Since 2014, EPoD has been working with the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (“the Academy”), the premier training institution for the Indian bureaucracy. The Academy trains the individuals - Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Officers - who make the Indian government work. Below, read a description of the Academy-EPoD relationship, as written by Academy leadership.  

For over four years, the Academy has been integrating EPoD trainings into the curriculum. EPoD’s work with the Academy has become a critical part of the IAS Officers’ training curriculum and has reached over 1,000 Officers to date.
 
EPoD’s work with the Academy began with trainings for mid-career IAS officers with fifteen to seventeen years in the service for effective transition to policy formulation. Since 2014, EPoD’s capacity building activities at the Academy have expanded to include all five Phases of trainees, as well as Training of Trainers workshops for Academy faculty. EPoD trainings bring Harvard content to the people who will ultimately be engaged in on-the-ground service delivery. As policymakers increasingly have access to large datasets and other sources of information that could make a real difference in their work, it is critical to equip them with skills and tools for applying this data to decision making in government. These participants at EPoD training at the Academy are people whose decisions can affect many millions of citizens. EPoD’s training is helping them grow skills that they can use to improve governance.
 
The engagement has also helped shape EPoD’s broader capacity building work and understanding of how to engage effectively with policymakers. EPoD content continues to make its way into the curriculum at the Academy, with an emphasized focus on follow-up and real-world application as EPoD’s capacity building work in India grows.