Intro/Abstracts CPPG’s Research and Policy Brief Development Module for the 3rd Specialized Component of the 32nd MCMC at PAS Campus, Lahore Between 21st December 2021 and 14th January 2022, CPPG was engaged as a consulting partner for the Pakistan Administrative Services (PAS) Campus’ 32nd Mid Career Management Course (MCMC). Mr. Umar Rasool, DG PAS, Ms. Ammara Khattak, Additional Director (PAS) and Mr. Bilal Akram, Additional Director (MCMC-PAS) were instrumental during this process and played an important role in advocating for this engagement. With several rounds of meetings, coordination and planning, CPPG’s faculty was requested to design a research-oriented module for the 32nd MCMC. 

The objective of the training module was to develop the officers’ understanding of the importance of data-driven, evidence-based policy making. For this purpose the training module focused on the foundations of identifying a public policy topic, conducting research through a review of literature/existing studies on the topic, collecting primary data where possible and developing an argument with respect to policy recommendations. The CPPG faculty therefore acted as ‘research supervisors’ helping the PAS officers gain both a theoretical understanding of research-based policy analysis, and also completing a practical exercise of writing a policy brief—which was the end output required to pass the MCMC.

The aim of the research module was to focus on a particular development issue with respect to the Sustainable Development Goals. Consequently a group of 22 officers were divided amongst four research supervisors from CPPG and each group focused on a different aspect of the SDGs, as follows:

• Group 1: Good Health and Wellbeing – Supervised by Saba Shahid (Research Fellow, CPPG)
• Group 2: Secure Livelihoods and Sustainable Cities (Developing a policy for lahore’s Street Vendors) – Supervised by Raheem ul Haque
• Group 3: Reducing Inequalities, Inclusive policies for Pakistan’s Minorities– Supervised by Raja M. Ali Saleem
• Group 4: Demography and Security– Supervised by Rabia Chaudhry
• Date of Meeting/Event:  21st December 2021