Policy Window Research Articles

Key Factors Influencing Use of Immunization Cost Evidence in Country Planning and Budgeting Processes: Experiences From Indonesia, Tanzania, and Vietnam.

In many low- and middle-income countries, planning cycles and policy decisions are not always informed by cost evidence, even where relevant and recent cost evidence is available. The Immunization Costing Action Network (ICAN) project was a research and learning community designed to strengthen country capacity to generate immunization cost evidence and to understand and improve the evidence-to-policy linkages for the evidence. We identified key factors that increase the likelihood that health policy makers will use evidence for policy making or planning, which shaped the development of a 6-step evidence to policy and practice (EPP) facilitated process. ICAN used the EPP process in Indonesia, Tanzania, and Vietnam from 2016-2019. The experience resulted in several insights regarding country priorities related to cost evidence and factors that determine uptake. Cost evidence is more likely to be used if it answers a specific policy question prioritized by the immunization program, while the use case is less clear and urgent for routine planning and program management. Nonhealth ministries and subnational stakeholders can provide important perspectives to inform the research and its usability. The use case for evidence should be revisited periodically as divergences from formal planning cycles are common and new policy windows open. Ensuring evidence is available at the right time is critical, even if this requires a sacrifice between rigor and speed. Engaging a small group of stakeholders, rather than an individual, to champion the research may be more effective, and the research has greater legitimacy if it is produced by multidisciplinary country teams. Evidence and messages should be tailored for and packaged targeting different audiences. Going forward, continued support is necessary to bridge the divide between those who generate cost evidence and those who translate evidence for policy and planning decisions.

EU Sport Diplomacy: An Idea Whose Time Has Nearly Come

AbstractThe EU is often characterized as an economic giant but a political dwarf. In recognition of the need to develop its diplomatic persona, it is increasingly deploying soft power. Since the adoption of the sports competence in the Lisbon Treaty, the EU has considered the potential of sport to assist with the amplification of foreign policy messages. However, unlike many nation‐states, it has not yet developed a sport diplomacy strategy, although the adoption of one is being discussed at ministerial level. Employing Kingdon's multiple streams framework, this article explains how solutions have become joined to problems and that increasingly favourable political forces have opened a policy window through which the first ever EU sport diplomacy strategy should pass. However, the article also urges caution on policy entrepreneurs by advising on the circumstances in which Kingdon's three streams will couple and a strategy emerge.

COVID-19 as a policy window: policy entrepreneurs responding to violence against women

Abstract Policy windows emerge through alignment among specific policy problems, political forces, and proposed policy responses. During policy windows, it becomes possible for change to occur, driven by the agenda-setting of policy entrepreneurs. We consider how the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) created a significant policy window. As we do so, we seek to advance theorization of the conditions under which policy change occurs and when it sticks. We ground this discussion in exploration of a salient policy matter: responding to violence against women (VAW). Shortly after the World Health Organization declared the spread of COVID-19 a global pandemic, in April 2020, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuke, Executive Director of United Nations (UN) Women—the entity of the UN dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women—coined VAW the “shadow pandemic” and launched a global public awareness campaign. We review the advocacy work that led in 2020 to broader recognition of VAW as a significant policy problem. That advocacy has driven policy changes at local and national levels that are intended to have long-term, trajectory-altering impacts on reducing violence. We conclude by drawing insights to guide theory-driven empirical analysis of other policy windows.

Industry’s push for computer science education: Is computer science really for all?

Recent research on Computer Science (CS) has largely found that inequities in access persist. In 2016, President Obama announced the Computer Science for All initiative, recognizing that CS is a “new” basic skill in K-12 schools and over US$4 billion was pledged to Computer Science education (CSEd) initiatives. While general support for computer science and the associated funding is currently evident, this has not always been the case. From no mention in 2001’s No Child Left Behind legislation (2002) to making the national educational agenda in 2015’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), CS has found a place in K-12 education. The current state of the CSEd agenda in the US has been greatly influenced by those who have served in industry. However, ESSA was designed to give states flexibility in creating equitable educational systems, especially for students who have been historically marginalized. Given this contrast of federal legislation and the economic motivations of industry on CSEd, we ask, why did computer science education become part of the US federal agenda, and how have business and industry “pushed” and influenced computer science education? We draw on policies, research, reports, organization websites, and professional networking sites, to better understand the national support for CSEd as well as how state-level flexibility has resulted in specific states engaging within this policy window in varying ways. We then examine one company that has “pushed” a CSEd agenda to highlight the magnitude of the impact of industry on the field of CS. We close with implications for researchers and policymakers.

