Factors that Impact Policy Change

“Factors that Impact Policy Change,” in the centre on a blue background. Navy blob on the bottom right corner with 3 pink wavy lines across the image under the title.

Policy is everywhere. It gives guidance on what decisions, solutions, and direction an environment should be according to those who have decision-making power. It is also the tool that allows advocacy to take place to encourage different ideas and solutions to improve people’s experiences. In order to understand the impact of policies, knowledge of different factors that contribute to the creation and development of policies is critical to take action effectively. 

Stakeholders

The biggest factor is the stakeholders surrounding the policy that you may be advocating for or against to reach your goal. 

The most common stakeholder are governments who are making decisions that push forward key policies to inform action from the top down. Governments have to be broad enough to work within different communities and specific enough to reach the intended goal. 

Businesses or the corporate sector works to maintain their interests in the community by interacting with government policies that could meet the business’ goal or work to advocate not to move forward with the policy. Community organizations have a similar approach but in the interest of the mission they are working towards to help close the gaps in their communities. Both also have their own policies within the organization to maintain the laws, regulations, and standards that the government expects and what they would like to maintain and achieve to ensure efficient workflow.

Both of these massive stakeholders are guided by the general public. The general public is an important stakeholder in the voice of policy. The answers may not be clear or simple from the public but it can inform the unique challenges of communities being able to participate in the changes. The general public as the intended audience for these solutions through policies are critical to the success of the policy. Without the input and the guidance from the public, the design and development of the policy could not be as impactful unless there is knowledge of the unique challenges and experiences. 

Laws, frameworks, rights, and regulations

How we view the world and what we consider important to prioritize can largely be influenced by the laws, frameworks, rights, and regulations that exist. This includes the lack of laws, frameworks, rights, and regulations that people may feel is missing. The concepts can evolve and change based on the influence and power of decision-makers to achieve a set of goals. But power is typically not exclusively for one group. Depending on the numbers, resources, and capacity of different communities, there are opportunities for non-governmental stakeholders to encourage change. 

This is more noticeable when it comes to different government levels. The role and responsibilities of different levels of government can be utilized to collaborate and take action when needed. If one has more opportunities to be adaptable, flexible, and open to the changes by listening to the public needs, it can be the movement needed to take a bottom-up approach to change. 

Collaboration Opportunities

In many ways, the work to change and take action is a collaborative effort between stakeholders to reach the best solution possible under different resources, capacity, and limitations. The idea that the case for change is stronger when there are more people to show the impact is important to the development of policies. Whether it is within the sector to cross-sectoral collaboration, it can allow those who have the power to make the change or awareness happen to seem stronger with the support. The lack of collaboration, specifically cross-sectoral collaboration, can also inspire the need for change and taking action. It can present the group as the expert and gain a reputation and support to provide the solution that is best for the specific community. Another point of view is that the government (or those creating the policy) is not including perspectives and voices that the policy will impact creating a sense of urgency. How the stakeholders exist in the space and interact with the decision-making process can play a role in creating, designing, developing, or removing the policy entirely. 

Events that Happened

Everyday there is news to explain what is happening locally, nationally, and internationally to allow the general public to be informed. While the media does have its biases, changes at different scales can influence how policy can be perceived and developed. It can also shift priorities making efforts suddenly unsuccessful or successful. This is why taking action is both consistently working towards the goal and being ready for things to change whether it is negative or positive. 

The factors that I highlighted are broad factors that can happen in any sector and community in the efforts of creating, designing, developing, and implementing policies as well as preventing policies from happening. In some ways, the process of policies is direct. However, there are always ways to indirectly impact policies as well. Policies exist everywhere. It determines the scope, limitations, and possibilities of providing solutions to the problem. While governments are the main stakeholder when the general public thinks of policy, it also exists in workplaces, education, and documents that explains what we can do and what we cannot do. In the lens of advocacy and activism, if there is a problem, it can provide opportunities for change to improve lives.

Amanda