On February 1, the University of Central Asia’s (UCA) Institute of Public Policy and Administration (IPPA) held a graduation ceremony in Dushanbe for fourteen civil servants from Tajikistan, who completed the Certificate Program in Economic Policy (CPEP), according to the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN).
This IPPA program is conducted in partnership with the Institute of Public Administration under the President of Tajikistan. CPEP engages civil servants who wish to acquire skills that are essential in advancing evidence-based policy analysis.
“The CPEP program was very interesting and useful, and focused on the evidence and logic behind policies implemented or planned by the government,” said Ms. Tahmina Tolibi from the Ministry of Finance of Tajikistan. “When I returned to my office after class, I shared the program’s contents with my colleagues and it always sparked discussions between us.”
The three-month program reportedly consisted of six modules covering key areas of economic policy: Public Finance; Labor Markets and Education; Foreign Trade; Agriculture; and Extractive Industries and Sustainable Development.
Learners also wrote a policy paper on a specific issue as a capstone project, and their topics ranged from food security to tackling Tajikistan’s external debt. Program participants came from a range of government agencies including ministries of Finance, Agriculture, Industry and New Technologies, Customs Service under the Government of Tajikistan, and the Institute of Public Administration under the President of Tajikistan.
CPEP is part of a larger program of teaching and research on ‘Pathways to Innovation’ supported by Canada’s International Development Research Center and the Aga Khan Foundation Canada. In March 2020, IPPA, which is part of UCA’s Graduate School of Development, will enroll a second intake of CPEP learners.
