Gain in-depth knowledge of policy processes and systems in international contexts.
The following learning goals are woven throughout your entire experience.
Knowledge
- Understand linkages among policy, programs, projects, and people (i.e., primary target groups, secondary target groups, and those affected by unintended consequences of policies).
- Understand the intertwining roles of actors from government, the private sector, and civil society in solving complex challenges.
- Understand contested development paradigms, theories, and practices.
- Understand the reasons that wicked problems exist, obstacles to their solution, and the trade-offs embedded in proposed policy responses.
Specific Abilities
- Effectively engage in all facets of the policy process (i.e., problem definition, policy research, goal setting, policy option generation, preferred option selection, policy implementation, and policy evaluation).
- Build networks and partnerships with diverse actors to meet policy-related goals and optimally address complex problems.
- Communicate and negotiate effectively with diverse, multicultural stakeholder groups to achieve policy-related goals.
- Appropriately use a variety of social science research methods, both quantitative and qualitative, to inform policy-related decisions.
- Apply concepts and theories drawn from economics to policy-related decision making to lead individuals, teams, and social change organizations (SCOs).
General Skills
- Systemic planning to achieve policy-related goals
- Political and power analysis
- Research using primary and secondary sources
- Data generation and analysis (quantitative and qualitative)
- Critical self-reflection
- Evidence-based decision making
- Application of lessons learned and preferred professional practices to all facets of the policy process
- Collaborative, productive engagement with colleagues and stakeholders