To assist policy makers in developing public health policy, techniques need to be developed to better understand the key factors that influence policy development. Descriptive policy analyses can provide this information as well as provide information on where decision-making breaks down and, equally important, where it works effectively. To be truly comprehensive, approaches to policy analysis integrating the impact of information, values and institutions, are needed to ensure that policy makers and the public understand how decisions are made concerning health risks.
The following documents describe some of the descriptive policy analysis frameworks we employ to understand public health policy decision-making.