Policy windows for drug consumption rooms in Finland.

Background: Use of drug consumption rooms is a novel harm reduction approach to reach marginalised and isolated people who used drugs, under the high risk of overdose deaths and infectious diseases. The aim of this article was to evaluate the policy opportunities and barriers of the Helsinki City initiative for establishing the first drug consumption room (DCR) in Finland from the multiple streams framework. Method: A qualitative interview research method is used to evaluate the perspectives of stakeholders. By including 23 participants, we analysed the political, social and policy level advantages and disadvantages of the current initiative. Findings: Our results show that the cost of DCRs, the COVID-19 burdens on public resources, the requirement of legislative change, public unawareness, potential policy failure of DCRs, and its impacts on electoral votes constitute the main policy barriers. On the other hand, an increase in drug-related deaths, economic benefits of DCR for society, its effects on street safety and public order, being a local initiative, prospectus change in national drug strategy plans and motivation to catch up with EU standards were underlined as policy opportunities. Four issues, leadership, moral perspective, social change and generational differences, act as mediating factors, which are fluctuated according to public opinions and political environment. Conclusion: By applying the multiple streams framework, our results show that experts’ DCR problematisation is still beyond the public and political interest, which needs additional effort around problem identification and prioritisation. Besides public unawareness, the COVID-19 situation seems to be postponing policy progress since the primary attention and available funds have already been dedicated to public health. Already having a local initiative and an upcoming drug strategy plan might be good formal leverage, but unexpected events might also trigger discussions.

Perfect versus possible: Kingdon's multiple streams analysis, politics and the National Disability Insurance Scheme

AbstractAs the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) moves towards full rollout, it is timely to describe the nature of the policy framework and environment driving outcomes in order to better respond to commentary and learnings. To do this, this paper assesses Kingdon's Multiple Streams Approach as an explanatory model which will allow us to untangle the spaghetti of competing interests, issues and drivers of policy. Notwithstanding observed limitations, the paper finds that the potential for a policy window provides a powerful guide for actors to organise, as well as a mechanism for compromise. Further, the model suggests that key political drivers dominated the emergence and development of the NDIS and have thus shaped its current state.

Do natural disasters accelerate sustainability transitions? Insights from the Central Italy earthquake

ABSTRACT This paper examines whether natural disasters open a policy window of opportunity for sustainable transition in lagging regions. Bridging disaster studies and the transition management approach, the authors define the Post-Disaster Policy Window of Opportunity (PPWO) concept, as a heuristic tool to assess the acceleration of a sustainable transition generated by a shock. The paper applies PPWO to the case study of the Central Italy earthquake (2016) deploying both primary and secondary data concerning public policies designed to pursue societal challenges at regional levels. The authors examine (i) the governance scheme, (ii) the objectives, and (iii) the policy implementation strategy of the transition as agreed in a pre-disaster phase, and whether they changed during the disaster and in its aftermath. The findings highlight natural disasters per se cannot prompt a radical change to territorial development patterns in lagging regions. However, disasters’ potential to spur sustainable transitiońs acceleration can be enabled through a place-based approach with a coherent vertical and horizontal policy coordination.

Want a Horse to Run but not Eat? Conflict Objectives and Policy Dilemmas in China’s Medical Reform

Medical reform is not only closely related to the interests of the public, but it also reflects the interdependence of government, the market, and society. Within a country’s medical reform coexists the “big objective” of the government and the “small objective” of the governance object. Their interactions will affect the policy stream and the policy window. If the “big objective” is compatible with the “small objective”, then the “real policy window” will open. If the two are in conflict, they will grind together, enlarging the discretion of the governance object. The result will be the opening of an “illusory policy window” that will slow the policy reform or even hinder it. The multiple reforms of the Chinese medical industry are the result of the four competitive governance logics coexisting in public hospital governance. The first two-the country’s logic (public welfare dominant) and bureaucratic logic (executive order-led) -have shaped the “big objective” of public welfare. Enterprise logic (market-oriented) and the logic of professional organizations (led by experts) have shaped the “small objective” of effective operation. The conflict and balance between “big objective” and “small objective” have seriously affected the process of Chinese social policy reform.

