Question

discuss how the public policy implementation phase is critical to the improvement of healthcare outcomes

Answer 1

Ans) Understanding the political dimensions of implementation can help those responsible for implementation to drive policy into practice more effectively.

- A political analysis of the position, power and interest of the stakeholders involved in health policy implementation helps to understand their role in promoting, resisting, or blocking implementation, and the dynamics of their interactions.

- The framework presented in this article is a tool to think ahead about the challenges in health policy implementation. As we have noted, however, the categories of stakeholders are not mutually exclusive, as illustrated by some of the examples, and not all categories may be relevant, depending on the context.

- Understanding and addressing conflict, resistance and cooperation among stakeholders are key to managing the implementation process, but they are also important during the policy design and adoption phases. This framework, therefore, may have broader ateplication beyond implementation. Systematic and continuous political analysis of stakeholders can help decision makers and high-level implementers improve the chances for successful policy design and implementation.

- It is important to recognize that some challenges in implementation may be the result of poorly designed health policy, intentionally or unintentionally. For example, during elections, politicians may knowingly announce ambitious health policies that are not financially or administratively feasible (in the short or medium term). Some policies may be adopted for aspirational purposes and in order to drive budgetary or organizational changes that are necessary for implementation. But some implementation challenges cannot be solved at the implementation stage; some challenges may require re-designing the policy.

This article identifies the different challenges and provides examples of effective strategies to manage policy implementation for health policy. We need to expand on the strategies available to policy implementers to manage stakeholders who may resist or block implementation, and also add to strategies for managing those who support or promote implementation. The examples presented above could be expanded to include more political strategies available to policy implementers to address implementation obstacles, persuade or overpower opponents, and mobilize those in favor of policy implementation.