Event

The Governance Unit of the Faculty of Social Sciences will host an international conference entitled “Resurrecting Implementation Studies: Problems, Issues, Solutions”. This conference will be held from Thursday 19^th to Friday 20^th March, 2009. This event will be held in the Faculty of Social Sciences Lounge, UWI, St. Augustine Campus.  

The study of implementation is slowly returning on the agenda of Public Sector Management and Government. In the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and in the Caribbean there is increasing concern with the failures of implementation programmes and with looming recessionary trends the world over it is to be expected that implementation studies will be given a new lease of life.

The aim of the conference is to probe the case for the resurrection of implementation studies in the practice of Public Sector Management, to identify the problems that have traditionally plagued the processes of implementation, to clarify their theoretical foundations and to propose some solutions for overcoming some the barriers and obstacles involved.

The 1970s had witnessed the emergence of a concern with policy analysis, evaluative and organizational studies and of institutions such as Departmental Policy Units, Central Policy Review Staff within Cabinets as well as Programme Policy review mechanisms. The dominant approach to implementation at the time, however, viewed it as a top down approach. By the early eighties, it was being recognized that there were problems relating to unclear policy objectives, the variety of agencies involved in the exercise, competing interests between actors and agencies, and the relative autonomies among implementing agencies. Thus, Implementation was being perceived as a ‘negotiated order.’ Then came the New Right  in the 1980s with its concern for efficiency and financial stringency and the rise of New Public Management with its appropriate mantras.

Following the disappointment and disillusion that soon followed  New Public Management it is contended that we are now in the Post New Public Management phase that requires new solutions. The concern is now with a bottom up approach. The context is thus conducive to a return to the restatement of the problems in terms of implementation and to examine them accordingly from the prospective of policy analysis, evaluation and organizational studies. The conference will accordingly address the following questions:-

 The generation of consensus on programmes;

 The definition of policy and intended outcomes;

The links that connect policy to ultimate outcomes;

The role of leadership;

 A well thought-out cost-benefit analysis of various strategies;

Analysis of the web of interaction that makes up a programme, especially with new policies;

Designing a set of controls and monitoring mechanisms;

The role of NGOs in the implementation process.

It is intended to invite presentations from local and international academics, policy makers and other organizations involved in the policies of implementation. Papers from academics and practitioners in all disciplines will be welcomed.

The Deadline for submissions is Friday 27th February 27th, 2009

Please contact:

Dr. Ann Marie Bissessar 662-2002 Ext. 2019, AnnMarie.Bissessar@sta.uwi.edu

Rachel D’Arceuil 662-2002 Ext. 2539, Rachel.D’Arceuil@sta.uwi.edu

 For further information, please contact the Behavioural Sciences department at (868) 662-2002 Ext. 2539.

Or visit: http://sta.uwi.edu/conferences/09/implementation/