Daily Times

The Centre for Public Policy and Governance at Forman Christian College Lahore (FCCU) and The Civil Services Academy (CSA), Pakistan Administrative Service Campus launched three Policy Briefs under their continuing collaboration on developing a research course module for the CSA’s Mid -Career Management Course.

Mr. Omer Rasool, Director General CSA, and his colleagues including Additional Directors Mr. Muhammad Bilal Akram and Ms. Ammara Khattak spearheaded the collaboration. The CPPG faculty was lead by Founding Director CPPG, Dr. Saeed Shafqat and his team including Mr. Raheem ul Haque, Dr. Rabia Chaudhry and Ms. Saba Shahid.

During the launch event Mr. Rasool explained that the aim of the module for the 3rd Specialized Component of the 32nd Mid Career Management Course was to provide the officers with an understanding of evidence-based policy making through a practical approach to data collection, analysis, policy critique and research writing. The public sector must develop out-of-the-box solutions in order to address real-life public policy challenges and this will come from constant engagement with data, evidence and on-ground realities.

Dr. Shafqat spoke about the need for sustained communication and collaboration between academia and the bureaucracy, which is necessary for policy-making to remain relevant, up-to-date and responsive. The end product of the module was the publication of a policy document authored by the MCMC officers under the CPPG faculty. Each policy brief highlights a particular development challenge under the theme of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and provides policy recommendations in the form of actionable solutions that reflect the experiences of CPPG Faculty and the PAS Campus. The three Policy Briefs launched today are titled Good Health and Well Being: Achieving Sustainable Development Through Adaptive Public Healthcare Policies; Sustainability of Lahore: How can the city meet its SDG 11 targets? and Street Vending: Secure Livelihoods and Sustainable Cities.

Dr. Jonathan Addleton, Rector FCCU gave the closing remarks to the launch event and highlighted CPPG’s continued efforts in the domain of informing decision makers. The Centre has successfully completed a number of collaborative projects in the domain of local government empowerment, migration and urbanization, social welfare, public health and digital governance. This is part of FCCU’s commitment to give-back to the community and work towards creating an environment of open discussion and debate. Dr. Amjad Saqib, Founder and Executive Director Akhuwat Foundation, was the Chief Guest and concluded the event by appreciating the engagement between academics and civil servants-an important activity in the realm of governance. He added that civil society organizations must also be involved in such dialogues and deliberations, as should the output of these events, including Policy Briefs, be able to reach the masses through Urdu translations of these publications. This is important for participatory development processes. Students, faculty members, government officials and civil service trainers were all present at the launch ceremony.