The Appeal and Challenges of Behavioural Public Policy: A View from Central Asia

Governments around the world are paying increasing attention to behavioural public policy to inform decision-making across various policy areas. Behavioural insights have been embedded in policymaking of many governments to design better, more effective, and cost-efficient policy solutions in health, education, taxation, environment, and other areas. While academic literature is mostly focused on the behavioural insights in the developed countries, there is limited knowledge and understanding on how the governments in the Eurasia region have been transferring and adapting Western concept of behavioural public policy. This chapter presents a critical analysis of the early behavioural interventions introduced by two governments in the Eurasia—Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan—with a purpose to change behaviour and social norms of citizens. The vignettes about anti-corruption messaging campaign in Kazakhstan and preventing iodine deficiency in Uzbekistan are used in this work to analyse context-specific challenges, flag up potential risks and ethical concerns related to policy transfer of behavioural insights into the closed context of Eurasia.