PSA

PSA is an acronym with two meanings frequently encountered in policy and IR research:

1. Public Service Announcement — a non-commercial message broadcast or published to inform the public about an issue of general welfare (health, safety, civic participation). Governments, IGOs, and NGOs use PSAs to shape behavior on topics ranging from vaccination uptake to road safety. The WHO, UNICEF, and national health ministries relied heavily on PSAs during the COVID-19 pandemic to communicate masking, distancing, and vaccination guidance.

2. Production Sharing Agreement (also Production Sharing Contract, PSC) — a contractual arrangement between a state (or its national oil company) and an international oil company (IOC) for the exploration and production of hydrocarbons. The IOC bears exploration risk and recovers its costs ("cost oil") from a share of production; remaining output ("profit oil") is divided between the state and the contractor according to a negotiated formula. Title to the resource remains with the state, distinguishing PSAs from concession regimes. Indonesia pioneered the model in the 1960s under Pertamina, and it has since been adopted across Africa, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia.

Other context-specific meanings include:

• Pakistan Studies Association, Palestinian Security Authority (informal usage for the Palestinian Authority's security services), and Port State Agreement in maritime law.
• In trade and customs, PSA can denote a Pre-Shipment Agreement or inspection arrangement.
• In US domestic politics, the Presidential Succession Act is occasionally abbreviated PSA.

Because of this ambiguity, Atlas users should disambiguate the term based on the surrounding policy domain. In MUN committees on energy, climate, or sovereign wealth (e.g., ECOSOC, UNEP, OPEC simulations), PSA almost always means Production Sharing Agreement. In WHO, UNESCO, or public-health committees, it typically means Public Service Announcement.