Introduction
The National School of Public Policy (NSPP), Lahore, is the premier institution for the training and continuing education of civil servants in Pakistan. The School provides mandatory, four-tiered, training courses for civil servants through their entire career cycle. Policy related, strategic, operational, and tactical training is provided beginning with Basic Scale-18 officers up to Basic Scale-20 officers who are transitioning to the highest level of public policy making.

Building on the strength of Pakistan’s existing training mechanism, the NSPP was established on the 15^th of March 2005 under the NSPP Ordinance of 2002 with a broader scope and mandate. The ordinance merged the Pakistan Administrative Staff College, now the National Management College (NMC), with the five provincial National Institutions of Public Administration, now National Institutes of Management (NIMs).

In June 2009, NSPP was declared a Degree Awarding Institute. While training remains central to the School, it is expanding its core functions to also include ‘education’ and ‘research’. The School has established the National Institute of Public Policy (NIPP) as a research organization with the goal of evolving it into a think tank for the senior executives of both the public and private sectors on challenging public policy issues.

Dr. Ijaz Munir
Rector, National School of Public Policy

Hello, and welcome to NSPP!

The National School of Public Policy (NSPP) is the apex organization for in-service training of civil servants in Pakistan. As a school of public policy, our institutional memory is informed by a rich tradition of civil service going back to early 19^th century. At the same time, we attempt to remain cognizant of the challenges of the 21^st century such as climate change, demographic shifts, economic development, national security and more recently, the Covid-19 epidemic and its fallout. In our training effort, we aim at grooming public managers with the right combination of knowledge, skills and ethics and inculcating a sense of mission for public service. To encourage a tradition of mutual learning, we have introduced case study research and writing as a genre of experience sharing since the 107^th National Management Course (NMC). The 114^th NMC will be held this year in a blended mode with most activities conducted online through the Zoom platform. All our documentation is accessible from a password protected e-portal to enable our trainees to manage all their training activities in a paperless mode. I hope that the NMC training in a virtual environment will not only achieve our stated learning objectives but will also contribute positively to enhancing digital skills of the government. Our efforts to develop a completely green campus also continue at a steady pace though this time without the much appreciated contribution of our participant officers.

Our alumnus network present across the public policy spectrum is our valuable asset as also are the international and local scholars visiting our campus as guest speakers. We look forward to continue working with our counterpart institutions in the region and across the world to contribute to the on-going public policy discourse on critical issues of common concern.

I wish you all the best and hope that the NMC will be a valuable learning experience for you!

Dr. Ijaz Munir
Rector, NSPP