Measuring and Mapping Political Will

The concept of political will be broken down into five essential components in a framework that will make the determination of political will more accurate and relevant for US decision makers. For each component, guidance will be provided on the required information needed to conduct he analysis, as well as how the framework can be used to influence or shape political will in the country of concern. The components will be: a country typology; the nature of the policy issue or request; a mapping of stakeholder constituencies; potential rationales of the stakeholders that influence political will; and a political will spectrum. The framework will permit time-specific analysis as well as ongoing dynamic analysis in a changing environment. Therefore, complexity will not inhibit meaningful analysis in a fluid environment. Additionally, the framework will not be constrained solely to internal developments, but will also include external actors that shape political will. Data will be transformed into knowledge and understanding based on an application of the framework in historical cases. This application will allow the team to set parameters for combining multiple sources for each of the subcomponents into a formula that will determine the level of political will on a continuum. The political will continuum will not only track the level of political will specific to certain type of issues or partnerships but also indicate when, to what extent, and under what circumstances negative political will exists.