Writing Deductively with Enough Evidence
In the Key Finding section of your policy memo (see Policy Memo Template below), each
paragraph needs to be written deductively, which means that the main point of the paragraph is
presented in the first sentence. The remaining sentences in the paragraph should present the data,
facts, statistics, as well as your analysis and reasoning (and any context needed) to prove the
point you make in the first sentence.
In the example below, imagine that your client is a nongovernmental organization tasked with
efficiently and effectively administering food aid in parts of the world ravaged by natural
disasters or civil wars. They want to know whether it’s best to provide food or cash to those
affected.
Note that the criteria are not explicitly stated here because “what should be happening” is
implied (i.e., people affected by natural disasters and civil wars should be efficiently and
effectively served by your client). In this paragraph, we’re presenting evidence that suggests
perhaps the best strategy is to combine the two methods of food aid delivery:
When food aid needs to be administered in countries were inflation is rampant,
providing it in the form of cash and food has been shown to be more effective than
providing cash alone. In January 2010, Rachel Sabates-Wheeler and Stephen Devereux
published the results of a study they conducted on Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net
Programme. Their team of researchers conducted a regression analysis on a two-wave
panel survey conducted in 2006 and 2008. The data show specifically that food transfers
enabled higher levels of income growth, livestock accumulation, and self-reported food
security. This may be partially explained by the fact that the cash transfers that were
studied were not indexed, meaning they did not adjust to inflation. A reliance on cash
transfers that are not indexed to deliver social protection in an inflationary environment
“is not an optimal strategy,” the researchers noted, “because commodity-based transfers
retain their value whereas the purchasing power of cash transfers is eroded by rising
commodity pricing” (Sabates-Wheeler & Devereux, 2010). Until nongovernmental
organizations are afforded the flexibility to provide food aid in the combined form
of cash and food, they may be missing out on opportunities to deliver food aid as
efficiently and effectively as possible.