Prof Kent Weaver spoke with ANZSOG about the importance of the policy implementation process and how this will be addressed in his brand new ANZSOG executive workshop, Policy Design and Delivery: Influencing Public Behaviour.
Although your work is well known in academic circles 'Down Under', public servants here don’t know much about you. How would you characterise your applied work that might resonate with public sector professionals in Australia and New Zealand?
Much of my applied work concerns problems that arise in the policy implementation process—everything from poor coordination between agencies and levels of government, to a poor fit between new tasks and the organizational mission and culture of an implementing agency, to failure to provide adequate staff and financial resources, to perverse incentives and other constraints that confront overstretched front-line workers. I believe that many of these potential problems can be identified in advance and prevented or mitigated, avoiding a lot of later implementation headaches for agency managers and their political bosses. But the first step in improving things is developing a clear understanding of the underlying problems.
The Victorian Chapter has seen a change at the helm with a new committee elected at the Annual General meeting late last year.
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Recent work at the OECD has highlighted the complex challenges facing governments in preparing for and responding to the ‘mega-risks’ precipitated by both natural and manmade disasters.
How these risks are best identified and how the governments effectively prepare and respond will be a focus of the 2012 ANZSOG Annual Conference, Future Proofing the State: Risk, Responses and Resilience. The conference, to be held in Wellington, New Zealand, from 24 to 26 July, will coincide with the centenary of passage of New Zealand's Public Administration Act.
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