G-Watch Convenor-Director Delivers Lecture on Inclusive Policymaking to Asian Parliamentarians and Party Leaders

6 June 2021

Government Watch (G-Watch) Convenor-Director and Accountability Research Center (ARC) Researcher-Adviser Joy Aceron delivered an online lecture on inclusive policymaking to 32 parliamentarians, party leaders and youth activists from India, Indonesia, Nepal, Timor Leste and the Philippines.

The lecture was held on 22 May 2021 and was organized by the Network for Social Democracy in Asia (Socdem Asia) under its Academy of Progressive Politics (APP).

Drawing insights from the experience of the Philippines, Aceron defined inclusive public policymaking as "a process and an outcome that recognizes the persisting condition of exclusion and marginalization and attempts to address it." She further argued that inclusive public policymaking aims to ensure that policy outcomes are "transparent, participatory and accountable, and that they take sustainability into account."

In her presentation, Aceron quoted Thomas Dye who defined public policy as "whatever governments choose to do or not to do." She also characterized public policies as both "rational and political" since they are "deliberate courses of action (or inaction) taken by governments to address public problems."

In the course of her lecture, Aceron differentiated  policy advocacy from policy monitoring, defining the latter as "way to ensure that policy gets implemented properly and that continuous improvement happens."

Policy advocacy, on the other hand, involves knowing who are the stakeholders of a policy, how to manage the stakeholders, what are the viable entry points in advocating for a policy."

The said activity had the theme 'Progressive Policymaking: Making Inclusive Public Policies at the National and Regional Levels,' and also featured Prof. Aries Arugay from the Department of Political Science of the University of the Philippines-Diliman.

Socdem Asia is a a network of social democratic parties and movements, and is present in 13 countries.

 

[Image courtesy of SocDem Asia that asked an artist to summarize Aceron’s lecture in an infographics to help aid learning]