On Monday, December 29, 2025, Center for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP) conducted a workshop “Engaging with Evidence: Training Officers as Future Smart Policy Champions” for the participants of 45th Mid-Career Management Course (MCMC) at National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA) Lahore. The workshop was conducted by a two-member CERP team: Dr Adeel Shafqat and Dr Adnan Qadir Khan. Dr. Shafqat is Director Agri-Hub, CERP, whereas Dr Khan is an internationally acknowledged development economist who is currently a Professor of Public Policy at the London School of Economics. The first to speak was Dr. Shafqat, whereas Dr. Khan, who conducted the workshop virtually, spoke after Dr. Shafqat.
Dr. Shafqat started by posing the question “why do seemingly good policies fail?” The answer, he explained, was poor design and implementation. And these problems stem from limited data, political resistance, and capacity issues. The solution, he said, was on SPDI (Smart Policy Design and Implementation) Approach. Much of his subsequent discussion was to elaborate SPDI. Dr. Shafqat identified six dimensions of SPDI: (i) identify pressing policy problems; (ii) diagnose underlying causes; (iii) design high-potential policy solutions that are feasible in terms of political authorization and implementation; (iv) implement and monitor solutions on the ground; (v) test high-potential solutions with rigorous evaluation; and (vi) refine solutions based on continuous monitoring and feedback.
Dr. Adnan Qadir Khan’s presentation was on “Evidence-based Policy Design: Civil Service of Pakistan.” Dr. Khan started by explaining the concept of evidence-based policy design and why it mattered. Such policy design, he explained, uses rigorous, objective evidence to inform policy decisions and it relies on research, data, and evaluation to determine whether policies are actually effective. Evidence, he said, comes before policy. Explaining the importance of evidence for policy development, especially for civil service, he said evidence enables smart decision-making, improves public confidence in the policy process and outcomes, and boosts efficiency and impact. The presentation by each speaker was followed by a question & answer session.