Health Policy Development and Governance Training Course

Participants can frame a policy problem using evidence, affected populations and system consequences.

• Problem trees separating root causes, service failures and downstream effects
• Burden-of-disease data interpreted alongside utilisation, quality and expenditure patterns
• Equity analysis by income, geography, gender, disability and population group
• Writing policy problem statements with scale, urgency and affected groups
• Baseline assessment using administrative data, surveys, audits and qualitative evidence
• Separating symptoms from policy causes and controllable system constraints

Participants can position policy proposals within formal decision processes and political windows.

• Policy cycle stages from agenda setting through evaluation and revision
• Kingdon's Multiple Streams Framework for policy windows and agenda access
• Issue framing for ministers, communities, providers, funders and media
• Cabinet, parliamentary, board and regulatory approval pathways mapped
• Timing proposals around budgets, elections, crises and planning cycles
• Policy entrepreneurs, champions and coalitions shaping issue salience

Participants can appraise and combine evidence for defensible policy recommendations.

• Evidence hierarchy: systematic reviews, trials, observational studies and routine data
• Assessing study relevance, bias, transferability and implementation conditions
• Evidence briefs structured around questions, findings, uncertainty and implications
• Triangulating quantitative data with provider, patient and community perspectives
• GRADE principles for communicating certainty of evidence and recommendations
• Separating evidence findings from values, assumptions and political choices

Participants can identify stakeholders, interests, influence and engagement strategies.

• Stakeholder mapping by interest, influence, legitimacy and policy position
• Power-interest grids for prioritising engagement and communication effort
• Political economy analysis of incentives, rents, alliances and resistance
• Provider associations, patient groups and industry actors assessed systematically
• Engagement plans matching consultation methods to stakeholder decision power
• Managing conflicts of interest in advisory groups and consultations

Participants can incorporate equity, rights and ethical criteria into policy choices.

• Universal health coverage dimensions: population, services and financial protection
• Human rights principles: availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality
• Distributional impact assessment for proposed coverage and service changes
• Ethical priority-setting criteria: need, benefit, severity and fairness
• Gender-responsive policy analysis using access, agency and resource dimensions
• Safeguards for vulnerable populations, informed consent and data protection

Participants can develop policy alternatives and recommend an evidence-based preferred option.

• Option generation through prevention, purchasing, regulation and delivery reforms
• Multi-criteria decision analysis using weighted policy selection criteria
• Comparing effectiveness, equity, affordability, acceptability and implementation feasibility
• Status quo, incremental and transformational options tested against constraints
• Decision matrices documenting assumptions, trade-offs and recommendation rationale
• Writing concise option papers for executive and ministerial decisions

Participants can assess financing implications and budget impact of policy proposals.

• Revenue collection, pooling, purchasing and provider payment functions
• Budget impact analysis using eligible populations, uptake and unit costs
• Cost drivers: workforce, medicines, infrastructure, information and administration
• Provider payment incentives under salaries, capitation, fee-for-service and DRGs
• Fiscal space assessment using expenditure trends and funding commitments
• Phased implementation scenarios for constrained annual budget allocations

Participants can apply priority-setting principles to services, medicines and technologies.

• Health technology assessment domains: clinical, economic, ethical and organisational
• Cost-effectiveness concepts: comparators, incremental costs and health outcomes
• Priority-setting committees, appraisal processes and transparent decision criteria
• Essential benefit package design using population needs and affordability
• Disinvestment decisions for low-value services and obsolete technologies
• Managed entry arrangements for uncertain high-cost medicines and devices

Participants can design governance structures with clear authority, oversight and accountability.

• Governance principles: transparency, accountability, participation, integrity and responsiveness
• Decision-rights matrices defining approval authority, consultation and delegated powers
• RACI matrices for policy implementation, oversight and escalation responsibilities
• Board, ministry and regulator roles differentiated within accountability chains
• Terms of reference for steering committees and technical advisory groups
• Conflict-of-interest declarations, registers and recusal procedures established

Participants can align policy proposals with regulatory, quality and patient safety arrangements.

• Regulatory instruments: licensing, accreditation, inspection, sanctions and incentives
• Clinical governance structures for quality, safety and professional accountability
• Quality standards translated into measurable provider compliance requirements
• Risk-based inspection models targeting high-harm and low-compliance providers
• Patient safety incident reporting, learning systems and corrective actions
• Data governance rules for confidentiality, access, retention and disclosure

Participants can convert approved policy into a sequenced and owned implementation plan.

• Implementation roadmaps linking policy actions, milestones, owners and dependencies
• Work breakdown structures for regulatory, service, workforce and communications tasks
• Change impact assessments across providers, patients, staff and systems
• Readiness assessments covering capability, resources, leadership and operational capacity
• Risk registers with likelihood, impact, mitigation and accountable owners
• Implementation sequencing for pilots, scale-up, adaptation and institutionalisation

Participants can address workforce and service delivery changes required by policy reform.

• Service delivery models: primary care, referral networks and integrated care
• Workforce planning using demand, workload, skills mix and geographic distribution
• Change management using ADKAR: awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement
• Clinical leadership roles during service redesign and protocol adoption
• Communications plans addressing concerns, misinformation and implementation expectations
• Provider readiness indicators for training, supplies, supervision and reporting

Participants can build a monitoring framework that supports accountability and policy adaptation.

• Theory of change linking interventions, outputs, outcomes and long-term impact
• Results frameworks with indicators, baselines, targets and data sources
• Indicator definitions specifying numerator, denominator, frequency and disaggregation
• Evaluation questions covering relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, equity and sustainability
• Performance review cycles for corrective action and policy adaptation
• Data quality assessments for completeness, timeliness, consistency and accuracy

Participants can communicate policy recommendations clearly to technical and senior audiences.

• Policy brief structure: issue, evidence, options, recommendation and implementation
• Executive summaries written for decisions, not technical document reproduction
• Visualising service, cost and equity evidence through decision-focused charts
• Anticipating objections from finance, providers, regulators and community representatives
• Briefing senior leaders on trade-offs, risks and required decisions
• Consultation records documenting feedback, responses and policy revisions

Participants can build, review and present a complete health policy and governance package for a defined system problem.

• Policy problem statement supported by burden, service, equity and financing evidence
• Options appraisal using explicit effectiveness, affordability, equity and feasibility criteria
• Preferred policy recommendation with documented assumptions and trade-offs
• Governance model defining decision rights, oversight bodies and accountability routes
• Implementation roadmap integrating budget, workforce, risks and stakeholder engagement
• Monitoring framework specifying results, indicators, baselines, targets and review cycles