Every government decision — from a subsidy programme to an environmental regulation — succeeds or fails on the strength of the policy work behind it: how well the problem was understood, how rigorously the options were evaluated, and how carefully implementation was managed. Getting that process right is what separates policy that delivers from policy that stalls.

This Designing, Evaluating and Managing Public Policy for Real-World Impact training course from the Arab British Fellowship Training Academy builds the analytical and managerial skills professionals in government and decision-making institutions need to handle public policy scientifically and effectively, from initial analysis through evaluation, implementation and stakeholder engagement.

Who Should Attend?

• Policy makers and political analysts shaping decisions inside government institutions.
• Public-sector practitioners and government employees responsible for implementing and evaluating policy.
• Civil-society professionals and consultants who engage with public policy from outside government.
• Researchers and graduate students studying public policy at universities or research centres.

Knowledge and Benefits:

• Apply analytical techniques to define problems and shape workable policy options.
• Use recognised standards and methods to judge whether a policy is succeeding.
• Manage the policy lifecycle from development through implementation.
• Strengthen the communication and negotiation skills needed to work effectively with stakeholders and track outcomes.

Module 1: Why Public Policy Decisions Matter

• How public policy functions as a government's primary lever for social and economic outcomes.
• The dimensions decision-makers must weigh: social, economic and environmental impact.

Module 2: Analyzing Public Problems: Tools, Data and Models

• Framing and defining public issues before designing a response.
• Quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques, including big-data methods, applied through models such as the systems model and the decision-making model.
• Designing data-collection tools that capture stakeholder input.

Module 3: Evaluating Policy Success: Criteria and Methods

• Effectiveness criteria — efficiency, effectiveness and equity — used to judge a policy's success.
• In-depth, participatory and comparative evaluation methods, and the data strategies that support them.

Module 4: Managing Policy from Planning to Implementation

• The full policy management cycle, from planning through to execution.
• Implementation strategies, likely challenges, and how to manage change as policies evolve.

Module 5: Monitoring Performance and Measuring Impact

• Building monitoring systems that track policy performance in real time.
• Running periodic analyses to check whether a policy is still achieving its intended effect.

Module 6: Communicating and Negotiating with Stakeholders

• Developing communication plans tailored to different stakeholder groups.
• Negotiation skills for resolving policy-related conflicts and building buy-in.

Module 7: Global Forces Shaping Local Policy

• How global dynamics — climate change, globalisation — filter down into local policy choices.
• The link between public policy and sustainable development goals.

Module 8: Digital Tools and Open Data in Policy Work

• Software and digital platforms increasingly used for policy analysis.
• How open data can strengthen transparency and accountability in policymaking.