Public and organisational decisions increasingly have to be justified with evidence. Ministries, county governments, donors and businesses all face the same questions: who gains and who loses from a measure, what it costs, and whether the same resources could achieve more elsewhere. Staff who lack a grounding in economics tend either to accept technical arguments uncritically or to dismiss them, and both habits lead to weaker policy.

The Fundamentals of Applied Economics & Policy Analysis Training Course introduces the discipline in plain language and keeps every concept tied to a practical use. Participants start with how individuals and firms make choices and how prices coordinate markets, including cases where markets fail. They then look at the economy as a whole, covering output, inflation, unemployment, public finance, trade and exchange rates. The second half of the programme concentrates on policy analysis: defining a problem, generating options, comparing costs and benefits, considering distributional effects and communicating results.

Teaching combines short explanations, worked numerical examples and group exercises using simple spreadsheets. No advanced mathematics is required. Participants finish with a completed policy brief and a checklist they can reuse when reviewing economic arguments in their own workplace.

After completing the course, participants will be able to:

• Explain scarcity, opportunity cost, incentives and marginal thinking in everyday policy settings.
• Use supply, demand and elasticity to predict the effect of taxes, subsidies and price controls.
• Identify market failures such as externalities, public goods and information gaps.
• Interpret key macroeconomic indicators including GDP, inflation and unemployment.
• Describe how fiscal, monetary and trade policies influence the economy.
• Carry out a basic cost-benefit analysis of a policy or project option.
• Assess who benefits and who bears the cost of a proposed measure.
• Write a concise policy brief that presents evidence and a clear recommendation.

The course is designed for professionals who work with economic information but have limited formal training in economics, such as:

• Policy officers and planning officers in ministries and county governments
• Programme and project managers in NGOs and development agencies
• Budget and finance officers who need economic context
• Research assistants and junior analysts
• Journalists and communication staff covering economic issues
• Business development and strategy staff in private firms
• Legislative and parliamentary committee staff
• Graduates entering economics or policy roles

By the close of the programme participants take away:

• A working vocabulary of economic terms they can use with confidence in meetings.
• A step-by-step template for analysing a policy problem and its options.
• A simple spreadsheet model for cost-benefit comparison.
• A short policy brief written during the course for their own context.
• A checklist for questioning economic claims in reports and speeches.
• A reading and practice plan for building skills after the course.

The course keeps theory short and practice frequent, using:

• Plain-language explanations supported by local and regional examples
• Worked numerical illustrations that need only basic arithmetic
• Spreadsheet labs on prices, budgets and simple project costs
• Small-group policy simulations with assigned stakeholder roles
• Feedback on a written policy brief from facilitators and peers

Participants who attend all sessions and submit their policy brief earn a CPD-accredited Certificate of Completion awarded by Vision Reach Global Consultancy.