Table of Contents
Public Policy
Public policy is the method and means by which a government intends to achieve certain goals and planned activities. Implementation of policy by government ministries and departments requires allocation of resources and may take the shape of projects and programs. Public policy can be formulated in multiple ways and since it may entail the redistribution of rights or access to privileges or resources, it tends to be a complex or, sometimes, an opaque process that is acted upon by competing interest groups.
A policy document is not a law, but it cannot go outside the ambit of existing legislation and can lead to new legislation as well.
What is Sandboxing?
A sandbox is a virtual controlled environment used to test or deploy new software and run programs by developers and researchers without affecting the application, system or platform on which they run. Tech companies use some form of sandboxing to test new initiatives; Amazon Sandbox environment enables a through testing of Pay & Login with Amazon Integration before going live.
Interestingly, Google Sandbox is the name used to describe the filtering process by which it ranks pages in its index. And there is a Reverse Sandbox Effect also that affirmatively improves the ranking of certain pages on the search engine.
The most noteworthy feature is that the sandbox “isolates” the applications, preventing them from tampering with each other. Sandboxing environments are easily reformatted for repeated use and the developer can also run analysis on suspicious software or malicious code without the risk of contaminating their systems.
The fintech and insurance industry has been using the “Regulatory Sandbox” to safely test innovations, financial products, technologies, and business models under a set of rules and supervisory requirements. Most innovative projects may face slowdowns due to unsupportive or unclear legal frameworks. Cost savings and reputational considerations make sandboxing a value proposition.
The Japanese Government introduced “Sandbox” Program in 2018 to test Innovations in mobility and technology. The collected data is being used to create new regulations and initiate regulatory reform. In Fukuoka City, sandboxing allowed city managers to learn if the Mobby smart scooter could help solve traffic and parking problems. The Mobby uses GPS and IOT technologies to navigate.
The Need to Consider Sandboxing for Policy Formulation and Feedback.
Policy making is evidently a complex process that could benefit from smart piloting to get ideas and data on how stakeholders respond to the policy. Going beyond round tables, Sandboxing promises a test drive of policies, especially where uncertainty is high and the impact is long term.
It is interesting to note that some policies can last for decades with minor adjustments while, according to a study, the mean lifespan across the world since 1789 is a mere 17 years. Making an effort to objectively understand the policy design alternatives and its probable impact before actual implementation would only be logical.
The Processing Matrix
Each individual policy would require a level of processing that can be assessed on the variables of policy complexity and stakeholder engagement. The following simple matrix shows that the policies that fall in the top right quadrant would require a second order of thinking that can be afforded by a combination of stakeholder engagement in various formats in addition to leveraging technology.
| High complexity Low Engagement | High complexity High Engagement |
| Low Complexity Low Engagement | Low Complexity High Engagement |
What will a Policy Sandbox look like?
The Public Policy Sandbox (PPS) can be a virtual machine that leverages a multi-channel approach, including digital Information Communication Technology (DICT), to inform, grind and evaluate policies. Application of the combination of channels would depend on the nature of the policy to be tested. Different channels can be assigned weights to provide a balancing effect while assuring broad-based consultation and engagement. This approach also helps in expanding possibilities on peer review and testing of ideas generated by different channels.
Excluding emergency policy directives, all policies imaginable can go through the sandbox process. However, all the boxes in the Phil Hutchinson’s policy test would need to be ticked, which asks the following fundamental questions: Has the precautionary principle been invoked? What counts as evidence? What are the likely political-economic consequences? Who stands to benefit or suffer? Have the right questions been asked?
The answers would offer valuable information on the proposed policy instrument that needs to be made available to the sandbox process. The sponsoring ministry, line department or agency would then be expected to submit a “business case” on the policy that would have a desk analysis and recommendations appended to the draft policy.
All of the contributing channels proposed below will generate data per defined data points that can be utilized for policy analysis and implementation modelling.
