31 January 2025
This six-week online policy course will equip you with the theories and practices required to operate effectively at the interface between policy and research. Since we began running the course in 2019, we have helped to build the capacity of hundreds of individuals and dozens of organisations to make better use of evidence to tackle global challenges.
This six-week online course will equip you with the concepts, skills and tools required to use evidence to inform policies and programmes. It will enhance your ability to rapidly assess, synthesise and communicate research effectively, enabling you to shape policy and practice in complex settings.
There is an explicit focus on the power analysis and influencing tactics, and active learning required to facilitate the consideration and use of evidence in the setting of agendas, development of policy or the design and implementation of interventions and programmes.
Since we began running the course in 2019, we have had the privilege of teaching and sharing learning from hundreds of individuals and dozens of organisations to promote better use of evidence to tackle global and local challenges.
This online short course will equip you with the knowledge and tools you need to shape policy and practice with evidence more effectively.
Influencing practitioners with evidence and contributing to policy requires an explicit focus on power analysis and politics in highly complex environments.
This policy course equips participants with the concepts, skills and tools required to design achievable influencing plans, as well as to produce, review and communicate research effectively and to enhance your capacity to shape policy and practice in an international development setting.
You will join an international cohort of policy and evidence innovators from governments, development agencies, charities, social enterprises and research organisations, to share learning and gain new insights into improving policy and practice through better use of evidence.
If you have any queries about if this course is right for you, please contact our dedicated short courses team at [email protected]
This online course attracts individuals leading policy and research in their organisations or programmes, seeking to enhance their evidence literacy and policy engagement capacity to help them become more effective advocates for social change.
Past Shaping Policy with Evidence course participants include:
Our all-new organisational training package invites group bookings, at a discounted rate, that include tailored support for your project or institutional strategy.
Organisational learners will enjoy the full six-week online course, followed by an IDS-led tailored workshop for their project or institution that will explore how they can best apply the policy concepts and tools to their own work.
This package is based on IDS’ highly acclaimed bespoke facilitated learning events for organisational effectiveness and comes at no extra cost.
To find out more about organisational policy training, please email [email protected].
Approximately 30 participants per course.
The power and evidence analysis in this policy course has enabled previous participants to:
The course is led by the IDS Knowledge, Impact and Policy Cluster, which has pioneered approaches to linking up the supply of inclusive research with the demand for evidence from governments, multilaterals and development agencies.
These policy experts have successfully mobilised knowledge in response to urgent international crises, including Covid-19, and their impressive credentials include providing tailored policy and research analysis – as well as and accompanied learning services – to governments, INGOS, think tanks, universities and research funders.
This policy course combines live seminars held by international guest speakers, live learning webinars as well as pre-recorded lectures, small peer learning groups and case study work.
You will be assigned a course facilitator and a small study group in order to maximise the opportunity to learn from your peers.
You will meet virtually every Tuesday and are invited to attend special sessions on Thursdays. Each week there is a self-directed learning assignment which you will share in small study groups.
The course culminates in your presentations of an influencing strategy from case study groups, to demonstrate how you have applied the learning.
Course Director:
James Georgalakis, IDS Director of Communications and Impact
31 January 2025
8 April 2024
19 July 2023
20 March 2023