Order ID 6463784949 Type Essay Writer Level Masters Style APA/MLA/Harvard/Chicago Sources/References 6 Number of Pages 5-10 Pages Description/Paper Instructions ENV311H5S Environmental Issues in the Developing World
Assignment #2: Policy Brief
Winter 2020
OVERVIEW:
For this assignment, you will write a policy brief on a topic that is relevant to environment and development in the Global South. I recommend that you choose a topic related to your work for Assignment #1: Country Status Report. Specific criteria for topics are detailed below.
The assignment is due on March 30, 2020 by 11:59 pm (i.e., before midnight on that date). Quercus is very strict about imposing late penalties – please be aware of that and try not to upload files after the deadline, or you will risk incurring late penalties.
We will be going over the assignment in detail in the Tutorial for Week 3, and in the What’s On video for Week 7. As well, the Extra Optional Makeup Tutorial (posted with the Week 7 materials on Quercus) will walk you through some important aspects of policy briefs.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
In completing this assignment, you will:
- be able to explain the purpose and format of policy briefs in the international development context;
- identify and investigate a problem or issue relevant to environment and development in the Global South;
- define the problem or issue in a manner that is sufficiently well focused to be addressed effectively in a policy brief format;
- summarize the issue at a level that would be relevant for an experienced international policymaker; and,
- propose several policy solutions by explaining the situation and the policy landscape, and/or advocate for one particular solution to the issue that you have identified.
BACKGROUND:
But what – you might ask – is a policy brief?
The UN FAO defines a policy brief as follows:
A policy brief is a concise summary of a particular issue, the policy options to deal with it, and some recommendations on the best option. It is aimed at government policymakers and others who are interested in formulating or influencing policy. Policy briefs can take different formats. It has an attractive design, and may have one or more photographs.
– from Preparing Policy Briefs, Lesson 4.1 in “Food Security Communications Toolkit” (2011) Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/i2195e/i2195e00.htm
Three characteristics are common to almost all policy briefs:
- They are “brief” (typically 1-4 pages; some are as short as 700 words, but we will aim for 1500-2000 words in this assignment) – more than 4 pages would be a “report” rather than a “brief.”
- They provide a concise summary of a particular issue.
- They speak to policymakers, offering options and/or recommendations for dealing with the particular issue.
There are two basic types of policy brief:
- An advocacy brief argues in favour of a particular course of action.
- An objective brief gives balanced information and options for the policymaker. UNFAO (2011, op cit.) lists some requirements for policy briefs:
- Provide enough background for the reader to understand the issue or problem.
- Convince the reader that the problem must be addressed urgently.
- Provide information about alternatives (in an objective brief); or, provide evidence and recommendations supporting one alternative (in an advocacy brief).
- Stimulate the reader to make a decision.
As well, policy briefs usually are formatted so they will catch the attention of policymakers, who are busy people with (often) short attention spans. The pages are carefully laid out, with interesting graphics, perhaps even a photograph, and some way of emphasizing the main points.
In terms of structure, there are many ways to organize a policy brief. Here is a suggestion (you don’t necessarily have to follow this – it’s just a suggested organizational framework for your content):
- Title
- Executive Summary (similar to an Abstract)
- Introduction
- Main Text, Issue Summary, and Evidence
- Interpretation or Discussion
- Implications and Recommendations
- References
In addition, a policy brief should be eye-catching and easy to read, and so will often include some or most of the following:
- Text boxes and sidebars
- Cases or examples
- Tables
- Graphics
- Photographs
– based on IDRC (n.d.), How To Write a Policy Brief, in “Toolkit for Researchers,” International Development Research Centre, http://www.idrc.ca/en/resources/researchdbs/tools_and_training/pages/toolkit-for-researchers.aspx, and on UNFAO (2011, op. cit.)
I have provided a number of resources related to policy briefs on our course website, including the UN FAO and IDRC sources cited above, which are both very thorough and informative. There are also some examples of policy briefs that you can look at. They are posted in the Assignment #2 folder. Please check out these sources – they have a lot of examples and advice for producing policy briefs.
INSTRUCTIONS:
The assignment is due on March 30, 2020 by 11:59 p.m. (i.e., before midnight on that date). When you are ready, please submit it to our course website by uploading a document in pdf or Word format. The submission area is on our Quercus site > Modules > Assignments > Assignment #2.
The assignment should be completed in full-sentence prose, no more than 4 pages in length (single-spaced, 1500-2000 words of text, but please refer to the detailed instructions below). The assignment is worth 20% of your course mark.
Process and Specific Requirements:
- Choose a topic.
- You can choose any topic that is within the scope of our course – that is, relevant to environment and development in the Global South.
o I recommend that you choose a topic based on your work in Assignment #1: Country Status Report, but if you really want to switch to something different, that’s OK.
- The topic should be appropriate to a policy brief format, so it should be well focused, and not too general.
o For example, “World Hunger” would not be an appropriate choice, but “The Role of Urban
Agriculture in Dealing with Hunger in Mexico” would be OK.
o Similarly, “Alternative Energy in Developing Countries” would not be good, but “Alternatives to Fuelwood for Domestic Use in Rural India” would be OK.
- Do your background research.
- The research will help you develop a solid understanding of the issue.
- The research will also provide you with examples, evidence, data, graphics, etc., with which to build your case and make your recommendations.
