Developing Effective Public Policy & Policy Delivery

This 3 day course aims to support policy makers in formulating policy in a professional way learning from best practice examples; this module focuses on identifying and developing policy options, the need for robust delivery planning and evaluation. It will provide you with tools and techniques to guide you through these stages of the policy cycle. The instructors have all spent many years working at the heart of government with strong practical experience of the subject as practitioners as well as trainers. They have each been involved in training and consultancy internationally working with a range of governments in Europe, Africa, Middle East, Pacific and Caribbean regions. By the end of the course participants will be able to: Understand the need to consider the policy problem Understand how to identify and communicate with stakeholders Understand the range of influence of stakeholders and how to utilise it Understand the need for evidence and techniques to gather it Understand how to apply a range of creative thinking techniques to a policy problem in order to develop and present policy options Understand how to appraise options using a variety of tools Understand the complexity of delivering policy and the need to use and understand delivery partners Understand how to plan for evaluation of policy Who should attend? The program is primarily intended for policy makers in government and public service and is also a valuable course for policy and public affairs staff in organisations seeking more effective engagement with government in its policy making: Policy Managers Policy Advisors Directors in Ministries Directors and leaders of arm’s-length bodies and agencies Politicians Consultants Senior managers and directors of organizations who need to interact with the above
Day 1 The Policy “Narrative” What is policy? How does policy differ from strategy or procedure? The policy process – a typical policy life cycle Stakeholder mapping and first analysis Influence mapping Influencing the policy context How various stakeholder try to influence policy – how to engage with them in the policy process Evidence Different types of evidence, how and where to source it, how to analyse and evaluate evidence, Day 2 Evidence (continued) Different types of evidence, how and where to source it, how to analyse and evaluate evidence Consultation Questions, challenges and action plans Round table discussion Programme Review and action plans Day 3 Option generation Innovation and creativity exercise Option appraisal Setting criteria, weighting and scoring, techniques to select the optimum, force field analysis. The ideal and the possible. Workshop on an example. Delivery chains How are we going to deliver the policy? What partnerships will be required? Evaluation, review and continuous improvement How will we know if we have been successful? What is the baseline? How will we know if the costs of delivery are greater than benefits of achievement? Questions, challenges and action plans Round table discussion Programme Review and action plans