Content Analysis of Policymakers Communication Narrative Addressing Coronavirus Diseases 2019 Pandemic in Indonesia

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus diseases 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic severely affected Indonesia in health and socio-economic sectors. As a new disease and the challenge became an opportunity for policy creation of the government. AIM: The study explored how the government as a policymaker responded to the COVID-19 pandemic within the framework of the policy window, as seen in the news media. This study also looked at how the public perceived the policy creation and the implementation. METHODS: A qualitative case study was conducted to answer the research questions by reviewing three main national news media, namely, Respublika, Media Indonesia, and Kompas, on primary communication from three policies makers (president, ministry of health, and COVID-19 task force). The searching coverage was within 1 year of the pandemic, from March 2019 to February 2020. The articles were analyzed using content and contextual analysis approaches. The articles were coded thematically using open coding in the native language, supported by MS Excel and qualitative software ATLAS.ti version 8. The data discuss with the existing literature using the policy window framework. RESULTS: We found that 147 articles were eligible for the study, which the majority of them were president communication. The president communicated in all aspects COVID-19 related policy, including integrated policy, health policy, and the economic. Ministry of health mainly focused on health policy and the task force on public education. The study showed that the government has utilized a policy window for policy creation in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. The policy addressed all related issues that were affected by the pandemic, ranging from healthcare to financing. There were weaknesses in the implementation, such as not adequately informed to the public and some inconsistency among stakeholders. CONCLUSION: Policy creation without consistent implementation led to public distrust and rejection.

Impact of the First Wave of COVID-19 on Physical Activity Promotion in the European Union: Results From a Policymaker Survey.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a major challenge for societies and governments around the world that severely affects all aspects of health promotion. This study assesses the potential influence of the first wave of the pandemic on national physical activity promotion policy in the European Union (EU). Data were collected using an online survey among members of the EU Physical Activity Focal Point Network, which consists of government officials from all EU member states. The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected physical activity promotion across the EU. In particular, experts indicated that it has negatively impacted opportunities for physical activity in their countries. There have, however, been positive effects of the crisis on public awareness of physical activity. While almost all countries were able to issue physical activity recommendations during quarantine, opinions varied regarding the overall impact of the pandemic on governmental capacities for physical activity promotion and policy. This study shows that the COVID-19 crisis has had both negative and positive effects on physical activity promotion in the EU. The positive experiences reported by some members of the Focal Point Network may assist other countries in identifying potential policy windows and strategies for the ongoing pandemic.

Something Republicans and Democrats can agree on: Support for integrated behavioral health.

Barriers to the spread of integrated behavioral health and primary care continue to limit progress on meeting critical needs for mental health and substance use disorder services. The recent Bipartisan Policy Center Report (2021) provides key policy recommendations to address these barriers and accelerate the adoption of integrated behavioral health in Medicaid and Medicare. Having bipartisan support presents a policy window of opportunity to advance integrated behavioral health through advocacy for implementation of these recommendations, parallel changes to occur in employer-based and other commercial insurance plans, and development of operationalized standards for core service delivery elements. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Agenda-setting of tobacco control policy in Iran: a retrospective policy analysis study

BackgroundThe prevalence of tobacco use, especially hookah, has increased in Iran In recent years, particularly among young people and women, and the age of onset of use has decreased. Tobacco use is the fourth leading risk factor for non-communicable diseases in Iran. These issues cause concerns in the country and led to the present study on tobacco control agenda-setting in Iran over a 30-year timeframe.MethodsWe conducted this retrospective analytical study to investigate process analysis in Iran using Kingdon’s multiple-streams framework (MSF). We collected the data using semi-structured interviews with key informants (n = 36) and reviewing policy documents (n > 100). Then, we analyzed the policy documents and in-depth interviews using the document and framework analysis method. We used MAXQDA 11 software to classify and analyze the data.ResultsIran’s accession to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) opened a window of opportunity for tobacco control. The policy window opens when all three streams have already been developed. The adoption of the comprehensive law on the national control and campaign against tobacco in the Islamic Consultative Assembly in 2006 is a turning point in tobacco control activities in Iran.ConclusionsThe tobacco control agenda-setting process in Iran was broadly consistent with MSF. The FCTC strengthened the comprehensive plan for national control of tobacco as a policy stream. However, there are several challenges in developing effective policies for tobacco control in the Iranian setting.

Externalisations in the Portuguese parliament: analysing power struggles and (de-)legitimation with Multiple Streams Approach

ABSTRACT International organisations’ importance in education policy has been growing in recent years. They have been able to promote their role by providing data and interpreting it through international assessments and guidance, and by highlighting some countries or regions as benchmarks for global improvement, performance, and efficiency. International organisations’ output feeds policy reform arguments in national and regional contexts. We analyse debates on education policy in the Portuguese parliament with the aim of understanding the roles of external references to international organisations, their instruments, and associated countries. We understand the agenda-setting process through political, problem, and policy streams as described by the Multiple Streams Approach. Our analysis shows that external references play a key role in the three streams as extra sources of authority used by policymakers in the attempt to open new policy windows and couple the three streams, resulting in policy change.

