5 Barriers to policy-making

Making an impact on policy is difficult: not only because of the challenges of translating research into a language that policy-makers understand, but also because of challenges inherent in the policy-making process itself.

A barrier to policy-making is an obstacle that prevents a given policy instrument being implemented, or limits how it can be implemented. In the extreme, such barriers may lead to certain policy instruments being overlooked, and the resulting strategies being much less effective (Institute for Transport Studies, 2005).

Barriers to policy-making can be rooted in a variety of causes, including (Health Policy Project, 2014):

• opposition from key stakeholders
• inadequate human or financial resources
• a lack of clarity on operational guidelines or roles and responsibilities for implementation
• conflicts with other existing policies
• a lack of coordination and collaboration between parties responsible for implementation
• a lack of motivation or political will.