As times go by, the challenges that the world is facing grow more complex: technological transitions, worldwide geopolitical earthquakes, climate changes and pandemics. Countries are looking for policy-making approaches – one particular approach is a Policy Lab.
Data platform visualizes over 100,000 social media messages and over 10 million social media engagements on mental well-being
Online
Courses
Thailand Policy Lab shares and exchanges knowledge on policy innovation with national and international policy planners and the general public to create systematic changes in public policy.
Participate
Events
ร่วมกิจกรรม
กิจกรรมเพื่อส่งเสริมและพัฒนาศักยภาพด้าน
นวัตกรรมนโยบายให้กับประเทศไทย
Upcoming
Vocab of The Week
Policy Vocabularies
Queering public policy
To challenge heteronormativity that is deeply entrenched in public policy. To queer public policy is to shape public policy into instruments that serve the overlooked, or people who live outside societal conventions.
Example
Many have raised concerns about how welfare and labor rights are deeply heteronormative. For example, the mainstream idea of a family is that of a mother, a father, and a child/children. Taking leave to care for a member of your immediate family is both a norm and a statutory right. However, the situation becomes much more complicated when one wishes to provide care work for someone — or something — that does not belong to the category of an immediate family member. For example, there is no statutory protection of the right to take leave for a pet or member of a chosen family. Your ability to care for others entirely rests on the discretion of your management. You cannot not seek legal help in case your request for leave is rejected.
Undeservedness
Assumptions that certain members of society are the responsibility of public policy, while some are not. Those who adopt the lens of undeservedness hold a world view that one’s vulnerability is a result of one’s own doing. This world view ignores the impact of social determinants.
Example
The language of (un)deservedness has been widely criticized for excluding and shaming those who bear the brunt of inequalities. For example, in a 66-page report on victory over poverty, the Trump administration declared the major problem that remained unresolved was moral declination among the population (e.g. self-sufficiency), which resulted in resources being distributed to poor-but-could-have-been-better households. Many pointed out that such framing tied welfare programs with a policy beneficiary’s ability to perform victimhood and deservedness to earn sympathy and help. It also precluded important discussions about barriers that prevented people’s entry into the market in the first place, or how the economy needed people, but was never for people. For example, economic conditions could trap people in a cycle of poverty despite intergenerational effort of hard work.
Big Data
Big data means large volumes of data that are diverse, complex, and generated by multiple instruments. The content of data could range from scientific information (e.g. regional patterns of rainfall), to personal information (e.g. digital footprints on social media), and they can be retrieved from various sources — such as people, smart devices, or sensors. Big data can be used to make a more informed decision that improves societal wellbeing.
Example
UNDP Ethiopia, in collaboration with InnoConnect and Addis Ababa Traffic Management Agency (TMA), produced an analysis of hot spots for traffic safety risks and a data visualisation of “the Road Crash Analytical Map of Addis Ababa” that depicts single-car accidents across Addis Ababa city. This data-driven analysis identified risk factors and high-risk locations, both crucial information for designing road safety policies to reduce car crashes.
Intergeneration
Intergeneration means interconnections between people across different age ranges. In terms of public policy, intergenerational policy does not simply focus on the present reality, it also seeks to address the future by understanding societal issues as major factors that will shape the lives of people across the generations. Intergenerational policy also considers the intimate connection and mutual dependency between people from different generations, and their shared needs.
Example
Since 2012, UNDP has launched a youth empowerment programme called “YouthConnekt.” It is intended to connect African youth who are interested in youth-led development initiatives with important figures in various fields, expanding their entry into an economically empowering environment. Over the past 10 years the programme has supported more than 100,000 local entrepreneurs by providing entrepreneurial education, apprenticeship, and networks of experts. The programme is in line with the UN Youth Strategy, which focuses on youth empowerment and intergenerational interaction.
Our Parnerts
