Methodology
The National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy (NCCHPP) has developed a resource directory to support public health professionals in Canada in strengthening their knowledge and competencies in public policy, in order to support their efforts in developing and promoting healthy public policies. The collection of resources was conducted using the “snowball” method. Keywords (see the table of keywords used) were employed to search for French and English resources on the websites of governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, and associations in Canada. For inclusion in the directory, these resources had to align with one or more of the eight categories of public policy competencies essential for public health, as identified in the literature review conducted by the NCCHPP in 2021.
At the same time, the titles and summaries of 125 resources, excluding webinars, produced by the NCCHPP were also reviewed to select those relevant to the directory.
Keywords used
| French | English |
| Santé publique Politique publique Santé dans toutes les politiques (SdTP) Politiques publiques de santé Formations Webinaires Cours en ligne Outils Guides Conférences Apprentissage en ligne Présentation |
Public health Public policy Health in All Policies (HiAP) Healthy public policy Training Webinars Online courses Toolkit Guide Conferences Online learning Presentation |
Inclusion criteria applied
The selected resources had to meet the following criteria:
- Available in French or English
- Produced in Canada
- Published between 2000 and 2024
- Publicly accessible
- Address at least one of the eight categories of public policy competencies
- Relevant to the field of public health
- Ready to use (immediately applicable)
- Not originating from university or school programs.
Through this approach, 275 resources were preselected for an in-depth evaluation of their relevance to public policy competency development.
Resource relevance
Each resource was fully reviewed to be classified into the appropriate competency categories. A single resource could be associated with multiple categories.
A relevance scale from 1 to 5 was used to assess each resource based on several criteria, including its alignment with public policy competency development needs, the quality of its content, and the date it was produced or updated.
- 1-2: Not relevant — The resource is poorly or not at all adapted.
- 3: Moderately relevant — The resource is partially adapted.
- 4-5: Relevant — The resource is well adapted to the identified needs.
After eliminating duplicates, only resources with a relevance score of 4 or 5 were included in the final directory. The final directory consists of 100 resources, including:
- 66 available in both French and English
- 20 available only in English
- 14 available only in French.
Limitations of the exercise
- The relevance of the resources was assessed based on criteria established by our team. While this approach was essential in selecting the resources for the final directory, it remains subjective. The results could vary if another evaluator applied a different methodology.
- Several selected resources were not specifically designed for developing public policy competencies. However, their content aligns with the themes of the different competency categories, making them relevant for learning.
- The selection was limited to resources produced in Canada. Without this geographical restriction, a larger number of resources could have been included