Learning   Portfolio

            There are many solutions available to help conserve water and our other resources we rely on daily, but implementing these ideas can be a real challenge. Ideally, informing the entire population of these ideas should encourage everyone to follow them, but this is not the usually the case. Creating public policy is necessary to ensure that citizens and companies will follow environmental solutions. However, there are quite a few difficulties regarding policy-making. “Policy implementation … suffers from a range of challenges, including how to improve horizon scanning and preparedness, learn from past policy experiences, deal with policy interdependencies, and develop forms of more citizen-centric policy.” (Daniell) When creating policies, policy-makers need to account for an array of issues such as preparedness, past experience, and citizen approval. By keeping these sorts of fundamentals in mind, policies can be effectively introduced.

 

            When facing many different challenges, finding the right way to implement new changes is crucial. “When these challenges are responded to effectively, it can lead to enhanced foresight and planning, better understanding and communication of policy complexity, and communication of uncertainty and ambiguity.” (Daniell) It is extremely important to take into account the many possibilities the future can hold, and how people of certain areas will react to the changes that must be made. Because there are so many factors that need to be addressed, the most effective way to implement new policies is by making them very flexible. One example of flexible policy-making is “'low regret' policy and infrastructure options that encourage flexibility in responding to possible futures.” (Daniells) This form of policy-making prepares the policy to change as time progresses in order to adapt to new environmental and public approval concerns.

 

            By creating effective policy-making techniques, the potential of society can be safeguarded and prepared for any future that may come its way. Maintaining flexibility in policy making, using the “low regret” policy, allows for a better means of addressing all issues involved in the process. Understanding and making policies with this knowledge will make them work better with the public.