Policy Making for Government Advisors

Advisory services are not recent invention. Today the decision-makers have various sources of advice: technocratic and political, internal and external, private and non-governmental, local or international. In most systems, senior officials in government supplement internal advice with various forms of external assistance- primarily paid advisors. The main reasons for this are:

• The complex and specialized nature of modern policy, which means that government often does not have all the knowledge and specialized expertise internally; hence, must rely on outside sources.
• The continuing pressure on governments to reduce the size of administration to save resources (such as analytical and research resources) leads administrative organizations to seek alternative sources of information and advice.
• The focus of policy and legislation efforts shifts over time from one area to another. This means that policy workload is uneven within institutions, as is the need for resources.

The programme is designed to transfer important skills in improved governance and public sector reform