Course Objectives:
- Analyze health policy issues using a framework that integrates empirical evidence and values (global, national, and local);
- Identify and use appropriate tools to advocate for policy changes;
- Identify key stakeholders (international, national, and local) in policy issues and describe their respective roles in whether and how those issues are resolved;
- Describe current trends in health system reform globally and the challenges and opportunities those trends present;
- Describe the major issues concerning health policy faced by developing countries and policy options for addressing those issues;
- Make effective oral and written presentations on global health policy issues; and
- Work effectively in teams to understand and analyze policy issues.
Topics
What is policy and why does it matter?
- Define health policy and name different types of health policies;
- Distinguish between policy analysis and policy advocacy; and
- Describe a stakeholder matrix, policy implementation logic model, and policy priority scoring sheet.
Policy Situational Analysis
- Define a policy problem to inform policy development;
- Develop a policy brief;
- Describe the various ways that governments can influence public health; and
- Conduct a situational analysis.
Stakeholder Analysis
- Identify and describe the roles of stakeholders in a policy process;
- Use political mapping to depict the relative power of different stakeholder groups;
- Begin to define key audiences to inform policy messaging and advocacy strategies; and
- Discuss some of the conflicting perspectives in the area of sex work harm reduction.
Policy Implementation Modeling
- Describe steps that governments can take to improve the implementation of health policies;
- Identify potential risks to successful policy implementation barriers and ways to mitigate those risks; and
- Complete a policy implementation logic model to strengthen policy development and design.
Multi-Criteria Policy Analysis
- Identify a range of criteria that could be used to prioritize and evaluate policy options;
- Use multi-criteria policy analysis to prioritize and evaluate policy options; and
- Describe the differences between cost-benefit analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis.
Building Political Priority
- Design a persuasive messaging campaign or communication plan for a policy issue or intervention;
- Critique a messaging campaign to identify ways that it could be made more persuasive for a target audience; and
- Develop a list of activities or advocacy strategy to improve the political priority of a policy issue.
Policy Negotiation and Diplomacy
- Engage in integrative bargaining as part of a public health policy negotiation;
- Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of a BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement);
- Identify and analyze various approaches to improving access to essential medicines; and
Effective Presentations and Briefs
- Deliver a professional and persuasive policy advocacy presentation;
- Develop succinct and effective presentation slides; and
- Communicate effectively with an audience through visual media.
Advocacy in Action
- Describe the strategies used in the NGO Code of Conduct to strengthen health systems in low and middle-income countries; and
- Describe how one NGO has incorporated policy advocacy into its local and global strategy.