Policy Issue Paper

Purpose: A policy issue paper, otherwise known as a “policy brief”, “white paper”, “staff report”, etc., serves to analyze a specific policy issue, with enough depth to introduce the scope of the issue as well as possible solutions. In this assignment, students will use their knowledge of problem definition to practice writing the initial sections of a policy issue paper.

Task: Students will select a policy issue of their own interest. The deliverable for this assignment is a 5-6 page (double-spaced, APA format, 12 ptTimes

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The paper should include the following elements (described in pages 433-439 of the course textbook), in the following order: problem statement, background of the problem, significance of the problem. Make sure that you are focusing on the policy problem here (what are the problems that have resulted from these changes?). This paper should be less focused on the policy, and more on defining and framing the issue. Make sure you’ve also identified an audience to write to, identify the reader in the first page heading (theaudience).

Explores the issue so “it might be possible for a decision-maker to conclude either to do nothing further or to commission a definitive study looking toward some action recommendation” – FORMULATION of the problemExplores the issue so “it might be possible for a decision-maker to conclude either to do nothing further or to commission a definitive study looking toward some action recommendation”

– FORMULATION of the problem

• Problem Statement, Background, and Significance

– Provide a baseline statement about the issue (Bardach provides good examples)

– Scope and severity of the problem

– How likely is the problem to change in the future?

• Stakeholder Analysis

– Provide a list of 5-10 stakeholders with interest in the issue

– Describe the influence and interest of each stakeholder

– Explain how these stakeholders might define the problem (are the definitions the same?)

• Future Steps

– What goals and objectives should be pursued to solve the problem?

Policy Issue Paper