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Welcome to the Home Page of the International Comparisons in Policy Making Toolkit

Introducing the Toolkit

'Becoming more forward and outward looking. . . learning lessons from other countries. . .'

(Modernising Government White Paper)

'. . . an outward looking approach . . . involves considering the experience of other countries. . .'

(Better Policy Making)

This page explains in brief terms the background to the toolkit and its purpose and sets out the components of the toolkit.

Use the hyperlinks below to navigate to the sections on this page.

Introduction

What is the Toolkit

Toolkit Contents
Navigating the Toolkit

What are the Aims of the Toolkit

The 'Horizons' Theme
Contacting Us

Introduction
The use of international comparisons is an essential element of modern, professional policy making. Looking abroad to see what other governments have done can point us towards a new understanding of shared problems; towards new solutions to those problems; or to new mechanisms for implementing policy and improving the delivery of public services.

International examples can provide invaluable evidence of what works in practice, and help us avoid either re-inventing the wheel or repeating others' mistakes. We can also learn from the way in which other governments undertake the process of policy making itself.

What is the Toolkit
The toolkit pack is intended to provide help and guidance in the use of international comparisons in policy making. We have called it a Toolkit because it comprises a number of separate components serving different but complementary purposes, and because it is intended to be of practical use. The various components that comprise the toolkit are set out in the contents box below:-

Toolkit Contents

Toolkit Contents

Summary of principles

Case Studies illustrating some of these principles

Document reviewing the background to the general principles and Workbook

Workbook to support detailed examination of particular international examples

Directory of Information Sources

Training opportunities

pdf Documents

pdf versions of the Toolkit documents are available.

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Navigating the Toolkit
You can link to the various components of the toolkit either by clicking on the hyperlinks in the above contents box or using the hyperlinks that display in the side menu.

What are the aims of the Toolkit
The Modernising Government White Paper said that government needed to become more forward- and outward-looking, which included learning lessons from other countries and integrating the European Union and international dimension into policy making.

Civil servants in many departments already have a great deal of experience in using information about policies and programmes in other countries in their own policy development work. There is also a considerable body of academic literature reporting research into aspects of international policy transfer and lesson drawing. Moreover, research in this area has been augmented by the Economic and Social Research Council's Future Governance programme, which explored the scope for drawing policy lessons from cross-national experience.

Our aim in producing the Toolkit has been to try to derive from this wealth of knowledge and experience some straightforward guidance to help policy officials become more effective in learning lessons from other countries as they face new tasks and challenges. Evidence about what has worked well in the past, and what has not, does not necessarily translate directly and easily into prescriptions for future action. We are grateful to all those upon whose research or whose practical policy experience we have been able to draw in assembling this material, and to all those who have kindly commented on various drafts. Nevertheless, we are conscious that this represents only a first step, and that this guidance will need to be refined and developed in use.

We look forward to a continuing dialogue with users of the Toolkit, and with all those with an interest in these issues, which will help us to learn more about what works when governments seek to learn lessons from each other and what should be avoided. Contact details are given below, if you would like to get in touch with comments or feedback. In addition, the Policy Hub web site offers exciting new opportunities for the exchange of ideas and information. The materials of the Toolkit in its present form will continue to be updated and expanded.

The 'Horizons' theme
We have adopted the 'horizons' theme to give visual identity to the components of the Toolkit. This seemed appropriate for a number of reasons.