Public policy-making is a complex process that involves many participants with different roles, interests, and resources. The study of public policy is the study of who gets what, why, and what difference it makes. Governments control about one-third of the economy and employ about one of every six workers.
This article identifies and discusses information structures for public policy-making in Botswana. It shows that information structures for public policy-making can be divided into institutions, documents, and people namely items in; registries, libraries, central statistics office, staff’s own documents, and personal contacts. Registries are used a lot by government officers for their routine tasks and sometimes systemic activities.
Other information sources are meetings, seminars, workshops, or conferences; followed by radio and television, and then library items such as books. The paper concludes that information structures such as institutions, documents, and people which include information sources like registries, libraries, research units in government departments, and indeed other information structures provide hard and soft information within government and where possible out-with government, and add value to public policy formulation.
However, some deficiencies were identified such as a lack of training and a lack of relevant materials. It was then recommended that there is a need to train staff working in government structures such as registries and libraries as well as an improvement of the materials found within the structures to make it more relevant to policymaking.
Journal Information
Botswana Notes and Records is an annual journal carrying articles on Botswana’s history, contemporary affairs, languages, folklore, archaeology, biological and natural sciences, and traditional culture, among other topics. It provides a forum for researchers and gives academics and laypersons with an interest in Botswana the opportunity to contribute their particular knowledge.
Its “Notes” section often contains brief memoirs, biographies, anecdotes, photographs, and reminiscences of former government officials, public servants, commercial traders, civic workers, volunteers, and other contributors to Botswana’s development in the late colonial and post-colonial period. The majority of contributors are leading academics in their fields.
Publisher Information
The Botswana Society is Botswana’s oldest, indigenous non-governmental, non-profit organization. It was founded in 1968 to encourage discussion, research, and publication about Botswana across the disciplines and has published its annual journal Botswana Notes and Records, and over forty books, proceedings, and collections on Botswana’s current affairs, its history, and its natural landscape. It hosts conferences, public lectures, and fora, has a large domestic and international membership, and promotes cultural heritage tourism.
What is the process of making public policy?
The public policy process, in simplified form, can be understood as a sequence of four phases: agenda setting, formulation, implementation, and evaluation.
Who makes policies in Botswana?
Parliament is the supreme legislative authority in Botswana, consisting of the President and the National Assembly, and is charged with the responsibility of legislation, representation, and oversight.
What is the public policy process in national politics?
A policy established and carried out by the government goes through several stages from inception to conclusion. These are agenda-building, formulation, adoption, implementation, evaluation, and termination.