This course covers the basic curriculum of other sections of Policy Analysis, but with a focus on poverty and development in rural Latin America (though cases and examples will also be drawn other parts of the developing world). Students
will be introduced to the stages of the public policy process. Students will also develop basic policy analysis skills,
drawn from a survey of quantitative and qualitative social-science methods used to structure policy inquiry. A series of research approaches and techniques are presented in the context of forecasting, monitoring, and evaluation for the analysis of domestic and international policies. Unlike other sections of Policy Analysis, students in this section will design a research project specific to MIIS’s government and NGO partners in Peru and El Salvador. This section of Policy Analysis is linked to J-Term
practicum courses in Peru and El Salvador, in which students will use the research tools designed in this section of the course to carry out original policy research; and to a Spring semester course in which the data collected and work done in Peru El Salvador will be analyzed and transformed into final project deliverables. While students are not required to take all three components of this sequence, it is strongly recommended.