Syllabus


Course Objectives:

  • Analyze health policy issues using a framework that integrates empirical evidence and values (global, national, and local);
  • Identify and use appropriate tools to advocate for policy changes;
  • Identify key stakeholders (international, national, and local) in policy issues and describe their respective roles in whether and how those issues are resolved;
  • Describe current trends in health system reform globally and the challenges and opportunities those trends present;
  • Describe the major issues concerning health policy faced by developing countries and policy options for addressing those issues;
  • Make effective oral and written presentations on global health policy issues; and
  • Work effectively in teams to understand and analyze policy issues.

Topics


What is policy and why does it matter?

  • Define health policy and name different types of health policies;
  • Distinguish between policy analysis and policy advocacy; and
  • Describe a stakeholder matrix, policy implementation logic model, and policy priority scoring sheet.

Policy Situational Analysis

  • Define a policy problem to inform policy development;
  • Develop a policy brief;
  • Describe the various ways that governments can influence public health; and
  • Conduct a situational analysis.

Stakeholder Analysis

  • Identify and describe the roles of stakeholders in a policy process;
  • Use political mapping to depict the relative power of different stakeholder groups;
  • Begin to define key audiences to inform policy messaging and advocacy strategies; and
  • Discuss some of the conflicting perspectives in the area of sex work harm reduction.

Policy Implementation Modeling

  • Describe steps that governments can take to improve the implementation of health policies;
  • Identify potential risks to successful policy implementation barriers and ways to mitigate those risks; and
  • Complete a policy implementation logic model to strengthen policy development and design.

Multi-Criteria Policy Analysis

  • Identify a range of criteria that could be used to prioritize and evaluate policy options;
  • Use multi-criteria policy analysis to prioritize and evaluate policy options; and
  • Describe the differences between cost-benefit analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis.

Building Political Priority

  • Design a persuasive messaging campaign or communication plan for a policy issue or intervention;
  • Critique a messaging campaign to identify ways that it could be made more persuasive for a target audience; and
  • Develop a list of activities or advocacy strategy to improve the political priority of a policy issue.

Policy Negotiation and Diplomacy

  • Engage in integrative bargaining as part of a public health policy negotiation;
  • Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of a BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement);
  • Identify and analyze various approaches to improving access to essential medicines; and

Effective Presentations and Briefs

  • Deliver a professional and persuasive policy advocacy presentation;
  • Develop succinct and effective presentation slides; and
  • Communicate effectively with an audience through visual media.

Advocacy in Action

  • Describe the strategies used in the NGO Code of Conduct to strengthen health systems in low and middle-income countries; and
  • Describe how one NGO has incorporated policy advocacy into its local and global strategy.