Ontology Development for Public Policy Implementation: Challenges, Opportunities, and Applications.

Abstract

Admas Abtew, Dawit Demissie, Kula Kekeba

Ontology development has emerged as a promising approach to facilitate knowledge sharing and collaboration among stakeholders in public policy implementation. However, ontology development presents several challenges, including the lack of standardization in policy language, the ambiguity and complexity of policy language, the difficulty in capturing tacit knowledge, limited resources, and resistance to change. This systematic literature review aims to identify the challenges and opportunities of ontology development for public policy implementation and to explore its potential applications in various domains. The review identifies six relevant studies that employ ontology development in public policy implementation and uses a thematic analysis approach to synthesize the findings. The review highlights the opportunities of ontology development, including enhanced interoperability and integration, improved knowledge management and sharing, better decision making and policy analysis, and increased efficiency and effectiveness. The review also identifies the challenges of ontology development, such as standardization of policy language, capturing tacit knowledge, and addressing resistance to change. The review concludes that ontology development presents a structured approach to facilitate knowledge sharing and collaboration among stakeholders in public policy implementation and has the potential to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of policy outcomes. The review suggests that future research could focus on addressing the challenges identified in this review and exploring the potential of emerging technologies in enhancing ontology development and its applications in public policy implementation.

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