Strategic Planning and Public Policy Development Fundamentals

Strategic Planning and Public Policy Development Fundamentals

Pretoria: 16 – 20September 2024

Overview

This course focuses on the importance of strategic planning and public policy formulation. Strategic planning and public policy designing and implementing can be very difficult. Government activities entail linkages across multiple layers of governance and many portfolios. This often requires change in the direction of some government approaches, making public policy development highly contestable, especially with a growing emphasis for participation of key stakeholders and citizens in the design of policy public policy. Given these multi-faceted complexities, it is necessary for public policymakers to be conversant with innovative policy formulation fundamentals to ensure that they are responsive and collaborative enough to deliver appropriate evidence-based policies. To that requires a strategic planning and relevant knowledge on how to policy design and develop public policies for effective and implementation.

Therefore, this course will cover theories and models for strategic public policy development, the latest research on systems thinking, policy formulation and implementation process and stages, insights on behavioural aspects of policy formulation, and practical real-world policy problems that help participants translate knowledge into action.

This course is suitable for decision-makers, executives, and personnel involved in public policy planning, development, implementation and analysis

Upon successful completion, participants will have the knowledge and skills:

  • On the general nature of public policy development
  • To understand conceptual frameworks of strategic planning and public policy development
  • To apply the concepts of strategic planning in policy formulation and implementation
  • To understand the role of systems thinking in public policy design
  • To apply systems thinking techniques in strategic planning for public policy development
  • To articulate how common behaviour influences policy outcomes
  • To apply co-design techniques and stakeholder engagement in policy development,
  • To apply Theory of Change frameworks in policy planning and development