Global Health and Sustainability Briefing Paper

As part of the formal assessment for the programme you are required to submit a Global Health and Sustainability briefing paper.

Please refer to your Student Handbook for full details of the programme assessment scheme and general information on preparing and submitting assignments.

1. Appraise the theoretical concepts and ideologies which inform Health Care and their translation into policy and practice.
2. Identify key elements in Health Care policy and evaluate their application in practice and the constraints on implementation.
3. Deconstruct the social, political, economic and environmental contexts of disease.
4. Present a coherent and informed case for a Healthcare intervention

Write a Briefing paper (Briefing Note [BN]) to a local or national government addressing a key issue of concern. The Briefing paper must be scoped around a topic or area of interest rather than a whole sector or business environment - in the chosen country’s context.

Note: Your BN’s focus and objective(s) must be clearly stated from the onset and concepts such as Global health, Sustainability and Resilience critically appraised in your discussion.
Why a Briefing paper?

Decision-makers have limited resources and time constraints. They have to make hard choices about many different topics every day, and they do not have time to research each
one in-depth. A briefing paper helps bring a single issue to someone's attention and fills in key details they need to know.

It then proposes solutions and recommends improvements. Knowing how to write a briefing paper is a useful skill for students, therefore. A persuasive briefing paper is concise, researchbased, and evidence-informed, well-organised and covers the most important theories, models, technical issues supported by relevant data, trends and potential solutions.

The most important point to remember about the structure of briefing notes is that they have three main parts; that is:

i. The purpose (usually stated as the issue, topic or purpose).

ii. A summary of the facts (what this section contains and the headings used will be determined by the purpose of the briefing note).

iii. The conclusion (this may be a conclusion, a recommendation or other advice, or both).

These three main parts are presented under some or all of the following section headings. Remember, any Briefing Note you write will only have the sections that are relevant to your purpose and audience.

Issue (also Topic, Purpose): A concise statement of the issue, proposal or problem.

This section should explain in one or two lines why the briefing paper matters to the reader. It sets out in the form of a question or a statement what the rest of the note is
about.

Background: The details the reader needs in order to understand what follows (how a situation arose, previous decisions/problems, actions leading up to the current situation).

Typically, this section gives a brief summary of the history of the topic and other background information. What led up to this problem or issue? How has it evolved? etc.

Current Status: Describes only the current situation, who is involved? What is happening now? The current state of the matter, issue, situation, etc.

Key Considerations: A summary of important trends, data, facts, considerations, developments - everything that needs to be considered now. While you will have to decide what to include and what to leave out, this section should be as unbiased as possible. Your aim is to present all the details required for the reader to be informed or to make an informed decision. Keep the reader's needs uppermost in your mind when selecting and presenting the facts. Remember to substantiate any statements with evidence and to double check your facts. Additional details may be attached as appendices.

Options (also Next Steps, Comments): Basically, observations about the key considerations and what they mean; a concise description either of the options and sometimes their pros and cons or of what will happen next.

Conclusion and/or Recommendations: Conclusions summarise what you want your reader to infer from the Briefing Note. Many readers jump immediately to this section, so be sure it covers the points you most want your reader to be clear about. Do not introduce anything new in the Conclusion. If you are including a recommendations section, it should offer the best and most sound advice you can offer. Make sure the recommendation is clear, direct and substantiated by the facts you have put forward.