On February 5-6 alliance of Georgian NGOs attended the training in designing policy briefs. The course took place in the framework of the Strengthening Capacity of Civil Society for Promoting Research Evidence into Policy Development in Georgia implemented by the Curatio International Foundation with the support of Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research (HPSR) and Open Society Georgia Foundation.
The course on policy briefs is designed to enhance participant’s skills in writing policy brief in a way that will enable them to adapt/summarize a more reader-friendly research and to disseminate research findings. Research evidence is one important consideration in the decision-making process. However, one common complaint from policy makers is that they have little time to read full research reports. Therefore, well structured, concise and easy to read policy brief is an important tool for researchers to effectively communicate research findings to policy makers.
The course gave the clear insight of why is the policy brief important, who can be the target audience of the policy brief and how the messages should be conveyed in order to influence the reader and trigger the interest of the policy maker to choose a particular policy alternative or course of action in a current policy debate.
Participants discussed some common and well known policy briefs and practiced in criticizing as well as finding positive sides. At the final session participants were requested to choose the policy topic and draft a policy brief in accordance with the knowledge obtained.
“This course was very timely. The topic is very relevant and lecturer led it exactly to the point. I found training extremely interactive and full of energy. It will really help organizations to acquire the knowledge and technique of writing policy briefs and thus raise the quality and effectiveness of their communication with policy makers”, noted Tamar Karosanidze, Director of Transparency International.
“There is a rich experience, knowledge and information accumulated over many years on public policy issues, although we find it hard to put together all these components and use them effectively. Training provided was timely and precisely responded to this need”- Nikoloz Loladze, Director of United Georgia Professional Network said.
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