Organizational dimensions to the implementation of policy change

This paper explores the organizational impediments to implementing policy reforms, with a focus on the experience of USAID"s Implementing Policy Change (IPC) project, a 5-year effort which has been involved in policy reform implementation in over 30 countries. After briefly examining the nature of policy implementation and the factors that impede it, the report discusses the tasks required for successful policy implementation (in contrast to project or program implementation). These tasks are: legitimation of the policy to key decision makers, constituency building, resource accumulation, organizational modification, resource deployment, and impact monitoring. The paper then describes a number of innovative organizational mechanisms that were developed by the IPC project in response to the implementation challenge. A final section provides some observations regarding strategic management as a tool for responding to the organizational dimension of the policy implementation process. Includes bibliography.