2. What is the intended goal?

1. What are the policy objectives? 
2. To which Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and well-being outcomes do the goals contribute?
3. Are there any specific preconditions and criteria which follow from the problem analysis, or which are subject to budgetary or other limitations?

Secondary questions based on the behavioural perspective (behavioural analysis)

Secondary questions are provided below which will give you a greater insight into the causes of a behavioural problem and the viability of the desired behaviour. The BIN NL contact person at your ministry can help you or bring you into contact with a behaviour specialist. 

1. Who do you want to change their behaviour, given the goal? (identify the target groups) 
2. What desired behaviour do you want to see per target group? 
3. What is the current or expected behaviour per target group? 
4. Which factors that determine behaviour explain (maintain) the current behaviour and hinder, or indeed (may) stimulate, the desired behaviour?

Involve those around you check questions

• Do the objectives differ per stakeholder?

Once you have identified the problems sufficiently with the right actors, you can reflect on the policy objectives. A policy goal is a concrete and specified form of a desired situation or the desired behaviour.

Formulating concrete objectives helps monitor progress in terms of achieving your goals in a later phase and evaluate the policy's effectiveness and efficiency. By doing so you will also fulfil one of the requirements of Article 3.1 of the Government Accounts Act 2016 (Comptabiliteitswet 2016). This will provide a basis for substantiating the efficiency and effectiveness of a proposal at a later stage. This is an important resource for the House of Representatives when it comes to monitoring the government. By relating your goals to the SDGs and well-being and by your colleagues in other divisions and ministries doing the same, it will become easier to identify any overlap with other policy domains. Performing a behavioural analysis as well will give you an insight into factors which determine behaviour. You will only be able to develop relevant policy options when this is clear. This will benefit the effectiveness of policy.

Once you have created a problem and cause analysis , it will be relatively easy to take this step towards acquiring an overview of goals. You do this by converting the negatively formulated statements in the problem tree into positive statements. This will make it immediately clear what the central objective is, what needs to change to achieve that goal and what positive impacts achieving that goal may have.

When formulating your goals it is important to bear the various goal levels in mind. During this phase we make a distinction between three goal levels, namely strategic goals, specific goals and target behaviour. The fill-in card shown below contains a clarification and example of each of these levels.

The SDGs are 17 strategic goals which the Netherlands has committed to internationally. When formulating your strategic goal, also state which SDG(s) is/are relevant. Every year, Statistics Netherlands reports on the SDGs in combination with well-being indicators from the well-being monitor. The well-being indicators help you link specific goals to your strategic goals and make them measurable.

Resources 

• The annual CBS Well-being and Sustainable Development Goals Monitor can help you form a picture of the situation in the Netherlands in relation to your policy process.