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Key components of good policy

Find out what goes into a good policy.

African woman writes goals and plans on a flipchart

As the speakers in the previous step explained, good policy should have a clearly outlined purpose with explicit actions for achieving the intended goal(s).

The structure should be logical, contain meaningful and relevant information for the context and implementation, and assign roles and responsibilities. Additional information, such as motivating factors and specific definitions can be valuable, especially for more complex implementation.

Like all well-designed activities, good policy requires consideration of the wider context it is operating within including the environment (political and physical), implementation requirements and success criteria.

The Strengthening Sport Related Policy Coherence Toolkit from the Commonwealth outlines the following key dimensions to guide good policy.

Setting and prioritising objectives: alignment, coherence, context, ownership
Coordinating policy and implementation: implementation, actors, governance, inclusion
Monitoring, analysis and evaluation: indicators, data, reporting

The toolkit is a useful resource and will be referenced throughout this section. It is a short report and is user friendly with checklists to make the process as practical as possible.