4.N. Skills building seminar: Making the elevator pitch perfect: how to convince a policymaker in less than 2 minutes

Since a number of years, the European Public Health Association (EUPHA), the European Public Health Conferences and other oganisations, have been working hard to translate the evidence in a such a format that policymakers take notice. For example, the WHO Regional Office for Europe works on ‘telling the public health narrative' and provides factsheets and infographics, in order to effectively communicate public health messages to policymakers. Over the years, EUPHA has organised several skills building workshops on translation of evidence in the past years. At the European Public Health Conference in Glasgow 2014, so-called pitch presentations were introduced where researchers are asked to present their work in 5 minutes with maximum 5 slides (no animations), as a way to learn to present key messages from research in just a few minutes. Since 2018, EUPHA organises this elevator pitch skills-building exercise with great success. Building forward on two successful and well-attended skills-building sessions, the current workshop will be a follow-up workshop in this series and is about perfecting the elevator pitch. Lessons learned at the previous elevator pitch workshops: Have a clear ask (keep it simple).Appeal to the policymaker's own interests and priorities.Spell out how action will be beneficial for the policymaker.Be aware of upcoming elections.Built a relationship with the assistants of politicians.Considering the ‘policy window'.Make the comparison with the policy plan.Identifying the relevant stakeholders and groups affected by the problem. The importance of effectively communicating the evidence to policymakers is highlighted by infodemics, e.g. last year called out by the WHO and UN in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic with the spreading of mis- and disinformation about the pandemic. In the context of physical distancing measures, the workshop will also cover virtual tactics. As in the era of teleworking (working from home), advocacy has become a whole different kind of sports. In this skills-building session, we will select a number of abstracts from young professionals/students that have been accepted by the International Scientific Committee as posters and we will invite the presenting authors to this dare: Present your work and key messages in less than 2 minutes. In order to see whether the policymaker is convinced, we are organising a small panel of policymakers and ask them to give their feedback. Are they interested? Do they remember the key message? And if all goes well, do you get an invitation to come back and present more of your work?Key messages Being able to present your key messages anywhere, anytime is needed (including virtual tactics).Telling the public health narrative and telling a story are important skills for public health professionals to have.

“We don’t have any answers within the current framework”: tensions within cannabis policy change in Ireland

PurposeInternational policy approaches to cannabis production and use are changing rapidly, and within the Irish context, alternatives to prohibition are being considered. This study aims to explore policymaker’s attitudes towards the decriminalisation and legal regulation of cannabis for recreational use in the midst of an unfolding policy process, examining the degree which a “policy window” might be open for the implementation of cannabis policy change.Design/methodology/approachSemi-structured interviews were held with eight key informants within the policy field in Dublin, Ireland. Kingdon’s (2014) Multiple Streams framework was used to consider whether the problems, policy and political streams were aligning to support progressive policy change.FindingsIrish policymakers indicated broad support for the decriminalisation of cannabis. The legal regulation of cannabis received more qualified support. Existing policy was heavily criticised with criminalisation identified as a clear failure. Of particular interest was the willingness of policymakers to offer opinions which contrasted with the policy positions of their organisations. While a policy window did open – and close – subsequent governmental commitments to examine the issue of drugs policy in a more deliberative process in the near future highlight the incremental nature of policy change.Originality/valueThis study provides unique insight into the opinions of policymakers in the midst of a prolonged period of policy evolution. A latent aspiration for historical policy change was situated within the realpolitik of more traditional approaches to policy development, demonstrating that the alignment of Kingdon’s (2014) problem, policy and political streams are essential for change in cannabis policy.

From Slow Food to Slow Meat: Slowing Line Speeds to Improve Worker Health and Animal Welfare in Canadian Abattoirs

This article examines the regulation of production line speeds in Canadian meat and poultry processing facilities to better understand their impact on worker safety and animal welfare. The article begins with an overview of the regulatory framework that sets line speed conditions in federally licenced facilities. It notes how recent shifts in food safety governance facilitate increased speeds that endanger workers and animals on the kill floor. First, it highlights tensions between regulatory objectives in the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations that focus on food safety targets and humane handling guidelines respectively. It then turns to the occupational health and safety risks associated with working at meat and poultry processing facilities. Particular emphasis is placed on the way that COVID-19 outbreaks in Canadian slaughterhouses drew attention to this grueling work that had previously been ignored. The article concludes by noting that the pandemic has created a unique policy window to slow down production speeds; a policy window that should be seized.

