Learn about shaping policy with evidence
Gain the skills and knowledge to more effectively shape policy with evidence with IDS's online short course.
There is increasing pressure on government officials, research programmes and NGOs to make better use of evidence to produce viable policy options. Influencing decision makers and contributing to policy formulation and implementation with research requires an explicit focus on power and politics – seeking ways to promote positive change in highly complex policy environments.
Course aims
To equip you with the concepts, skills and competencies required to operate effectively at the interface between policy and research. To enable you to design achievable plans to produce, review and communicate research and to enhance your capacity to deliver rigorous compelling evidence-based policy offers.
Who should attend?
The programme is ideally suited to those leading policy and research in their organisation or programme who are seeking to enhance their evidence literacy and policy engagement capacity to become more effective advocates for social change.
Whether your key interests relate to understanding policy processes in a particular context, developing proposal winning evidence uptake strategies, or adapting to fast-changing demands for research, we will help you locate your work in relation to the theory and latest trends in knowledge for development.
You will join an international cohort of policy and evidence innovators from governments, development agencies, charities, social enterprises and research organisations, to share learning and gain new insights into improving policy processes through better use of evidence.
Previous clients include: BBC Media Action, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Nigeria; International Indigenous Women’s Forum; International Growth Centre, Irish Aid; Macedonian Center for International Cooperation; Queen Rania Foundation; Save the Children; Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology; UNICEF; University of Sussex; UN Women; Water Aid.
How you’ll learn
Our new online programme combines lectures, peer learning seminars, practical exercises, and presentations. Through the course, you will develop a framework for strengthening evidence informed policy and practice focused around specific aspects of evidence literacy and adaptive policy engagement.
A pre-course induction, to introduce the digital learning platform and help you with any technical queries, will take place on Wednesday 10th February.
The course will run over five weeks starting on Monday 15 February and finishing on Thursday 18 March.
It will require six to eight hours of your time per week. This will consist of a mix of lectures and seminars, Q&A sessions, facilitated group work and self-directed learning.
The course has been designed to allow you to work as flexibly as possible but approximately 2.5 hours per week will be made up of scheduled sessions at fixed times. These seminars plenary discussions and study groups will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 12:00 and 14:30pm UK GMT. Pre-recorded lectures and presentations will be available from Monday each week.
The timing of sessions will be confirmed and agreed with participants once registration has closed. Whilst we will try to accommodate participants needs and adjust to take account of different time zones, it may not be possible to accommodate everyone so some flexibility will be required.
Find out more and apply here
Photo credit: STEPS Summer School '13 - Rivers of Life #4 | STEPS Centre Flickr CC BY 2.0