Chartered Testing Entity: The testing environment for the Government can be a special purpose vehicle, e.g., it can be a specially created Federal Division or a Provincial Department.
Policy Testing Zones: A dedicated zone can be created in an existing ministry or agency for live testing. The policy sponsoring ministry can be the first choice for this.
Digital Affinity Groups: These are cross cutting virtual groups formed by individuals with shared non-commercial interest, concern or a common issue.
Digital Citizen Panels: In case of a policy that concerns a specific geographic area, a city, etc., digital citizen groupscan be engaged. The Policy hub can encourage such panels to be made in city jurisdictions.
Digital Forums for Various Stakeholders: Different interest groups, universities and think tanks can be engaged digitally and remotely.
Crowd Sourced Data & Insights: The hub can commission professionally sourced insights from social media to get the pulse on issues under discussion.
In Person Premium Roundtables: The Round tables will meet in person to discuss the channel outputs and data-based insights with a premium on invitation based on quality submissions, comments, etc. contributed on virtual channels. This will ensure quality and a good return on the event.
The Policy Hub: The government can create a permanent hub that champions the formulation, testing and evaluation of policies. The hub will enable harvesting of key data from processes and routine interactions and provide benchmarking based on evaluations of local or international domain policies. It can be the core of the PPS and the repository of International best practices, benchmarking data sets and insights.
Framework & Governance
It would only be fair to consider that a Policy Sandboxing Framework (PSF) must itself be put to the Sandbox test to evaluate demand, feasibility, and potential outcomes. While a well-considered operational framework and governance can be drawn up; it must ensure that competent and genuinely interested individuals are engaged at all levels of the PSF operations.
A 16-member virtual Governing Council (GC) can have equal representation from the public and private sector who elect their chief operating officer for a non-extendable 3-year term. 8 members of the GC can be nominated by the Government who must be mid-career civil servants, while the rest would come through the sandbox process itself, being the best rated contributors. Membership of the GC, for all members, should remain subject to consistent digital benchmarking every quarter; non-contributors and sitters would be system flagged and dropped off the grid. The same principle should apply to review/consultation groups with limited membership.
Digital technology makes it possible to promote quality comments through upvoting and rating by peers. The contributions would thus be rated by a wide pool of participants and the top graded ones would get promoted to the round table discussion. All participants in the process would have to register with the Hub with their personal details. No anonymous participation in any channel or group should be permitted.
Advantages & Conclusion
A Public Policy Sandbox (PPS) can be a contained and reliable place where certain policy instruments can be tested and their delivery mechanisms refined without incurring immediate unproductive consequences, e.g., lack of ownership, litigation, etc. Implementing across the board means getting headlong into the program with full resources committed and little room for quick revision of policies.
Elaborate testing and review make the policy formulation process iterative. Evaluations of policy implementation are not common, and amendments are driven by individual experiences, feedback or initiative.
“Remember that you’re looking for the best answer, not simply the best answer you can come up with yourself”, says Ray Dalio. Adjustable rules of business, harvesting of data on business processes and professional behaviors and insights for new policy making and legislation make the policy sandboxing a value proposition. The PPS is where the objective meets the sandpaper before it hits the road.
Government agencies or ministries would receive evaluations and feedback so that they would be able to implement better, make more informed policy decisions and propose better policy instruments in the future which in turn would improve Government response time, service delivery and impact. Filters bring their usual set of difficulties, especially when we speak of the public sector, but the value added, and quality brought to long term policy making could neutralize them or keep them under manageable limits.
The PPS, being a grid that aggregates data and qualified information, could help bring innovation to public policy formulation, supervision, and implementation as they try to understand and negotiate new issues, new roadblocks and come up with novel insights. Codified knowledge could be openly made accessible to all stakeholders for obvious benefits.
Implementing and enforcing any policy is arguably a project on its own right. Within the policy development process, the PPS could lead to a better return on investment. A noteworthy feature of the addition of the new box is wider engagement of stakeholders and, importantly, ownership that can minimize risk of failure and support achieving desired results.
