PerCapita Conversations - NIUM's Online Policy Discussion Series

Introducing 'PerCapita Conversations'

The National Institute of Urban Management is hosting a policy discussion series in an attempt to generate insights to ‘inform the Institute's policy practice'. The institute (called NIUM in short) is organizing this series to hold discussions on curated ‘topics of policy advisory’ that need to be discussed in order to inform the current implementation of it's programs in the state of Telangana in particular and India at large. The insights emerging from these discussions will be compiled into the Institute’s Knowledge Archives to also serve as future reference apart from informing current practice. The series will also aim to trigger conversations, feedback and new opportunities on key questions for effective policy implementation. The themes that will be explored during this series will entail topics within the areas of 'Urban Infrastructure, Land Management, Heritage Conservation & Urban Sustainability'.

These discussions will be curated to seek expert views to advocate policy directions, that are environmentally sustainable, resilient and economically viable. The outreach of these discussions will include stakeholders from the state government's machinery and potential collaborators which include: other national public servants, policy practitioners/consultants, officials from multi-lateral agencies, academicians, students and representatives from partner institutions.

Each discussion will be held in the format of a podcast over Google Meet and published - in Article, Audio and Video formats - over NIUM's social media handles.?

Informing Discussions through the 'Minimal Representative Policy Process'

Archon Fung, an eminent scholar on citizenship and democracy, at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, proposes a model (illustrated above) - referred to as the minimal representative policy process (Fung, 2006) - to assess democratic decision making, wherein he proposes a schema that connects how 'outcomes of government action' can represent the 'interests' and 'preferences' of citizen beneficiaries. From a policy maker's point of view, this model provides two key takeaways, i.e.:

1. Gauge the policy topics and questions that represent 'preferences' and 'interests' of citizens; and to
2. Gauge the magnitude to which the 'policy outcomes' of governments are accountable to 'policy signals' emerging from citizens

NIUM's Policy Advocacy Cycle

As such, any attempt at policy advocacy must satisfy the above two goals of representation and accountability in order to build a healthy linkage between 'interests' held by citizen beneficiaries and 'outcomes' implemented by government functionaries. This is where NIUM proposes its model for policy advocacy as illustrated below:

The above model proposed by NIUM showcases the general interaction of a think-tank or practitioner to policies, the genesis for which are primarily 'issues' followed by 'observations' made from noticing such issues, which culminates into:

1. A discussion to better understand the policy issue or
2. A potential demonstration to showcase a pilot

Ideation & Engagement Series with Start-Ups

While NIUM will organize the above format of discussion engagements with policy practitioners from the sector, it also understands that adopting new innovations can help bridge in the gap in service delivery across cities and regions. As such, there is an inherent value in drawing exposure from newly implemented services and solutions in the marketplace. Keeping this in mind, there will be similar engagements with the following kinds of institutions that operate in urban settings:

• New age start-ups: to discuss cutting edge solutions; and
• Not-for-profits: to discuss innovative operating models for delivery of urban services?

A focus on the whole spectrum of Implementation Modalities

The discussions will reflect the overall lifecycle of creating an infrastructure service, considering the different components of decision making around planning and maintaining that infrastructure which will explore and discuss implementation modalities associated with:

• Infrastructure Planning
• Financing.
• Engineering design,
• Infrastructure asset creation,
• Monitoring & Regulation
• Capacity Building
• Awareness and Outreach
• Innovation & Research
• Environmental Safeguards
• Recovery, Reuse & Recycling
• Risk Management

Note: Practitioners, consultants and organizations interested to contribute and collaborate with the institute may reach out through: [email protected] & [email protected]

References

1. Fung, A. (2006). Democratizing the policy process. In M. Moran, M. Rein, & R. E. Goodin (Eds.),?The Oxford handbook of public policy?(pp. 669–685). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2. European Union. (2023, January 21). https://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/7/the-principle-of-subsidiarity. Retrieved from https://www.europarl.europa.eu: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/7/the-principle-of-subsidiarity
3. Stoa, R. (2014). Subsidiarity in Principle: Decentralization of Water Resources Management. Utretch Law Review, 31-45.
4. National Institute of Urban Management, Govt. of Telangana. (2023, January 21). https://nium.org.in/. Retrieved from https://nium.org.in/: https://nium.org.in/