Guest blog by Smith T. Matsiko, IPP ’23
This article gives a practical application of Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) on the implementation challenge of deconflicting land in Uganda, providing the progress made and insights about the problem of land conflicts in Uganda as well as key lessons learnt from SLAAC policy intervention.
Further insights are shared on how PDIA approach has been used, applied and also changed the conventional approach on public policy implementation. The key lessons learnt have been shared in reference to implementation.
Context
Article 26 (1)(2) of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda states that every person has a right to own property either individually or in association with others. However, in Uganda, the rights of ownership have been registered to only 30% of the land, leaving the 70% of the Land a hotbed of conflicts. As a remedy, Government is has come up with a program of “Systematic Land Adjudication and Certification (SLAAC)” program for mass titling (documentation of land rights) to guarantee ownership of the Citizens in order to reduce land conflicts.
The legitimacy of SLAAC policy is anchored in various Uganda’s legal and policy framework including the National Land Policy, 2013, the Land Act, 1998. The functionality success of the SLAAC policy focuses on the scale up registration of the land rights especially to the rural poor to enhance land tenure security for social economic transformation.
The confidence in the functionality and legitimate success of the SLAAC intervention is underscored by a number of capabilities of policy development including creation of problem narrative, rigorous plan and control, communication and coordination as well as accountability.
Like many developing countries, Nahikiriza D., 2023, in his study -Policy Implementation Performance in Developing Countries concluded that Uganda has good policies, but poor implementation.
The above findings called for a rigorous Plan and Control approach to implementation of the SLAAC policy keeping in mind avalanche of unknowns, uncertainty and plan and control failures which can be kryptonite to the approach. The context of unknowns of the SLAAC policy ranged from a lot unknown of the “Big P Political” to provide the adequate funds as well as the complex cultural environment which is rated as some is unknown. However, the use of PDIA transformed the unknowns to a lesser impact.
In their study on land rights in Uganda, Deininger, K. and Yamano, T., 2008 concluded that land tenure system in Uganda is very complex. The above complexities call for Management Methods that exist beyond Plan and Control but also the application of Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (Andrews, M., Pritchett, L. and Woolcock, M., 2013). The PDIA uses Problems as Entry Points for Change, and particularly for this case, the land conflicts in Uganda. The construction and deconstruction of the Problem of Land Conflicts in Uganda helped to build narratives that mobilize people and attention for implementation.
As earlier contextualized, deconflicting of Land in Uganda is critical because land free of conflicts is not only a factor of production but a major source of livelihood and guaranteed social safety net for the unemployed and old age population. However, the above benefits cannot be realized because 70% of land is not registered. The implementation of SLAAC policy shall deconflict Land so that it can optimally contribute to the social economic development. The major cause of land conflicts in Uganda includes boundary disputes, family disagreements, land grabbing, corruption tendencies (Ruzindana, A., 1997) among others.
PDIA Implementation Arrangements – Uganda’s SLAAC Policy
Implementing a new public policy, in this case -SLAAC intervention in Uganda can be uncertain with various unknowns, and therefore calls for building teams and team culture to create sense of ownership to solve complex challenges with efficiency and effectiveness. The teams were built on norms like Psychological Safety, Equality in distribution of conversational turn-taking, High ‘‘average social sensitivity, Dependability, Structure and Clarity through the Lens of diagnostic developed by Shapiro, M., 2015 focusing on seeker, planner, connector and driver which provides a better way of dealing with differences in teams.
To ensure the implementation of SLAAC Policy, the policy secretariate strengthened the problem narrative as indicated above to mobilize the attention of a wide and often varied group of actors to the policy issue of concern- deconflicting land but also stimulation of difficult questioning to change the status quo and focus on the search for new alternatives, without just jumping to any solution. Providing of Multiagent Leadership recognized that Land which is cared for by many is swarmed by the conflicts.
The identification of entry points for Implementation of the SLAAC policy was informed by the root cause analysis using the Fish bone tools which informed the areas for identify entry points for implementation work, to empower action and results.
The authority centers were engaged at both Political and Technical level for authorization, more specifically, the Rt. Honorable Prime Minister, the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, the Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, and the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development. This ensured that the authorizers’ ideas are incorporated in Constructing and Deconstructing of the Problem at hand which is land conflicts.
The importance of authorization by the political and technical leadership was to build the implementation muscle to tackle the unknowns to reduce the vulnerable to failure and other implementation challenges along the way; and additionally, to ensure that there consistent iterative and adaptive implementation work but also as a strategy to garner appropriate authority for both legitimate and functional success of the SLAAC policy.
The application of iterative adaptation ensured communication of the ‘Learning and Leads’ to build Authority. For instance, new insights indicated boundary disputes and weak government structure were major cause of land conflicts among others. The leads and learning of the SLAAC intervention also built further authorization and more importantly stimulation of motivation amongst teams and authorizers.
Lessons Learned
Using the SLAAC policy intervention, as the case study the following the undertaking of the Implementing Public Policy course, brings in detail the understanding and application of the Fishbone as a major tool of analysis to identify entry points; the understanding of levers of Implementing Public Policy for functional and legitimate Success; Capabilities applicable for Public Policy Success; the importance of Plan and Control for policy implementation to avoid out of scope implementation; The relevancy of Iterating to build Authorization is very important for – functionality and legitimacy success. The need to start small, iterate, adapt and power of celebrating quick wins bring results in short, medium and long run. The motivation through progression in the Action Learning Process shall enable implementers experience the sense of progress, the more likely they are to be creatively productive in the long run. Feedback and failure in the Action Learning Process in terms of taking small steps to address the challenges. Additionally, engagement of the stakeholder relationships and ensuring continuous motivation.
In the entire process of policy implementation, team building, Delegation, Accountability, Time Management, Empowerment and Trust is a cornerstone of success at all levels. The influencing of others and working together on the implementation journey call for basic principles of being a human-not a boss; being curious- instead of right; Promoting others-don’t inflate yourself; being open- not secretive.
Additionally, I discovered, notwithstanding the hard skills, the following behaviors will lead to better outcomes in implementation of behaviors of these influencers include: Enthusiasm, Kindness, Focus, Calmness and Openness.
This is a blog series written by the alumni of the Implementing Public Policy Executive Education Program at the Harvard Kennedy School. 47 Participants successfully completed this 7-month hybrid program in December 2023. These are their learning journey stories.