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Key takeaways from the latest Public Policy New Voices Europe panel discussion, exploring inclusive policymaking

As part of Salzburg Global Seminar’s Public Policy New Voices Europe: Public Policy Innovations for Inclusive Communities from 24th to 28th October 2022, a panel discussion was held on inclusive policymaking. The panel consisted of fives representatives from different policy-related backgrounds, varied in levels - panning from government to funders, corporate to Think Tanks - but also geography, representing five countries and three continents.

The key takeaways:

• Lack of inclusivity in public policy spaces leads to poorer policies, and therefore poorer outcomes.
• When new voices are included in public policy spaces, enhancing our communication skills is essential to working productively with different people.
• The reality is that it can be very difficult for young people in public policy to keep going. Systems of support need to be put in place to help them.

1. Lack of inclusivity in public policy spaces leads to poorer policies, and therefore poorer outcomes.

“Advocating is nice, but sitting at the table is nicer.”

It was seen as axiomatic that including people from diverse backgrounds with different perspectives leads to better developed policies, with the corollary that failure to do so results in ill-thought policies that do not account for all the people who are impacted by a policy. Concrete examples from various countries were provided, such as the infant formula shortage in the U.S. and the closing of launderettes due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium. There was a recognition that diverse people rooted in community are already out there; it is our task now to identify, train and empower them, so that they can effect tangible change.

It was also pointed out that, regarding the processes involved in public policy, the final stage of evaluation is often neglected in comparison to the stages of development and implementation, yet it is just as crucial to listen to different voices at the end of a policy’s lifecycle as it is at the beginning. We, as human beings, tend to go back to the people we already know and trust, and institutions do not necessarily have structures in place to welcome new voices. Escaping the comfort zone of familiar voices, then, is essential across public policy as a whole.

2. When new voices are included in public policy spaces, enhancing our communication skills is essential to working productively with different people.

“It is easy to ask people to listen, but we also need to ask how we voice ourselves.”

The promotion of diversity in public policy was accompanied by a discussion on how best to communicate with people who have fundamentally different views. Panelists shared how they came to realize the expedience of adapting their voice to their audience. For example, a panelist who had worked on the gay marriage campaign in the U.S. explained how they had collected all the statistics and data to prove the case for legalizing gay marriage, but that ultimately telling stories and narratives was far more effective. By reducing the issue to a single, common value – that we all deserve love – the campaign could more successfully convey its message to a much wider audience.

The use of our common values as the starting point was also considered as a way to deal with active denial from others. It was emphasized that it is not the job of new voices to make traditional ones feel comfortable, but rather, we have to let them arrive where we want them to be and just hope that they can see our humanity too by speaking our own truth. Part of the challenge is being ok with not necessarily having our trust reciprocated. However, even if people disagree on almost everything, as long as they share even just one common value, it is still possible to use this as the foundation of a meaningful policy.

3. The reality is that it can be very difficult for young people in public policy to keep going. Systems of support need to be put in place to help them.

“I believe that people are going to be the ones to change the system and build a community for them [young leaders] to fall back on when they are facing challenges.”

The panel addressed some of the practical problems faced by new voices either already in or attempting to enter the public policy space. For example, the feeling of loneliness for young people working in public policy was highlighted as a particular issue. It was suggested that the solution should be the development of a community, very much like the one attending the Salzburg Global program, to support emerging leaders in difficult times. Indeed, one of the panelists issued a challenge to these Fellows to keep building this community by helping people like themselves get onto these kinds of programs.

The panel additionally pinpointed the lack of funding from stakeholders as a significant obstacle to young people who want to keep on fighting the good fight. While there seemed to be no obvious solution to this, it was recognized that young leaders need to go beyond positions of influence to positions of power for this to change. A piece of advice from another panelist was to be realistic that we cannot change everything at once. The smaller successes in the initial steps can lead eventually to our great ambitions for social change being realized.

To find out more about Public Policy New Voices Europe, click here.