PRE-ANALYSIS PHASE The three instruments employed in this work have been selected for their complementarity, in terms

5.2 PRE-ANALYSIS PHASE The three instruments employed in this work have been selected for their complementarity, in terms

of level of application and approaches, and their specific focus on furthering inclusive social development through inclusive public policies and government programmes.

The “UNESCO Analytical Framework for Inclusive Policy Design: of Why, Who and How” was the initial the instrument used to kick-start the work of the Malaysian National Working Group. The discussions of the Group and the line Ministries resulted in the development of the contextualized, both nationally and sectoral, version of the instruments now called “Analytical Framework for Inclusive Policy Design:

Malaysia”. The latter was employed in the course of the pre-analysis and analysis phases in the following respects:

(a) To frame the discussion and policy thinking of the Malaysian National Working Group on the matter of inclusive social development and the associated portfolio of public policies. The five parameters and the policy markers put forward in the Framework provide the necessary breadth to capture the context of social inclusion in Malaysia. In the case of NPSTI, it helped in analysing the policy together and as a product of the over-arching national paradigm on inclusive development as shown in Chapters 1 to 3. It was instrumental, as such, in positioning/considering NPSTI in relation to MP11 and its strategic focus on inclusive development, and in analysing the dynamic evolution of this national agenda through a historical perspective.

(b) To support the formation of a joined-up and cross-sectoral understanding of inclusive policy – not as a standalone sectoral intervention but as a multi-dimensional system or a portfolio of policy interventions that operate at once and in an integrated manner along the social, economic, political, civic and cultural axes – based on which further work within this project was conducted.

(c) To anchor the discussions of the Malaysian National Working Group on the aforementioned matters in rigorous social science analysis and, by this, to strengthen the fit of, and the dialogue between, the Malaysian social science community and concerned policy makers on; and

(d) To place the national agenda on inclusive social development within the broader framework of the Sustainable Development Goals and associated international reflections.

It is noted that EquiFrame was designed, in a first instance, to assess health policies. It was argued that as an analytical tool, its application is not limited to the health realm and can be easily adapted and may be applied to virtually any issue area, political and cultural context. Vulnerable Groups and Core Concepts may be added or removed depending on the policy under consideration. Conceptually, EquiFrame and EquIPP function similarly to checklists where explicit linguistic forms as expressed in the source documents will determine compliance to the evaluation framework and the rating henceforth.

Early in the exploratory process of gathering the source documents for analysis, the Science, Technology & Innovation (STI) policy environment is recognised to be diverse and loosely demarcated with many overlaps with other policy environments. Review of the projects and programmes implemented under the NPSTI suggested the strategic direction being influenced by more than just the policy alone. Arguably from a linguistic viewpoint, many of the concepts outlined in the more audit- like structure of the analytical framework of EquiFrame and EquIPP may not explicitly be covered adequately, which may result in a poor rating, despite evidence elsewhere suggesting some form of compliance to the social inclusion agenda.

Conceptually, the NPSTI acts as a general backbone, with broad statements and a reach to encompass the majority of the public in its domain. The NPSTI is supported by an extended narrative, and by and large influenced by previous historical versions of past policies as well as the intrinsic embeddedness of the main agenda of the long standing single party government since Malaysia's independence. The establishment of a usable construct of this extended narrative was undertaken, with inputs from personnel within MOSTI, MOSTI ’s reports and publications and unreleased documents relating to the implementation of NPSTI through its various programmes. This is considered necessary in order to provide a fair assessment of the NPSTI. Included in this extended narrative is part of the SME Master Plan (2012-2020). This strategic plan comprise six High Impact Programmes (HIP) as part of the larger Conceptually, the NPSTI acts as a general backbone, with broad statements and a reach to encompass the majority of the public in its domain. The NPSTI is supported by an extended narrative, and by and large influenced by previous historical versions of past policies as well as the intrinsic embeddedness of the main agenda of the long standing single party government since Malaysia's independence. The establishment of a usable construct of this extended narrative was undertaken, with inputs from personnel within MOSTI, MOSTI ’s reports and publications and unreleased documents relating to the implementation of NPSTI through its various programmes. This is considered necessary in order to provide a fair assessment of the NPSTI. Included in this extended narrative is part of the SME Master Plan (2012-2020). This strategic plan comprise six High Impact Programmes (HIP) as part of the larger

population. HIP6 is aptly entitled “Inclusive Innovation”, with the Malaysian Innovation Foundation (Yayasan Inovasi Malaysia, or YIM), an agency under MOSTI, as its principal driver.

Initial attempts to apply EquiFrame and EquIPP onto the NPSTI on the basis of the source document alone failed to reach a consensus on the rating of inclusiveness. A more neutral and objective review was sought from the EquiFrame and EquIPP development team for guidance. The following section contains the findings of the external consultation team.