Including democracy in policy design:

The first topic I recall after watching Gavin Mageni is that policy design should be democratic- it should be ‘created for me by me’. As design is mainly focused on the citizens one would think that it is common knowledge to include the citizens and give a voice to the voiceless and not further marginalise the minority groups. Furthermore design should be omnipresent- every citizen on every level of society should be included in the design and the policy should be designed to address the challenges of the nation. Unfortunately theory and practice rarely correspond- it’s easy saying that things “should” be done in a certain manner and its easy saying that citizens “should” be involved but citizens also have to participate for policy design to be successful.

This brings me to the socio-economic challenges that most citizens face- poverty, lack of public transport, lack of access to public services, unemployment and lack of education. I feel as if the socio-economic challenges are interrelated and forms a part of a vicious cycle that took roots in the apartheid era. An example of this can be made- poverty leads to lack of education as the family cannot afford to send the child to school, due to this the child does not receive a standard and adequate education leading to employment and continuing the poverty cycle.

Another topic that caught my attention is that African traditional medicine has a high GDP potential and can generate up to R27 billion for the economy. Statistically one in three people utilises this market, leading to 63 million users. Mageni explained that modernising this market and products will greatly contribute to the economy.

Further Mageni explained a few challenges designers face. The one challenge which made the most sense in an African context is that a chasm exists within a project. My understanding of a chasm is that a lot of inputs are made to develop a policy but regardless of all the resources, there is nothing to show for it, meaning that there is no outputs. In South Africa we can see that with a lot of projects- all the resources are used and then have no results to show for it, this again leads to lack of resources.

In my opinion a policy can only be successful from the start if the design is done right, the implementation is supervised with dedication and management is done with great diligence. 

Yvonne Jansen

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Dear Yvonne, what a powerful perspective. Congratulations. I have noted two significant and fundamental interfaces in your blog. Firstly, an interface between Mr Mageni's TEDxSoweto presentation and public policy and secondly, and interface between the public policy cycle and the detrimental cycle of socio-economic circumstances. What a nifty piece of work, congratulations. I truly hope that, by means of your blog posts that you will explore the matter further until real, innovative solutions are reached. :)

PUMA 314 Students, I encourage you to engage with Yvonne on two levels.In the first instance, how she has managed to connect the dots between what Mr Mageni said and her own current environment, which undoubtedly includes public policy; In the second instance how she has managed to identify two significant cycles that may, when we put them together, or re-arrange them present us with remarkable results.

Dear Yvonne, well done on a great piece of work you have written. I especially like the way you have linked the concepts of Mr. Mageni`s video presentation with public policy and in correlation with that the fine line between public policy and the cycle of the socio economic circumstances that South Africa faces. You have used good influential examples, which really speaks for itself. Once again well done on your first blog entry. :)

Dear Yvonne, firstly congrats on an outstanding first blog entry. The way you were able to link various socio-economic challenges that our country faces, with public policy, immediately stood out for me. You did a great job in analyzing Mr Mageni's presentation and applying it in your blog. Job well done!

Dear Yvonne, well done on a very successful blog. Democracy is always a captivating topic and can be looked at in different ways and approaches. I am happy to see that you highlighted the fact that as much as one can just say how things should be done there will always be challenges that has to be faced and in fact like you said they are always interrelated in some way. I fully agree with you that policy can only be successful if it is designed right from the start. Congratulations fellow student!

Dear Yvonne, well done on an incredible bit of work you have composed. A basic part of a well-working vote based system is the limit with respect to consultation and dialog. To some extent, pondering has an educative capacity that can help engage residents and increase their investment. Congrats!!!