Key Stakeholders in Policy Design and Implementation

Key Stakeholders in Policy Design and Implementation
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Key Stakeholders in Policy Design and Implementation
Key stakeholders play a significant role in policy design and implementation to expedite the attainment of set objectives. Notably, policy implementation entails mechanisms, relationships, and resources that link policies to program action. Key stakeholders assess the root cause of the underlying issues and develop strategies that can address them. Besides, they make critical decisions regarding effective policies in an organizational setting (Baltussen et al., 2018). Therefore, project managers should seek and understand the perspectives of key stakeholders while developing policies. Besides, they set a context for assessing the strategies of obtaining and integrating stakeholders' voices in the policymaking process. Following the emergence of complex issues, public administrators have adopted governance activities that allow stakeholders to participate in the policymaking process.
Stakeholder engagement is one of the most imperative activities to win the support of other individuals while facilitating set goals. Since Nigeria and other developing countries fail to engage critical stakeholders in formulating policies, they might find it challenging to attain the core set objectives (Bjorgen et al., 2021). If project managers can involve critical stakeholders in making critical decisions, it would be possible to accomplish the core set objectives. According to Baltussen et al. (2018), advocacy is a crucial obligation among stakeholders to facilitate full policy implementation. In most instances, key stakeholders work collaboratively to streamline the process of making critical decisions. The participation of key stakeholders is fundamental to help implement policies regarding medical centers and other relevant healthcare services.
Over the decades, Nigeria and other developing countries underperform due to failing to involve key stakeholders in policy design and implementation. Arlati et al. (2021) argue that policy formulation and implementation are critical aspects of the strategic planning process for the success of projects. However, most developing nations, including Nigeria, fail to involve essential stakeholders in making relevant decisions regarding policy formulation. According to Quesada-Silva et al. (2019), the implementation is the final stage of the policy planning process, especially in the operational phase. However, Nigeria and other countries encounter significant issues in expediting implementation due to ignoring the critical role of key stakeholders. As a result, most projects fail to accomplish deliverables, stakeholder satisfaction, and overall contribution towards the anticipated objectives.
The engagement of key stakeholders is one of the most critical methodologies of enhancing scientific, clinical, and health policies while making relevant decisions. According to Guo and Kapucu (2019), healthcare delivery in Nigeria and other developing countries has been one of the major focus areas of development agendas. Although public health initiatives have improved healthcare delivery, the lack of involvement of critical stakeholders hinders the attainment of set objectives. According to Challies et al. (2017), most governments fail to involve community members as key stakeholders in policy design and implementation. As such, policymakers have to recognize the need to involve key stakeholders in making relevant decisions. Implementing collaborative governance requires effective collaboration between all the relevant stakeholders to facilitate effective policy development and implementation.
Most developed countries recognize the essence of bringing various stakeholders together to facilitate consensus-oriented decision-making while addressing the issues that affect healthcare services. According to Fellnhofer (2017), the governments in such countries provide collaborative decision-making processes while encouraging the active participation of citizens as representatives of various entities. A collaborative policymaking process offers an opportunity of supporting community members while improving the overall quality of life and wellbeing of all the involved individuals. On the contrary, lack of effective collaboration is the leading cause of effective policy development and implementation failure. In such a case, the stakeholders lack an opportunity of supporting community empowerment while improving quality of life. Equally, ineffective collaboration results in a lack of clarity on operational structures and related processes. For that reason, health institutions across Nigeria and other developing countries encounter performance challenges due to failure to address key stakeholders' concerns.
Nigerian government fails to involve its citizens in the process of policy formulation and development. As a result, the approach impedes effective healthcare delivery due to a lack of consensus among key stakeholders. Thizy et al. (2019) reaffirm that policy formulation and development involves various stakeholders, such as community members, government, and healthcare providers. Therefore, policies are deemed to fail if the stakeholders fail to raise their views in policy formulation. The need to enhance policymaking in the development process has become urgent and critical (Sisto et al., 2018). Therefore, Nigeria and other developing countries fail to realize the set objectives if they exclude critical stakeholders from making relevant decisions. Although Nigeria has formulated numerous policies in the healthcare field, the lack of participation by essential stakeholders leads to failure in realizing the core set objective. The major obstacle to ineffective policy design and implementation is excluding significant stakeholders from the decision-making process.
Technical insufficiency is a significant hindrance to adequate healthcare provision in Nigeria and other developing countries. Although the state has formulated policies to address the issue, key stakeholders' involvement, such as technocrats, bureaucrats, community members, and community representatives, is a significant barrier to their implementation. Therefore, the country should enhance effective communication to facilitate the effective exchange of ideas between vital stakeholders. Hudson et al. (2019) argue that technical insufficiency that results from lack of participation of critical stakeholders leaves the community members with little or no access to healthcare services. On the contrary, developed countries have the organizational capacity that can facilitate effective policy formulation and implementation. In most instances, lack of involvement of key stakeholders results in functional incapacity to address patients’ concerns across Nigeria and other developing countries.
Policy implementation is a critical step in project management that determines the attainment of set objectives, especially in the healthcare field. The step is the hub of the policy process that involves translating decisions into actions and assumptions into results through various programs. Since most developing nations fail to involve key stakeholders in such a process, it becomes hard to facilitate effectuation and policy administration (Cometto et al., 2018). The stakeholders can get involved in various activities, such as disbursement of funds, signing contracts, data collection, and analysis of fundamental problems in formulating policies. The pattern and nature of the policy implementation process is the critical determinant of the success or failure of any policy. Since the hallmark of any successful approach is its effective implementation, Nigeria and other developing countries fail to realize the set goals for not involving critical stakeholders in the process.
Bureaucracy is one of the practices that facilitate speed, dependability, speed, and effectiveness of policy implementation. However, a lack of involvement of critical stakeholders can result in corruption among the top executives that can affect the overall quality of policy formulation. If only leaders participate in policy design and implementation without involving key stakeholders, such policies could be inappropriate in addressing the underlying issues in society. According to Capano and Woo (2017), one of the common issues in developing nations is that leaders subordinate policymaking goals to their interests. For that reason, the implementation of policies lacks well-defined objectives that hinder the attainment of set goals. If the government fails to participate in policy design, the policymakers might lack access to financial resources and a workforce that can expedite set goals. In most developing countries, the government fails to budget appropriately, thus making it hard to attain its core goals. In any case, insufficient financial resources have resulted in difficulties of policy implementation in all developing nations.
Considerably, stakeholder participation entails processes that enable key stakeholders to influence the decision-making process in the healthcare field. Since key stakeholders play a relevant role in policy design and implementation, they should have access to the right information regarding policy formulation. Therefore, every project manager should embrace inclusivity to allow all key stakeholders to participate in decision-making effectively and appropriately. In developed countries, policymakers fail to disseminate information to all stakeholders, thus hindering an effective decision-making process. As such, any changes fail to address the needs of the community members. On the contrary, developed nations utilize a bottom-up approach in policy design to facilitate an effective decision-making process. Therefore, it would only be appropriate to establish clear governance structures and processes while recognizing the opinions of all the relevant stakeholders.
Stakeholder participation is an effective way of ensuring that all the affected members can raise their views regarding any changes related to their needs. One of the increasing awareness in developing ...