The Policy Innovation Lab is committed to designing and delivering training on topics related to policy innovation. Training and developing the human capabilities of policy makers is critical, as it increases their up-to-date knowledge and expertise, thereby equipping them to make more informed and relevant policies. In addition, training policy makers increases the likelihood of them making more evidence-based, better-quality decisions. To this end, the Lab recently delivered training on policy costing approaches.

In line with this commitment, the Lab recently hosted an online Policy Costing Refresher Course. The training was conducted by Dr Puni Mamdoo, a Specialist Physician in Public Health Medicine with extensive experience in monitoring, evaluation and policy analysis in the South African health sector. Dr Mamdoo taught government participants contemporary policy costing methods to calculate the different costs, and she shared each method’s assumptions, scope, limitations and when it is best to utilise each method. This enabled them to understand how different government departments arrive at policy costing figures.

Participants were also exposed to different frameworks to analyse public policies, enabling them to understand how it is vital to incorporate the various stakeholders affected by the policy from the beginning rather than getting them to endorse a final product.

According to Dr Itai Makone from the Lab, co-ordinator of the training course, “training and developing the capabilities of policy makers is essential”. Makone added that “by enhancing their policy costing competencies, we are empowering them to make more informed decisions that align with global best practices”.

The Lab is developing a follow-up to the Policy Costing training and will deliver a digital tool for policy advice training to PRS in mid-November 2024. The motivation is to contribute to improved policy coherence and coordination and the development of effective institutions.