Curriculum

Hosted by The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, fellows and 8QM training participants enjoy privileged access to cutting edge research, library catalogues and top-notch faculty. They graduate with a Certificate of Completion issued by Tufts University.

The Fletcher Leadership Program for Financial Inclusion (FLPFI) develops the capacity of policymakers to design, implement, and learn from innovative policy in inclusive finance. FLPFI does this through an intensive annual fellowship, multi-stakeholder policy development workshops, support of policy-impacting research activities, and providing alumni with continued technical learning opportunities. In addition to the 184 policymakers from 58 countries who have completed the FLPFI Fellowship since 2011, we have trained nearly 200 additional policymakers through our Eight Question Method for Policy Development (8QM) workshops since 2018.

The 8QM curriculum is a proven framework that helps policymakers design, implement, and analyze innovative, adaptive, and evidence‐based policies. The 8QM provides a core framework through which problems are explored and diagnosed, objectives are considered and prioritized, stakeholders are identified and strategically engaged, policies are formulated, communicated, and implemented, and, ultimately, lessons are learned about policy implementation and impact. 84% of FLPFI fellowship alumni have implemented the policies developed through the 8QM.

The 8QM is a logical policy development process, and each step builds incrementally on the analysis performed in the previous step. Key deliverables are generated at every stage, capturing the hard work and thoughtful analysis conducted, and ultimately facilitating the implementation of the policy. Analysis is always based in data. Students complete an original research project with people affected by their challenge, produce outputs related to the 8QM, deliver a policy pitch, and write a policy memo.

To complete the original research project, participants are asked to interview people affected by their challenge, using a process similar to Human-Centered Design. These exercises produce novel insights and foster powerful moments of human connection. These are some of the ways in which FLPFI continuously works to focus on the local challenges and marginalized people that participants’ policies will seek to positively impact. The insights generated will be applied to all the subsequent steps of the 8QM, which are detailed below in the 8QM Workshops Series.

Objectives of the 8QM

Equip students with skills and processes to better understand and solve for a real world challenges.
Design a policy or program.

8QM Workshops Series

Module 1: Introduction to the 8QM
Module 2: People-Centered Policy (PCP)
Module 3: Problem Analysis
Module 4: Objectives Setting
Module 5: Working in Partnership
Module 6: Policy Tools Development
Module 7: Implementation and Learning
Module 8: Communicating your Policy
Follow up work: Policy Memo writing and revision