- This group
provided invaluable assistance in shaping the document and advising how it should be
marketed to the primary audience of policy-makers. And the net result was a document that
does indeed speak to policy-makers in a language that they understand and in a form that
they can use. I would recommend that the same approaches and principles might be used with
other audiences including practitioners, community members and researchers- Second, as
I have also implied, it is important to package the materials appropriately. For example,
policy-makers don't like long documents, but like to know that there is backup for what is
contained in the short document. Thus, in the case, of the IUHPE project, in addition to
the short document, there is a book with all of the background papers. Similarly in the
case of the WHO Project on Health Promotion Evaluation, we
have produced a brief document for policymakers as well as a book with the background
papers . We also have produced a document which is friendly to practitioners and in a
format that they like and can use
- Third, it is important that we use appropriate media in communicating our evidence.
In the modern electronic age in which we are living, we have a lot more choice than we
used to have including the World Wide Web, On-line discussion groups,
Video-teleconferences. However, we need to recognize that not all of the audiences that we
wish to reach have access to those media and that we have a responsibility to consider
these limitations, otherwise, we will contribute to the information deficits between rich
and poor
