The Policy Fellows Program

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This course was developed and offered with the support of the U. S. Agency for International Development, under the Cooperative Agreement between USAID and the Institute for Urban Economics (IUE-Moscow), No. 118 – A – 00 – 01 – 00135. Margarita Pinegina and Marina Shapiro, who are on the staff at the Institute for Urban Economics, were co-teachers of the course described.

Mr. Struyk, Senior Fellow at the Urban Institute, was resident (1992 – 98) in Russia directing a housing sector reform program and continues active involvement there. Ms. Morse, currently resident in Russia, is a consultant to the Urban Institute and was the lead teacher for the course. The authors sincerely thank the local officials and NGO staff in Cheboksary, Kirov, and Saratov who participated in the first offering of the course described herein. Marina Shapiro and Margarita Pinegina made numerous valuable contributions to the course. Polina Philippova conducted the interviews needed for the evaluation and Andrey Tomanov ably handled the statistical analysis; both work at IUE. We warmly thank Sandra Newman provided valuable comments on a draft. The authors also received useful comments from USAID-Moscow staff at a presentation of these materials. The opinions expressed are the authors' and not necessarily those of the Urban Institute, the Institute for Urban Economics, or USAID.

Abstract

The Policy Fellows Program seeks to strengthen the policy development skills of local government officials and NGO representatives. The course consists of a series of four workshops, each offered over two or three days. Each workshop uses a problem-solving format, and groups of participants comprised of government officials and NGO analysts work together on exercises that are a core part of the course. Participants are introduced to analytical decision-making methods and taught how to monitor and evaluate programs. The course also covers key concepts in policy making, such as considering the distributional aspects of policies (who benefits/pays), developing explicit decision-making criteria, balancing political and technical factors, defining public goods and services, and introducing competition to the public sector. In evaluation forms completed during the course, participants reported that the course provided them with new and valuable information that would assist them in their current and future work. Follow on interviews were conducted with a random sample of 25 graduates approximately five months after completion of the course to further evaluate the impact of the course on professional performance produced similar results. The results of the evaluation of the Policy Fellows course indicate that it fills a definite training need for local officials and staff at advocacy NGOs in Russia.

Introduction

The responsibilities of local governments in the former Soviet republics for the delivery of public services have been utterly transformed since the beginning of the transition period. While the extent varies, in all countries there has been substantial decentralization of responsibility from the center to localities.¹ Russia is no exception. Local governments were ill prepared for their new task, particularly in terms of policy-making capacity. The situation has improved modestly, mostly through a learning-by-doing process. Nevertheless, policy analysis, program formulation, and program monitoring and evaluation skills remain very limited.

At the same time local advocacy NGOs, including think tanks in some cities, have emerged to champion specific causes and to promote more efficient and open government.² In a number of cities, there is active cooperation between local government and certain NGOs, including NGOs acting as service providers under contract to the city, as well as those being involved in the policy making process. Nevertheless, there is still significant wariness by many local officials to NGOs. Overlaying this scene is the general lack of public policy skills at the local level. The result is that the quality of decision making is impaired compared to its potential.

The course described and assessed here is designed to improve local decision making by raising skill levels. A second objective is to strengthen working relationships between NGOs and government bodies through the inclusion of persons from both groups among the students. The course consists of a series of four workshops, each of two or three days devoted to strengthening policy analysis skills. Each workshop uses a problem-solving format, and groups of participants composed of officials and analysts work together on exercises that are a core part of the course.

During the spring of 2002 the course was offered in three municipalities in European Russia: Cheboksary, Kirov and Saratov. A workshop was offered in each city about once a month. The information presented is based on this experience. The course is now being presented in other cities.

The balance of the article consists of four parts. First is the course overview, which begins with a statement of principles that underpinned the development and teaching of the curriculum. Next, the contents of the curriculum are outlined. Finally, the issue of institutionalization is briefly addressed. The second part of the paper describes the participants and gives information on the share that passed the course. The third part reviews the findings of two evaluations of the course—one taking place during and at the conclusion of the course and the second five months after its conclusion. The third section offers some conclusions and addresses the possibility of using the curriculum in other countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Notes from this section

1. For a discussion of decentralization in the former Soviet bloc, see, for example, Kirchner (1999); Wallich (1994); Bird, Ebel, and Wallich (1995); Freinkman, Treisman, and Titov (1999); Horvath (2000).

2. For a comparative overview of developments in Russia, see USAID (2002); Charities Aid Foundation (1997).

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

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