Policy brief – an example from Young Lives

1. Policy brief – an example from Young Lives By Nguyen Thi Thu Hang

2. Overall guideline • There needs to be a simple and logical line running through the Brief • Simple language • Real world examples are one of the best ways of getting the message over • 4 pages

3. PB structure • Title: Up to 45 characters. Make it as simple and direct as possible. Don't try and be too clever. • Summary: Up to 150 words (max). This needs to capture the main ideas of the Policy Brief in a clear and direct way and grab the reader’s attention

4. Page 1 • Photo with a pithy caption • Up to 350 words, plus 100-word key facts/messages box that will draw the reader into the subject, raising some key questions that will make your reader want to turn the page.

5. Page 2-3 • 2nd photo or graphic + caption (making a different point). • One or two text boxes giving examples or a case study (150-250 words each). • Total of up to 1400 words (up to 1200 without boxes) developing the main arguments.

6. Page 4 • Up to 500 words, including a box if appropriate, wrapping up your Brief and tackling the “so what?” question. (policy recommendations/implications) • Up to 4 key references giving a broad representation of research on the topic for further reading and links to key information sources. This may be a mixture of Young Lives and other sources. • Acknowledgements (max 120 words): e.g. This Policy Brief was written by xx, based on a longer research paper, ‘Title’. It was edited by xx; we acknowledge the comments of xx.

7. Why? • To present policy recommendations in a easy-understandable way. • To draw attention of policy makers on the issue of dropouts. • To follow YL strategy of research (focus on education) • YL data on dropout is rich: quantitative + qualitative • There are many YL research papers (2 completed papers on dropouts)

8. Planning • When YL country report was launched and we realized that dropout is a big issue. • Two separate studies on dropout (one used quantitative data and another used qualitative data). • Policy brief based on the two studies • Started to look for chances for engagement

9. Introduction • Title: Understanding factors behind school drop-out among children in Vietnam • Summary: 1- education is important for the development of VN 2- School dropout is alarming (evidence) and implications for future of children and country’s development 3- What our evidence suggests?

10. Point 1: something is important - education • In order to meet the development goal of transforming the country into a modern industrialized one by 2020, the Government of Viet Nam has continued to recognize education as a driving force in the country’s sustainable development, industrialization and modernization.

11. Point 2: but … (problem) • Despite the many success achieved in the education sector, the UNESCO report in 2008 named the country among the top ten in the world with over 1 million out-of school children. This signals an alarming issue, particularly those in the lower secondary school since this will affect the children’s opportunity for getting non-agricultural job and also quality of the country labour force in future.

12. Point 3: our evidence • About data: Analysis of Young Lives data, which track 3,000 children in Vietnam for 15 years starting from 2002. • Finding :YL data reveals school dropout as a common phenomenon before completion of lower secondary education and key reasons behind this being children’s ability and disinterest in school. Other factors including poor economic status, parental education and ethnic minority status also influence a child’s decision to quit school.

13. How do we use the PB • English version: PB is good but most of policy makers can’t read. • Vietnamese version: find chance for publication (bulletin published by the Committee on Children, National Assembly which was distributed to all members of the National Assembly). • Vietnamese version not follows the format (no graph, no boxes) because of words limit.