Complementary to its research initiatives (see Read More), PEP continued to provide online learning opportunities designed to strengthen research and policy capacity across the Global South.
In 2025, these spanned graduate-level training in development economics, foundational courses on gender equality and inclusion in research, and the development of new courses aimed at government staff and policymakers.
PEP offered a free-to-use, self-paced, interactive, bilingual online training course to strengthen researchers’ capacity to integrate gender equality and inclusion (GEI) principles in their research.
The course emphasises the African experience, drawing on the expertise of primarily Southern-based experts, and focuses on GEI-related concepts, analytical frameworks, methodologies, data gaps, and strategies for inclusion.
This course consists of 17 modules divided into two parts: a Core GEI Program with seven mandatory modules and ten additional modules tailored to specific research interests.
By the end of 2025, over 600 people had completed the course and received certification.
🔗 Learn more about the GEI course and its content
PEP’s online training programme offers courses on the themes and analytical methods central to policy research. The standard annual edition, offered each February to May since 2017, comprises four courses: non-experimental impact analysis; computable general equilibrium modelling; measuring and alleviating poverty and inequality; and gender analysis in economic policy research. Together, these form PEP’s Graduate Microprogram in Development Economics.
The 2025 edition saw 47 participants enrolled across the four courses, with some taking more than one simultaneously for a total of 62 enrolments. Among participants, 23% were women and 93% were based in low-income economies or fragile states.
PEP also established a partnership with the Programme de Troisième Cycle Interuniversitaire en Économie (PTCI), to extend access to students across several universities in West Africa.
🔗 Learn more about the development economics microprogram
Two new online courses were under development as part of PEP’s work to strengthen evidence-informed policymaking capacities in Africa. The first, aimed at government staff, covers best practices for evidence-informed policymaking. The second addresses policy costing methods, including cost-benefit analysis, and will be offered in separate versions for researchers and for non-academic policymakers.
Both courses are planned for delivery in 2026.
