases, it is argued that three factors are relevant to whether a challenging discourse is successful or not: a broad consensus among core policy actors on the nature and gravity of the policy problem; the consistency of the discourse with broadly held normative values; and the persuasiveness of the "social facts" brought to bear in favour of proposed new solutions.

scholarly journals Political and Governance Challenges to Achieving Global HIV Goals with Injecting Drug Users: The Case of Pakistan

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 261-271
Author(s):  
Hina Khalid ◽  
Ashley M. Fox
Keyword(s):  
Drug Users ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
People Living With Hiv ◽  
Political Commitment ◽  
Policy Actors ◽  
Governance Challenges ◽  
Scale Down ◽  
The Government ◽  
Opiate Substitution Therapy ◽  
Hiv Programs

Background: The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has recently set the ambitious "90-90-90 target" of having 90% of people living with HIV (PLHIV) know their status, receive antiretroviral therapy (ART), and achieve viral suppression by 2020. This ambitious new goal is occurring in a context of global "scale-down" following nearly a decade of heightened investment in HIV prevention and treatment efforts. Arguably international goals spur action, however, setting unrealistic goals that do not take weak health systems and variations in the nature of the epidemic across countries into consideration may set them up for failure in unproductive ways that lead to a decline in confidence in global governance institutions. This study explores how policy actors tasked with implementing HIV programs navigate the competing demands placed upon them by development targets and national politics, particularly in the current context of waning international investments towards HIV. Methods: To examine these questions, we interviewed 29 key informants comprising health experts in donor organizations and government employees in HIV programs in Pakistan, a country where HIV programs must compete with other issues for attention. Themes were identified inductively through an iterative process and findings were triangulated with various data sources and existing literature. Results: We found both political and governance challenges to achieving the target, particularly in the context of the global HIV scale-down. Political challenges included, low and heterogeneous political commitment for HIV and a conservative legal environment that contributed towards a ban on opiate substitution therapy, creating low treatment coverage. Governance challenges includedstrained state and non-governmental organization (NGO) relations creating a hostile service delivery environment, weak bureaucratic and civil society capacity contributing to poor regulation of the health infrastructure, and resource mismanagement on both the part of the government and NGOs. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that in a context of waning international attention to HIV, policy actors on the ground face a number of practical hurdles to achieving the ambitious targets set out by international agencies. Greater attention to the political and governance challenges of implementing HIV programs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) could help technical assistance agencies to develop more realistic implementation plans.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document