- Mindel van de Laar
- Hailey Halligan
Introductory
- Bank transfer
Event Organizer(s)
Description
There is growing recognition that relevant, evidence-based digital policy making is key to achieving significant and sustainable change and fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals. In this course, you will be introduced to the fundamentals of public policy analysis tools used commonly throughout the world. Monitoring and evaluation of policies and projects is often required by international organizations, NGOs, and national governments to produce meaningful, rigorous, evidence-based recommendations based on the outcomes of existing programmes, as well as an essential part of accountability to donors and affected populations. It is therefore imperative for anyone interested in the realm of public policy for digital technology to have a grasp of what it means to conduct rigorous evaluations.
The course is divided into four units. The first unit is an introduction to public policy analysis. In the second unit students are introduced in greater detail to the monitoring process and relevant tools. Units three and four are dedicated to the description of impact evaluation methods and their practical application with cases related to digitalisation
This introductory course targets policymakers, statistical officers, political officers, researchers.
Qualifications or experience needed to participate in this training course:
- English language proficiency
- Availability to join all synchronous sessions
- Good connectivity
Number of available places for the cohort: 50
By the end of the course students should be able to:
- Understand the basics of public policy analysis and evidence-based digital policies
- Understand the distinction between monitoring, evaluation, and learning
- Understand the different types of data used in policy evaluation and their sources.
- Understand the different types of monitoring and its evolution through time
- Critically assess when monitoring is preferable to impact evaluation
- Understand the different analytical methods used to perform impact evaluation
- Grasp the statistics behind experimental and quasi-experimental techniques.
Overall, the student should be able to critically reflect on the literature provided and be able to distil this knowledge into their own country context.
- Case based and problem-based learning
- Self-study through reading material and lecture notes
- Discussion boards
- Synchronous interactive sessions by a subject matter expert
- Q&As
- Quizzes
This course is based on a two-fold approach to learning:
First, students are required to review the self-study materials to prepare for the interactive session, this includes required readings and lecture notes on technical aspects of public policy analysis. This preparation is essential to grasp the key concepts, vocabulary, and tools used by analysts across a broad spectrum of policy areas.
Second, the interactive sessions deepen insights learnt during the self-study segment and apply them to the realm of digital technologies, disentangle the specific challenges and opportunities related to digital public policy, through cases from developing country contexts focusing on academic research. The lecture session is followed by an instructor-led discussion to clarify concepts. Graded discussion boards will be made available to participants. Please note, an expert session may be tentatively included in module 2 in lieu of a tutorial.
Tentative Timeline:
Pre-session (16/09/2026 – 13:00-13:30)
Tutorials: Wednesday 23/09, 30/09, 7/10, 14/10 (Open entry, select your timeslot 11:00-12:00 OR 16:00-17:00)
Final Quiz Deadline (21/10/2026 – 11:59)
Please note: all timings are in CET, tutorial timings are subject to change and only one time slot may be offered contingent on participant numbers
Attendance in three out of four tutorials is mandatory for certification, inactive participation in tutorials counts as non-attendance
- Participation: Pass/Fail
- Quizzes (*4): 60%
- Engagement on the forum: 40%
A total score of 70 or higher is required to obtain the ITU certificate .
- Module 0: Registration
- Registration
- Welcome session and getting started on the platform
- Module 1: Why Evaluate?
- Describe the accountability problem for digital public policies and the sustainable development goals
- Discuss problems in measurement, and other practical aspects of impact evaluation
- Module 2: Monitoring
- Outline key concepts in monitoring for digital public policies
- List Introduction to the tools and techniques used in monitoring and evaluation
- Module 3: Impact Evaluation I
- Examine the most popular experimental techniques used in causal inference
- Identify applications of these techniques to cases in public policy analysis related to the SDGs and digitalisation
- Module 4:Impact Evaluation II
- Analyse the most popular quasi-experimental techniques used in causal inference
- List applications of these techniques to cases in public policy analysis related to the SDGs and digitalisation
Tutors
Registration information
Unless specified otherwise, all ITU Academy training courses are open to all interested professionals, irrespective of their race, ethnicity, age, gender, religion, economic status and other diverse backgrounds. We strongly encourage registrations from female participants, and participants from developing countries. This includes least developed countries, small island developing states and landlocked developing countries.
