Policy advocacy In helping my clients to develop advocacy campaign plans and stakeholder engagement strategies, I often find the assumption we start with is that the client has ‘the message’ and everyone else with an interest is seen as ‘the audience’. Discussion inevitably ensues about the focus on ‘public interest’ versus a possible perception of… Continue reading Stakeholder Engagement and Empowerment Options
Tag: public policy
COVID Public Policy Ratings – Australia 2020
The Evidence-Based Policy Analysis report for 2020 has recently been published by Per Capita, with a special emphasis on public policy responses arising from the COVID-19 ’emergency’. The authors conferred with Prof Kenneth Wiltshire AO, whose public policy business case criteria had been used in previous versions of this analysis, and he agreed to make… Continue reading COVID Public Policy Ratings – Australia 2020
Policy Models and Accounts
Non-profit advocacy work tends to focus mainly on government relations, especially regulatory measures (‘sticks’) affecting the non-profit’s stakeholders, but also policy measures which might fit the tags ‘carrot’ or ‘sermon’. (See also my earlier article ‘Carrots, Sticks and Sermons: sorting policy types’.) I often find that NFP directors and staff are unaware of the processes… Continue reading Policy Models and Accounts
Politicians, guns and money
Apologies to the late Warren Zevon for warping the title of his famous ‘Lawyers, Guns and Money’ song to refer to One Nation representatives and others seeking funds from the gun lobby to blight Australia with US style gun ‘rights’. The Australia Institute has done us all a favour by analysing political donations from gun… Continue reading Politicians, guns and money
Separating the facts from their meaning
If you have followed this Blog for any length of time you will know of my commitment to evidence-informed policy and advocacy, so you won’t be surprised that I like to share resources and thinking which promote those positions. Bernard-Henri Levy’s recent article in Project Syndicate, Google, Fake News, and the Crisis of Truth, is… Continue reading Separating the facts from their meaning
Real world policy – 3 Free eBooks
Further to my previous post about public engagement in policy deliberations, public policy advocates will be well aware of the debate over whether ‘evidence-based policy’ (EBP) takes sufficient account of political realities. Most of us who have engaged in this activity realise that our messages need to be sensitive to the values of the stakeholders… Continue reading Real world policy – 3 Free eBooks
Evidence vs Democracy
Our friends at The Alliance for Useful Evidence have just published another thought-provoking paper promoting improved public engagement in policy debate and policy-making – using forms of ‘participatory democracy’ to counter the resistance of populist movements to evidence which should inform decision making. The paper, Evidence vs Democracy: How ‘mini-publics’ can traverse the gap between citizens, experts, and… Continue reading Evidence vs Democracy
IT Governance lessons
As noted in some earlier posts, learning from others’ mistakes is the least painful way of avoiding trouble, provided we can apply those lessons meaningfully in our own circumstances. This latest case study arises from problems encountered in yet another large scale publicly funded IT project. It offers numerous governance insights, which in my view,… Continue reading IT Governance lessons
Hearts and minds in public policy
The importance of restoring regard for kindness alongside hard-headed analysis in public policy deliberations is highlighted in the new Carnegie UK Trust report Kindness, emotions and human relationships: The blind spot in public policy. The report argues “that the great public policy challenges of our time demand an approach that is more centred on relationships;… Continue reading Hearts and minds in public policy
Climate change and the Minister’s ‘long bow’
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report which has gained so much attention over the last couple of days, was met with a soft response by Environment Minister Melissa Price, which may not be all that surprising given her voting record on climate issues. Bob Ward’s Opinion piece in The Guardian notes that “the dangers if governments ignore efforts… Continue reading Climate change and the Minister’s ‘long bow’