Editing Development communication (section)

===== Policy life cycle =====

Government officials and policy makers in both developed and developing countries are often confronted with problems for which they have no design solutions.<ref name=":6">Servaes, J., Jacobson, T. L., & White, S. A. (1996). Participatory communication for social change. New Delhi: Sage Publications.</ref> Every problem, country and culture requires a specific approach and seems to go through policy life cycle. Winsemius proposed four phases of policy cycle;
Phase 1: Recognizing the problem; groups in the society such as government official, lobbyists and countries' leaders recognize the problem, e.g. terrorism, poverty, global warming, and other. The problem is made known to all stakeholders, during this stage the members realized that problem should be tackled through policy.
Phase 2: Gaining Control over the Problem; at this point, the government start to advance in their mechanisms through the formulation of policies. Policy oriented research is often appointed to scientific institutions, opinion surveys are piloted, and options for improving and solving the problem are accounted.
Phase 3: Solving the Problem; at this stage, policies, programs and projects are implemented. In most cases, the government will manage all the details of a program by itself but the best scenario is when NGOs and other involved groups participate in the initiatives.
Phase 4: Monitoring the Problem: At this point the focus is to ensure that the problem is under control and must remain so. This is also the time to think about future policies and to develop public and private partnerships in implementing policies.