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Policy Brief #1: Flood Risk Management: What is the Role Ahead for the Government of Canada?

1. Author: Jason Thislethwaite is a CIGI fellow, who focuses on the climate change, environmental risks and recommendations for policies aiming to mitigate climate change.  
2. Topic: Flood risk management being an effective alternative strategy for the government of Canada, which currently relies on traditional hazard-based model of flood management that fails to take into account possible consequences of floods.
3. Purpose of the brief: to showcase that current approach that the Canadian government has in regards to flood management is unsustainable and to present flood risk management as a suitable replacement.
4. Table of contents: Introduction, Canada’s outdated approach to flood management, flood risk management, policy recommendations, conclusion
5. Is this a good policy: This policy outlines the root of the problem with Canada’s flood management policy, which is the lack of attention to potential consequences of floods. What makes this policy brief good is that it offers a solution in the form of flood risk management as well as suggestions to how make the transition from hazard-based model to risk-management model smoothly.

Policy Brief #2: Strengthening the health system for mental health in Zambia

1. Publisher: WHO, specialized agency of the United Nations whose which concerns itself with international public health.
2. Topic: Despite mental illness being a large part of disease in Zambia, there is a lack of attention and funding towards battling it.
3. Purpose of the brief: to raise awareness and present evidence of mental illness in Zambia in order to establish appropriate health policies.
4. Table of contents: the problem, policy options, implementation considerations, next steps.
5. Is this a good policy: Despite offering two policy options (incremental vs. comprehensive), this policy brief lacks clear and comprehensive suggestions to battle mental health in Zambia. Shortly, it points to the problem of mental health and presents evidence to support it but it does not present recommendations. The issues of mental health is not unique to Zambia; it is present in developed countries that allocate considerable resources to fight it. So, the lack of recommendations makes this policy brief inconclusive and incomplete as it is unlikely that this policy brief presents enough information for Zambia to develop an effective policy to battle mental illness on its own.

Policy Brief #3: Child poverty and disparities in Vanuatu

1. Publisher: UNICEF, a United Nations program that provides developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries.
2. Topic: Vanuatu’s children living in poverty and the lack of proper governmental programs to battle it.
3. Purpose of the brief: to raise awareness of Vanuatu children living in poverty and suggest appropriate policies to battle child poverty in Vanuatu
4. Table of contents: Introduction, poverty and children, the pillars of child well-being, policy recommendations
5. Is this a good policy brief: It is a good policy brief because it outlines the problem and its potential implications and supports these claims with empirical evidence. Lastly, it includes recommendations and necessary steps for the government to lessen the impact of poverty on Vanuatu’s children.