The Advocacy Council and the Ideation Hub of Global Youth hosted their first online workshop on the topic The Basics of Writing a Policy Brief. Our speaker for the session was Ms. Sharanya Rajiv, an incoming MA in Global Affairs candidate at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, Yale University. She is also an alumna of Global Youth.

The session began with outlining as to how effective research led to effective writing. It is important to read a wide variety of literature from credible sources to familiarize oneself with the issue which would then help in crafting a good (read: specific) research question. The next step would be to answer the question, while considering contrary perspectives as well and getting out of one’s own echo chamber to give fair chances to those perspectives. The final step would be to draw conclusions on the basis of the analysis that one has done. In here, one can reiterate the argument and its relevance.

Suggesting good measures through one’s policy briefs is integral and suggestions are good only if they have the potential to be accepted by the majority of stakeholders. Constant questioning on what one want to focus on in their policy brief, while also keeping the final reader in mind. The policy brief should be engaging.

The session was a huge success and received participation from over 70+ members, who had a lot of novel takeaways from the workshop.