Public budgets are tight, debt service weighs heavily on revenue in many economies, and citizens expect visible results from every shilling, cedi or rand spent. That puts pressure on ministries and agencies to show that their proposals rest on evidence: who benefits from a subsidy, what a new levy will raise, whether an infrastructure project returns more than it costs. Too often, analysis arrives late, rests on weak data or is presented in a form senior officials cannot use.

The Operational Excellence in Applied Economics & Policy Analysis Training Course is designed to make economic analysis faster, more rigorous and more useful. It starts with the policy cycle and the core microeconomic and macroeconomic tools analysts rely on, then covers data handling, regression and forecasting for policy questions. Participants then appraise options using cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness techniques, test sensitivity to key assumptions, and examine how impact evaluation evidence should shape decisions. The programme closes with distributional and regulatory impact analysis and with the craft of writing and presenting recommendations under time pressure.

Each topic is taught through applied exercises on realistic policy datasets, with participants building spreadsheet and statistical models step by step and drafting a short policy brief on a question relevant to their own institution.

Over the five days participants learn to:

• Frame policy problems in economic terms, identifying market failures and the case for intervention.
• Apply supply, demand and elasticity analysis to taxes, subsidies, tariffs and price controls.
• Analyse policy data using descriptive statistics, regression and basic forecasting in Excel, Stata or R.
• Conduct cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis with appropriate discount rates and sensitivity tests.
• Interpret impact evaluation evidence from randomised and quasi-experimental studies.
• Assess the distributional and regulatory impacts of policy options.
• Communicate findings and recommendations in concise policy briefs and presentations.

The programme is built for professionals who prepare or use economic evidence in public decisions:

• Economists and policy analysts in finance and planning ministries
• Research and policy staff at central banks and revenue authorities
• Economic regulators in energy, water, telecoms and transport
• Sector ministry planning and policy officers
• Researchers at think tanks, universities and policy institutes
• Economic advisers in development partner organisations
• Parliamentary budget office and committee researchers
• Corporate economists and public affairs analysts

Participants take home:

• A reusable cost-benefit analysis spreadsheet with sensitivity and scenario tabs.
• Annotated Stata or R scripts for cleaning data and running policy regressions.
• A checklist for judging the quality of impact evaluation evidence.
• A distributional analysis showing who gains and loses from a policy option.
• A two-page policy brief on a live question from their own institution.

Economic concepts are taught through application to real policy questions. The method combines:

• Short concept sessions linked immediately to policy examples
• Computer labs in Excel, Stata and R using realistic datasets
• Worked appraisal case files on infrastructure and social programmes
• Critical review of published evaluations and policy papers
• Drafting and presenting a policy brief with facilitator feedback

Participants who attend all sessions, complete the computer labs and present a policy brief are awarded a CPD-accredited Certificate of Completion issued by Vision Reach Global Consultancy.