지방자치단체의 신종 감염병 대응사례에 관한 연구

From the perspective of disaster management, a new infectious disease can be said to be a societal disaster characterized by uncertainty, insufficient preparation, spread of social fear, and conflict among multiple stakeholders. These characteristic factors create a very high level of social and policy-level confusion, and among them, the government or local governments are under public pressure to quickly prepare and implement quarantine measures. However, in response to unprecedented new infectious diseases such as MERS, the government does not have sufficient response capability, while the public demands that the government overcome societal disasters in a hurry due to extreme fear. Under these pressures, policymakers and private experts work together to organize policy agendas and seek solutions. As various alternatives are considered and tested, a strong consensus on the preparation and execution of appropriate policies is formed based on the strong driving force of the people, opening the policy window. This study analyzes how local governments determine policies related to responding to new infectious diseases focusing on the establishment of a MERS intensive treatment center in Gyeonggi-do.

Time to integrate global climate change and biodiversity science‐policy agendas

Abstract There is an increasing recognition that, although the climate change and biodiversity crises are fundamentally connected, they have been primarily addressed independently and a more integrated global approach is essential to tackle these two global challenges. Nature‐based Solutions (NbS) are hailed as a pathway for promoting synergies between the climate change and biodiversity agendas. There are, however, uncertainties and difficulties associated with the implementation of NbS, while the evidence regarding their benefits for biodiversity remains limited. We identify five key research areas where incomplete or poor information hinders the development of integrated biodiversity and climate solutions. These relate to refining our understanding of how climate change mitigation and adaptation approaches benefit biodiversity conservation; enhancing our ability to track and predict ecosystems on the move and/or facing collapse; improving our capacity to predict the impacts of climate change on the effectiveness of NbS; developing solutions that match the temporal, spatial and functional scale of the challenges; and developing a comprehensive and practical framework for assessing, and mitigating against, the risks posed by the implementation of NbS. Policy implications. The Conference of the Parties (COP) for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) present a clear policy window for developing coherent policy frameworks that align targets across the nexus of biodiversity and climate change. This window should (a) address the substantial and chronic underfunding of global biodiversity conservation, (b) remove financial incentives that negatively impact biodiversity and/or climate change, (c) develop higher levels of integration between the biodiversity and climate change agendas, (d) agree on a monitoring framework that enables the standardised quantification and comparison of biodiversity gains associated with NbS across ecosystems and over time and (e) rethink environmental legislation to better support biodiversity conservation in times of rapid climatic change.

We’d Go Well Together: A Critical Race Analysis of Marijuana Legalization and Expungement in the United States

In the U.S., many state and local governments have either legalized or decriminalized small quantities of marijuana for recreational or medicinal use. Reforming these laws has had significant public support, with reformers arguing that dissolving prohibitions on use as a policy remedy, or recompense, for the economic and human cost born by African American communities in the so-called “War on Drugs.” However, we do not yet know what explains the shift in support for allowance, or, more specifically, what has widened the policy window for legislative reform across the country. Using the analytic framework of Critical Race Theory (CRT), specifically, Bell’s (1980) notion of issue convergence, this paper highlights how this specific policy change continues to reproduce inequality in the maintenance of racialized interests in terms of who benefits and is burdened by reform. It concludes by recommending additional legislative action, such as automatic expungements for certain marijuana-related crimes, a legal remedy that can limit the collateral consequences experienced by those with criminal records.

A policy window and a network of global and local policy entrepreneurs: The introduction of opioid substitution therapy in Belarus

Abstract Why does a regime that is predominantly characterised by conservative ideology introduce opioid substitution therapy (OST), a liberal policy? This article applies the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) to examine the introduction of OST in Belarus. Methodologically, the research draws on qualitative content analysis of drug policy documents and reports as well as on interviews. Results show how an increased HIV prevalence among injecting drug users opened a policy window in the problem stream. The increase in HIV cases could be used by a network of global and local policy entrepreneurs to frame OST as a public health policy instead of a drug policy measure. Findings suggest that, in nondemocratic regimes, global policy entrepreneurs can play a dominant role in introducing new policy ideas. However, the sustainability of the policy change remains questionable when acquiescence by key policymakers is lacking.