Suchergebnisse

The majority of households without grid electricity in South Africa are located in low-income rural and urban areas. Being located in the remote rural areas makes it expensive to extend the grid and often locks such households into energy poverty where they are forced to use traditional fuels which expose them to unhealthy and difficult living conditions. The Free Basic Alternative Energy (FBAE) policy is aimed at providing alternative energy service to households without grid electricity with the hope of alleviating their energy poverty burden. This study examines how the FBAE policy is implemented in the rural areas of the Eastern Cape by the five local municipalities under the jurisdiction of the OR Tambo District. Through the use of the Contextual Interaction Theory (CIT) this study analyses how the three-actor groups (implementing actors, target actors and linking actors) and their characteristics (motivations, cognitions, capacity and power) influence the FBAE policy implementation process. Through this analysis, the complexity of policy implementation processes is revealed by highlighting the influence of the dynamic actor-interaction. By focusing on several actors and the influencing factors, this study moves away from the often accepted assumption that policy implementation processes mainly fail due to lack of resources. The analysis shows that actor motivations in terms of goals, their cognitions in terms of information as well as their capacity and power all play an important role in the success and failure of a policy implementation process.

Background World-wide, there is growing universal health coverage (UHC) enthusiasm. The South African government began piloting policies aimed at achieving UHC in 2012. These UHC policies have been and are being rolled out in the ten selected pilot districts. Our study explored policy implementation experiences of 71 actors involved in UHC policy implementation, in one South African pilot district using the Contextual Interaction Theory (CIT) lens. Method Our study applied a two-actor deductive theory of implementation, Contextual Interaction Theory (CIT) to analyse 71 key informant interviews from one National Health Insurance (NHI) pilot district in South Africa. The theory uses motivation, information, power, resources and the interaction of these to explain implementation experiences and outcomes. The research question centred on the utility of CIT tenets in explaining the observed implementation experiences of actors and outcomes particularly policy- practice gaps. Results All CIT central tenets (information, motivation, power, resources and interactions) were alluded to by actors in their policy implementation experiences, a lack or presence of these tenets were explained as either a facilitator or barrier to policy implementation. This theory was found as very useful in explaining policy implementation experiences of both policy makers and facilitators. Conclusion A central tenet that was present in this context but not fully captured by CIT was leadership. Leadership interactions were revealed as critical for policy implementation, hence we propose the inclusion of leadership interactions to the current CIT central tenets, to become motivation, information, power, resources, leadership and interactions of all these.

BACKGROUND: World-wide, there is growing universal health coverage (UHC) enthusiasm. The South African government began piloting policies aimed at achieving UHC in 2012. These UHC policies have been and are being rolled out in the ten selected pilot districts. Our study explored policy implementation experiences of 71 actors involved in UHC policy implementation, in one South African pilot district using the Contextual Interaction Theory (CIT) lens. METHOD: Our study applied a two-actor deductive theory of implementation, Contextual Interaction Theory (CIT) to analyse 71 key informant interviews from one National Health Insurance (NHI) pilot district in South Africa. The theory uses motivation, information, power, resources and the interaction of these to explain implementation experiences and outcomes. The research question centred on the utility of CIT tenets in explaining the observed implementation experiences of actors and outcomes particularly policy- practice gaps. RESULTS: All CIT central tenets (information, motivation, power, resources and interactions) were alluded to by actors in their policy implementation experiences, a lack or presence of these tenets were explained as either a facilitator or barrier to policy implementation. This theory was found as very useful in explaining policy implementation experiences of both policy makers and facilitators. CONCLUSION: A central tenet that was present in this context but not fully captured by CIT was leadership. Leadership interactions were revealed as critical for policy implementation, hence we propose the inclusion of leadership interactions to the current CIT central tenets, to become motivation, information, power, resources, leadership and interactions of all these.