How to write a policy brief
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How to Write an Effective Policy Brief: A Comprehensive Guide, Lecture notes of Statistics
A step-by-step guide on how to write an impactful policy brief. It covers topics such as planning, writing for your audience, choosing content, and designing the brief. With examples and practical tips, this resource is essential for researchers, advocates, and policymakers.
Typology: Lecture notes
2021/2022
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How to write a policy brief
This is a training tool developed by IDRC
Topics
- • Planning your policy brief p. 3-
- • Policy brief template p. 13-
- • Designing the brief p. 27-
- • Checking your work p. 35-
What is a policy brief?
- A short document that presents the findings and recommendations of a research project to a non- specialized audience
- A medium for exploring an issue and distilling lessons learned from the research
- A vehicle for providing policy advice
Work within parameters
A policy brief is:
- A stand alone document
- Focused on a single topic
- No more than 2-4 pages (1,500 words)
Who are your readers?
Ask yourself:
- Who am I writing this brief for?
- How knowledgeable are they about the topic?
- How open are they to the message?
How can I reach readers?
- What questions need answers?
- What are their interests, concerns?
- What does it take to reach specific readers such as media, decision-makers?
Choosing Your Content
Apply a laser focus
- Focus on a single topic
- Define your purpose
- Identify salient points that support the aim
- Distil points to essential info
- Limit yourself to 1,500 words
Policy brief template
- Executive Summary
- Introduction
- Approach and Results
- Conclusion
- Implications and Recommendations
Lead with a short statement
The executive statement will:
- Distil the essence of the brief
- Provide an overview for busy readers
- Entice readers to go further
- Appear on cover or top of first page
- Be written last
Introduction
- Answers the question why
- Explains the significance/urgency of the issue
- Describes the research objective
- Gives overview of findings, conclusions
- Creates curiosity for the rest of brief
Approaches and results
- Provides summary of the facts
- Describes issue and context
- Describes research and analysis
- Should not be overly technical
- Highlight benefits, opportunities
Results: what did we learn?
- Make content easy to follow
- Start by painting a general picture
- Move from general to specific
- Base conclusions on results
Example:
Do the Fences Work?
Overall it was found that although the electric fencing does help…it is not capable of completely eliminating conflict. In each…area…technical as well as socio- economic factors affect….success. Technical failures mainly affected the early fences…Other problems resulted from failure to take into account elephant behaviour and distribution patterns.
Elephants and Electric Fences. A study from Sri Lanka EEPSEA 2005