Program

To make policies to the best interest of the public and cost effective, policy decisions should be based on policy analyzed information provided by policy analysts to policymakers. Thus, policy makers have to have sufficient information, facts and figures to propose policies, to accept or reject policy proposals presented by government bodies so that their decision could be rational and effective. Policy analysts are only there to provide policy relevant information to policy makers in support of policy decisions but should not venture to prescribe. Such procedures help policy analysts to adhere to their professional integrity, while policymakers have to make final political decisions which are of a multifaceted nature and beyond the analysis forwarded to them.

On the other hand, knowledge and skills of policy analysis is critically important for public managers and experts at all levels of government. As a multidisciplinary approach, policy analysis helps decision makers to depend on critical analysis of the social, economic, cultural and political situations and settings of the country.  Such comprehensive assessment of situations will help come up with evidence-based policymaking process which has immediacy and curerency in the contemporary public policy arenas. Hence, owing to the paramount role of policy analysis in the policy making process and the obvious trained experts gap in the area in Ethiopia, the school of public policy studies (SPS), with the direction given by the ECSU, has launched a new master program in policy analysis as of the 2016/2017 academic year.