- Your sources should be reliable.
o Appropriate sources include scholarly journal articles; scholarly books; reliable government agency documents, reports, etc. (national, regional, etc.); online datasets hosted by agencies with international reputations (UN, World Bank, etc.); reliable intergovernmental agency documents (from UNDP or UNEP; World Bank; etc.); and reliable, unbiased nongovernmental agency documents (Red Cross/Red Crescent, for example).
o Less-appropriate sources, which should be used with caution or avoided altogether, include “popular” (as opposed to scholarly) books; highly political, agenda-driven, or obviously biased reports; newspapers and magazines; websites that are not associated with a reliable source; and, of course, textbooks. (Our course textbook is higher-level and can be considered as an academic book.)
o Unacceptable sources include Wikipedia, which should not be cited as a source – it’s OK to start there, or to look up some of the references from a Wikipedia article as a jumping-off point. Wikipedia itself is not an academically reliable source; it’s open to modification by anyone, and it’s not durable (that is, the same information won’t necessarily be there the next time you look for it). Textbooks also are generally not acceptable, but our course textbook is an academic book so it’s OK.
- Decide whether to write an objective brief or an advocacy brief.
- The characteristics of the two types of briefs are slightly different; they are discussed above.
• (Forbes, 2017, The World’s Most Powerful People, https://www.forbes.com/powerful-
- When you submit the assignment, you will be asked to specify which type of brief you have written. This is so that we know your intentions and what you hoped to achieve with the brief.
- Write the text of your policy brief.
- Please consult the examples and resources provided on our course website, to understand what should go into a good policy brief.
- The length we are aiming for is 1500-2000 words, formatted in a two-, three-, or four-page policy brief format.
o The upper word limit of 2000 words is firm; it includes everything (captions, references, etc.). The upper page limit of four pages is also firm; nothing should spill over to a fifth page.
o If you format carefully, you should be able to fit your brief into a two- to four-page format without having to “miniaturize” the font or crowd the layout.
- For example, if you look at the UNFAO brief on rice prices on our course website, you will see that it fits nicely into two pages but has more than 1200 words of text.
- Similarly, the PEP sample brief on food prices and poverty in Cambodia is only two pages, but more than 1700 words.
- This is a policy brief, so you are writing to a policymaker. Let’s write these as if they were going to be read by António Guterres, the current Secretary-General of the United Nations.
o You don’t need to refer to him by name, as if you were writing a letter; just keep him in mind when you are writing, in terms of judging the level at which to pitch your content.
o Mr. Guterres is extremely knowledgeable, so you won’t have to fill him in on too much general background information – just enough to set the context for your specific issue.
o Mr. Guterres is also very powerful – the 36th most powerful person in the world, according to Forbes magazine – so it will be worthwhile to convince him to follow your policy
Recommendations.
people/list/#tab:overall Accessed 14 October 2018)
- Be sure to properly cite all outside sources that you have used.
o Citations should be in APA style. Include a reference list at the end of your document, also in APA style. There is a link to APA Style on our course website.
o Photos, graphics, data, maps, etc. must be cited properly and included in the reference list. For photographs, please try to use only photos that are in the public domain. Wikimedia is OK as a source for photos, so long as it states that the photo is offered for use in the public domain. Any “.gov” (US Government) source is OK, and for our purposes I think the United
Nations organization can be used as well, if the source is properly cited.
o The reference list can be formatted in a small font size to save space (9-pt in Calibri, for example), but it should still be readable.
o There isn’t a specific required number of references. However, if you are citing fewer than three or four sources, we will wonder how much effort you made to collect information and differing perspectives on your topic.
- Format your brief, using the template provided or a comparable design of your own.
- I have posted a template in Word on our course website. This is a template that I designed – you are more than welcome to use it, and modify it as you like – you will just have to plug in your
text, and it should save you some time in terms of fussing with text boxes and graphics. If you would prefer to set up your own page layout, that’s fine, too.
- A suggested organizational framework is offered above; you don’t have to use it, it’s just a suggestion.
- With some formatting effort, it should be possible to fit a 1200-word policy brief with supporting graphics into two regular-sized pages with normal margins (see the examples posted on our course website), but it’s OK to go to three or even four pages if needed. The four-page limit and the 2000-word upper limit are firm.
- Remember to include some interesting formatting (such as boxes or sidebars), some graphics, examples, etc., as discussed above.
- Submit your policy brief file to our course website.
- It will be submitted automatically to Turnitin, which is fully integrated into Quercus. For information about Turnitin, please refer to our Syllabus, or our Quercus site.
- The submission must be in Word or pdf format.
o I highly recommend pdf format, so your layout is properly preserved. When you are in
Word, click on “Save As” or “Save a Copy” and one of the choices should be “Save As PDF” or “Save As Adobe PDF.” The content is the most important, but it’s always good to know that the document will continue to present itself as you have designed it.
MARKING RUBRIC
Your policy brief will be marked on basis of the following items:
- The topic, which should be relevant to our course, but also thoroughly and logically explored, and sufficiently focused to be appropriate for a policy brief format.
- The content, including thoroughness, accuracy, and appropriate choice of examples and data.
- The quality and appropriateness of your sources, as well as complete and properly formatted citations and references.
- The quality of the writing, including scholarly tone, grammar, sentence and paragraph structure, organization, flow, etc., and – importantly – the conciseness and efficiency of the writing
- To that end, the length limit is firm (1500-2000 words). It is an extremely important skill to be able to communicate a lot of content with few words.
- The format and layout, including visual variety, readability, and the other features discussed above.
- The overall quality of the final product, that is, how well you have met the mandate of an advocacy brief or an objective brief (you will be asked to specify which type you are submitting). To that end, we will also be evaluating the policy options or recommendations that you give, and the strength of your arguments.
That’s it!
We will discuss this further in the Tutorial for Week 3, and I will introduce the assignment in the What’s On video for Week 7.