Governments and regulators make decisions with long-lasting economic consequences, and the analysis behind those decisions is coming under closer examination from legislatures, courts, audit offices, development partners and citizens. Where economic appraisal is rushed, poorly documented or shaped to fit a preferred outcome, the result can be wasted public money, legal challenges to regulations and a loss of credibility for the institution that produced it.

The Governance and Compliance in Applied Economics & Policy Analysis Training Course focuses on the systems, standards and habits that keep policy analysis rigorous and accountable. It covers the institutional arrangements for analytical work, from roles and sign-off to independence safeguards, and then moves to regulatory impact assessment, compliance cost estimation and the appraisal of policy options using cost-benefit techniques. Participants learn how to quality-assure models and datasets, document assumptions, handle uncertainty and keep work reproducible. The final sessions address ex-post evaluation, stakeholder consultation, disclosure of evidence and the ethical duties of analysts working close to political decision-making.

The programme is practical and uses worked policy files on energy tariffs, agricultural subsidies, tax measures and business regulation. Participants critique sample impact assessments, rebuild a simple appraisal model with full documentation and draft a quality assurance protocol for their own unit.

Participants will leave able to:

• Establish governance arrangements, roles and sign-off procedures for economic and policy analysis.
• Conduct a regulatory impact assessment that compares options and estimates compliance costs.
• Apply cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis with appropriate discounting and sensitivity testing.
• Assess the distributional and fiscal effects of policy proposals.
• Quality-assure analytical models through documentation, peer review and reproducible workflows.
• Evaluate policies after implementation using the OECD-DAC criteria.
• Manage conflicts of interest, consultation duties and the transparent publication of evidence.

It is intended for those who produce, commission or review economic evidence for public decisions:

• Economists and policy analysts in ministries and central agencies
• Regulatory impact assessment and regulatory reform officers
• Planning, budget and investment appraisal staff
• Analysts in energy, communications, financial and transport regulators
• Parliamentary budget office and legislative research staff
• Research economists in central banks and revenue authorities
• Researchers in think tanks and policy institutes
• Consultants preparing economic analysis for government clients

You will take away:

• A quality assurance protocol and sign-off checklist for analytical work in your unit.
• A regulatory impact assessment template with option comparison and compliance cost tables.
• A documented cost-benefit model with sensitivity and scenario analysis.
• An assumptions log and model documentation standard for future work.
• An evaluation framework for a current policy built on the OECD-DAC criteria.
• A clear position on handling political pressure on analytical findings.

Every session links analytical methods to the governance questions that surround them, using:

• Worked policy files on energy tariffs, agricultural subsidies, tax measures and business regulation
• Spreadsheet and statistical software labs for building and testing appraisal models
• Structured critiques of sample impact assessments
• A model review exercise in which participants find and log seeded errors
• Group drafting of a quality assurance protocol, reviewed by peers

A CPD-accredited Certificate of Completion issued by Vision Reach Global Consultancy recognises full attendance and completion of the modelling labs and the quality assurance protocol.