By Ayobami Ayorinde and Seyi Akinbodewa | On 10th and 11th February 2025, Agora Policy hosted a packed but engaging inception workshop for the inaugural cohort of its Policy Writing Fellowship. Designed to strengthen a data-driven and rigorous approach to policy writing in the country,
the three-month fellowship is supported by MacArthur Foundation as part of the Policy Support, Deepening and Engagement (PSDE) project of Agora Policy.
The inception workshop, which marked the commencement of the fellowship, was held in the boardroom of the Yar'Adua Centre in Abuja, attended by the 20 competitively selected fellows from diverse professional backgrounds, including public service, academia, media, think tanks, and civil society.
The workshop commenced with a welcome address by Ms. Ojobo Atuluku, the Chair of the Board of Agora Policy, who emphasised the importance of evidence-based policy writing in shaping national discourse and governance. This was followed by opening remarks from Dr. Kole Shettima, the Country Director of the MacArthur Foundation, who restated the foundation’s commitment to fostering informed policymaking through research and writing. Mr. Waziri Adio, the founder of Agora Policy, then provided an in-depth overview of the rationale behind the fellowship and outlined the roadmap, setting the stage for the participants’ learning journey.
The first day of lectures began with a session by Prof. Emmanuel Aiyede on "The Politics of Public Policy." In his presentation, Prof. Aiyede explained how public policy is influenced by governmental and non-governmental actors, institutions, and prevailing ideologies. Following this, Dr. Mohammed Shuaibu led a session on "The Economics of Public Policy," where he highlighted the crucial role of economic principles in policy formulation. He stressed the need for policymakers, analysts, and writers to have a sound understanding of economic fundamentals to effectively design, critique, and recommend policies. Dr. Shuaibu further noted that successful public policies should be grounded in data-driven evidence rather than idealistic assumptions or wishful thinking.
Adding an international perspective, the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Dr. Richard Montgomery, delivered a lecture on "What End Users Look for in Policy Papers." He provided valuable insights into the expectations of policymakers and other policy actors and about the factors they take into consideration when reviewing policy documents. He offered the participants tips on how to get and keep the attention of time-poor policy actors. Building on this, Mr. Adio took the fellows through various frameworks for policy writing, illustrating his points with case studies that had been shared with the fellows in advance.
The second day of the workshop started with a session by Dr. Shuaibu on "Tools and Techniques for Analysing Economic Policies." He encouraged participants to harness credible data sources, apply analytical tools, and structure their findings in a compelling manner to enhance the impact of their policy papers. This was followed by Prof. Aiyede’s session on "Researching and Writing Impactful Policy Papers," where he explored different types of public policy analysis and clarified the difference between traditional academic research and policy writing. Mr. Adio also took a session on “Sourcing and Analysing Public Dataset” and walked the fellows through a recent data analysis undertaken by Agora Policy.
The workshop also featured two distinguished guest speakers who shared their practical experiences in policy writing and advisory roles. Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, a former editor, state commissioner and federal minister who has written extensively for Agora Policy, shared insights and tips with the fellows, illustrated with examples from two of his policy briefs for Agora Policy. He recounted his journey in policy formulation, policy implementation, and policy writing. Similarly, Ms. Amaka Anku, Africa Practice Head at US-based Eurasia Group, offered perspectives on the intricacies of policy advisory and writing at the international level.
Throughout the workshop, fellows engaged in interactive discussions with facilitators, exchanging ideas and receiving feedback on their policy writing approaches. The event was also graced by esteemed guests, including Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, Chair of the Editorial Board of ThisDay newspapers and former presidential spokesman; and Maj-Gen J.B. Olawumi (rtd.), former Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
The inception workshop will be followed by a series of virtual workshops over the next three months. Each fellow, working with assigned supervisor, is expected to produce a policy brief during the fellowship. The supervisors are: Prof. Babajide Fowowe, a professor of economics and a senior fellow with Agora Policy; Dr. Leena Hoffmann, an associate fellow with Chatham House; Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, a writer and former policymaker; and Mr. Waziri Adio, the founder of Agora Policy.
Below are some of the pictures from the two-day inception workshop.
