7.I. Skills building seminar: Applying behavioural sciences to public health policy-making
Authors:   Organised by: WHO, WHO/Euro, EUPHA, IBTN, MBMC, UCL, UPJS,   Chair persons: Iveta Nagyova (EUPHA), Kim Lavoie (Canada)
Published: October 2023

The complexity of health issues, ranging from infectious diseases to chronic illnesses, calls for effective public health policies to improve health outcomes. Almost all public health strategies involve encouraging behaviour change. However, policy development and adoption often fail to consider the behaviour change principles that influence individuals’ decisions and actions related to health. This omission can lead to policies that are not feasible, acceptable, effective, sustainable, or equitable. Applying behaviour change principles in health policy development and adoption can lead to more effective policies that promote health behaviour change at the individual, community, and population levels. Examples of behaviour change principles include using evidence-based techniques to encourage healthy behaviours, addressing social determinants of health, and leveraging social networks. Also, communication between scientists and policy makers, including using effective communication tools such as policy briefs, plays an important role in informing political decision-making and creating impact for researchers. Incorporating behaviour change principles in health policy development and adoption require interdisciplinary collaboration, engagement with stakeholders, and attention to the cultural and social context.

Aim

This skills-building seminar seeks to contribute to capacity building in knowledge translation and evidence-informed decision-making in public health applying behavioural insights. More specifically, it will tackle two main questions:

1. What public health researchers need to know to impact policy?

2. How can using behaviour change principles in health policy help to bridge the implementation gap?

Workshop structure

This workshop will consist of two parts. In the first part, three presentations will set the scene. The first presentation will introduce the most recent advancements and future perspectives in applying behavioural insights and sciences to public health policy-making from the WHO perspective. The second presentation will highlight how behaviour change principles were used for the development and adoption of health policies in Canada. The third presentation will deal with behavioural insights for more effective communication between academics and policy makers, including a practical guide to develop effective and high-quality policy briefs. This will be followed by a reflections from representatives of academia/advisory bodies (Prof. Kim Lavoie, Co-Director, Montreal Behavioural Medicine Centre, Canada and Canada's COVID-19 Expert Advisory Panel) and WHO/Europe (Dr. Katrine Bach-Habersaat; Regional Advisor for Behavioural and Cultural Insights). Further to the reflection on the current knowledge base a structured interactive world-café methodology will be used to explore attendees’ opinions regarding the challenges and opportunities in public health policy-making to improve people's health and well-being.

Key messages

• Viewing policy development and adoption through the lens of behaviour change theory can help improve the effectiveness of policies and increase their impact.

• By applying behaviour change principles, policymakers can better understand the motivations, barriers, and enablers of different stakeholders and tailor their policies accordingly.