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RESEARCHING YOUR POLICY DIALOGUE
DEFINING THE PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF THE POLICY DIALOGUE Clear, focused objectives are crucial. The clearer the objective, the more likely you are to get the right people in the room and to produce a useful outcome. You will want to limit the scope of your Policy Dialogue so that it is manageable given the time you have available, your limited resources and the access you have to different stakeholders. You don’t want to take on a commitment that is impossible to fulfil!
1 | Setting your organising principles Organising principles help you to set the tone, mindset and philosophy with which you will develop and conduct the Policy Dialogue process. We encourage you to adopt the organising principles prescribed below, but you maybe choose to add others. Inclusive: This means ensuring that all voices are heard, even if some of them may be reticent to speak up or may share an opposing view. Collaborative: This means striving to work together in a cooperative manner. Bringing together a variety of different perspectives and opinions enables the development of more robust and effective solutions. Respectful: This means showing regard for others’ feelings, desires and rights. It involves being kind and polite towards each other and avoiding behaviour based on prejudice. It also means not speaking over one another during discussions and allowing space for people to listen and be listened to. Optimistic: It is easy to be overwhelmed by the scale of the problems we face in the global fashion industry. However, having a positive attitude towards them can mean the difference between failure and success. Optimism is infectious, and it is an important part of engaging with your stakeholders. If you believe that you can help address an issue, then those around you will be more likely to feel the same way.
Participatory: A participatory approach operates from the belief that those most affected by an issue should be key players in any process that seeks to understand and help address the issue. It means ensuring that marginalised voices are heard and given equal importance.
2 | Choosing the topic of your Policy Dialogue
In Appendix 1 you will find a list of relevant policy issues at play in the global fashion industry. You may want to choose one as the focus of your Policy Dialogue, or you may want to combine two, or simply use these suggestions as a starting point to develop your own topic for the Policy Dialogue.
The key to a successful Policy Dialogue is in selecting a topic that is focused, simple and relevant to your national or regional context. A project which is too broad or too large may mean you cannot fully explore all the possible information in enough depth nor will you be able to involve all the crucial stakeholders. As a result, you risk creating policy recommendations which are too far-reaching to have an impact. Instead, you should choose a topic which will allow your team to dive fully and practically into the issues and enable you to create focused, meaningful policy recommendations that are easily actionable by a policymaker. When picking your Policy Dialogue topic, there are a few key things you should consider:
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It is essential to pick a topic which is manageable to complete within your timeframe.
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Do you have any existing strengths/knowledge on particular issues within your team?
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Do you have any existing connections to key stakeholders which could be helpful to get your Policy Dialogue moving?
