Changing Behaviour Through Policy Making

This paper discusses the changing behaviour model which is introduced in the sustainable development strategy entitled "Securing the Future," and serves as a possible model for encouraging sustainable development. According to the paper, achieving sustainable development will depend largely on long-term changes in behaviours of individuals, communities, firms and the public sector. Government can play a pivotal role in changing these behaviours by engaging with both individuals and the public, in supporting the development of new social norms and fostering conditions in a strategic and long-term approach to behaviour change. The paper proposes that there is a need for a new, comprehensive approach to establish new and more sustainable ways of living, working and producing - and for these to become the new habits.

This approach is made up of strategies to enable, encourage, engage, exemplify and catalyse behaviour change.

• Enable - to help people make responsible choices by providing them with the education, skills and information, and by making those choices more easy with easily accessible alternatives and suitable infrastructure.
• Encourage - government can look at the most effective techniques to encourage and, where necessary, enforce, behaviour (e.g. through price signals, peer pressure, league tables, funding, or regulation).
• Engage - strategies will work best if individuals are involved at an early stage. Remote messages from the government are often not the best way to do this; face-to face contact is often considered more appropriate. Deliberative Forums are an option as they allow more in-depth discussion about options than an opinion poll or a focus group, and allow discussion between people who have strong and conflicting views or are experts in their field. According to the paper, research shows that communications campaigns work best when part of a larger strategy.
• Exemplify - government needs to lead by example in demonstrating the importance of considering of sustainable development.
• Catalyse breaking habits - there is a need to view all of the strategies and policies together with a view to long-term behaviour change, which may take time. In order to establish what works best in terms of supporting sustainable development, behaviour change forums are being established across government departments and with other stakeholders. This aims to enable behaviour change to be better understood; help behaviour-based policies to be more successful through greater policy coherence and evaluation; and promote understanding of behaviour change as a core policy skill.