Wicked Problem Essay

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5. UNIVERSITY-Government-industry partnership Overall energy policy problems in Indonesia could be categorized as “wicked problems” (Rittel, H.W.J. and M.M. Webber, 1973), the term used to address social planning problems that were open-ended, contradictory, and often difficult to recognize. Tackling wicked problem in public policy requires holistic, innovative and flexible approaches, ability to work across organization boundaries, and engaging stakeholders who may have different perceptions about the problems (Australian Public Service Commission, 2007).
 Wicked problems go beyond the capacity of any one organization to understand and respond to, and disagreement often arise on the root causes and the best way to tackle them. Hence, collaborative …show more content…

Program Evaluation

 As government navigating through many initiatives in such short period of time, in each program independently and interconnected with other energy programs, an unbiased program evaluation is urgently required to measure the results. By way of evaluation, government and the corresponding program managers will be able to answer calls for public accountability and stakeholders. Ideally, program evaluation should be planned periodically and covers multiple year of program activities. However, looking at the speed of changes in energy sector and its criticality, program evaluation is crucial to monitor and propose improvement in short period of time while considering the long term energy scenario.
 Rittel, H.W.J. and M.M. Webber (1973) also stated that every solution to a wicked problem is a "one-shot operation”, because there is no opportunity to learn by trial-and-error. Every attempt counts significantly, many people's lives will be irreversibly influenced and large amounts of money will be spent in implementing the solution. Subsequently, every attempt to reverse a decision or to correct the undesired consequences poses another set of wicked problems, which are in turn subject to the same dilemmas. Evaluation methodology such as participatory action research (Whyte, 1991) would be beneficial in immediately impacting the actors, program or policies while evaluating them at the same

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