Policy planning system in Georgia: gap between design and implementation

Abstract

Policy planning and coordination represent pivotal elements within the methodologicalframework of public administration in the European Union, as elucidated by Sigma (2019).Concurrently, these aspects assume paramount significance within the public administrationmethodological framework of the European Neighborhood Policy (Hill, 2018). Georgia,having committed to harmonising its policies with those of the European Union through thesigning of the Association Agreement (AA, 2014, Article 333), bears responsibility for thisalignment. This research endeavour constitutes a theoretical and empirical synthesis aimed at studyingthe features of the policy planning system in Georgia. Employing qualitative methodsinherent to social science research (In-depth interviews and document analyses), this studyendeavours to explain the intricacies of the topic and overview the gaps between policydesign and implementation. The evolution of policy planning and coordination in Georgia commenced in 2013 with anOECD/SIGMA study on the structural and functional aspects of government administration.In 2015, the state acknowledged, for the first time, the significance of the issue, along withthe prevailing challenges in this domain, such as deficiencies in the legal framework, theabsence of a unified policy planning system and methodological guidelines, and institutionalweaknesses in policy development and coordination. Moreover, there were shortcomings in monitoring, reporting, and evaluation systems (Public Administration Reform Guide 2020, p.9-10,2015). In response to these identified issues, a policy planning guidance was introduced in 2016.However, it fell short of addressing the existing challenges. Consequently, in 2019,government ordinance N629, along with its annexes and a new guidance, was adopted. Thistransfer-based (Tabatadze, 2021) revised system, operating on the principles of evidence-based policy (EBP), results-based management (RBM), and the whole-of-government(WOG) approach aimed to enhance policy efficacy and coherence (Gray, 2004; Hunt 2005;Mayne, 2007; Baba, 2012; Othman & Razali, 2018). However, the findings of this study indicate that aligning the policy planning and coordinationsystem with these models proved challenging within the context of Georgia's publicadministrative culture (Khuroshvili, 2021: 2023). Expert interviews revealed inconsistenciesand gaps between policy design and implementation. Interviewed former decision-makersconfessed to encountering obstacles that hindered successful reform implementation,including opportunities for undesirable influence within the system, which has been a featureof the Georgian public administration already (Akobia, 2021). The research further uncovers significant deficiencies in the evaluation of policy documentswithin the government administration, attributable to inadequate competencies and weakevaluation standards. Additionally, it reveals that the civil service was poorly prepared forpractical RBM implementation, while the WOG model contributed to fragmentation instead ofpromoting coherence. In light of these challenges, government efforts have been largely incremental, primarilyconsisting of training programs for a limited number of officials. However, given the highturnover rate among these officials, the efficacy and quality of such training initiatives remainquestionable.