PGT Certifications/Level 2/Executive
PGT Executive
Strategic Policy, Governance and Public Sector Performance
Five days for the people who sign the memo, chair the meeting and answer for the result. Executive takes the governance standards the world already works from — OECD, United Nations, World Bank, African Union — and turns them into how your institution formulates policy, spends, delivers and accounts for itself.
Ten modules across five days, working from approximately twelve global references.
- Course code
- PGT 200
- Primary focus
- Governance and policy leadership
- Duration
- 5 days
- Modules
- 10 modules
- Body of knowledge
- ~12 global references
About the certification
You already lead.
This is how the best governments do it.
Executive is the level for senior officials who have the authority to change how an institution works — and want to know what good actually looks like before they use it.
Where Foundation explains the principles, Executive applies them. Over five days you move through the full arc of governing: how strategic public governance is structured, how policy is analysed and formulated, how public integrity is protected, how regulation and the budget are governed, how digital and open government change the relationship with citizens, how the SDGs are integrated into national priorities, and how government performance is actually measured.
The material draws on approximately twelve global references — seven OECD frameworks and recommendations, the UN 2030 Agenda with UNDP and E-Government guidance, two World Bank instruments, and the African Union's Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want.
Every session ends where your desk begins: what you will do differently in your institution when the week is over.
Sound governance is not a philosophy. It is a set of practices that can be learned, applied and audited.
Learning objectives
- Improve policy formulation
- Strengthen governance systems
- Align the SDGs with government priorities
- Improve public sector performance
- Build citizen trust
Target audience
For those who set direction, not just follow it
Executive is written for officials who carry responsibility for a function, a budget or a team — whose decisions already shape how citizens experience the state.
Directors
Leaders accountable for delivery within a ministry, agency or parastatal.
Commissioners
State-level executives carrying a sector mandate and a public accountability line.
Heads of departments
Those responsible for a department's plans, people and performance.
Senior policy officers
Those who draft, cost and defend the policies everyone else is measured against.
Strategy managers
Officers translating national and institutional strategy into plans that can be delivered.
Development partner staff
Partner teams aligning support with national systems, priorities and standards.
Where Executive sits
PGT Executive is Level 2 of the five-level PGT pathway, focused on governance and policy leadership. PGT Foundation is free, self-paced and establishes the principles the week builds on; Executive is where those principles are applied inside a working institution.
Course outline
Ten modules across five days
The full arc of governing — from standards and integrity, through regulation, budget and digital delivery, to the SDGs and measured performance.
Strategic Public Governance
The OECD framework in full: the values, enablers and instruments that separate governments that deliver from governments that announce.
Policy Analysis
Defining a problem properly, generating real options, weighing evidence and cost, and writing policy that survives contact with implementation.
Public Integrity
Integrity systems in practice — conflict of interest, asset declaration, ethical leadership, and the culture that decides whether rules hold when nobody is watching.
Government Leadership
Public service leadership and capability: building the senior cadre, the skills and the accountability that institutional performance depends on.
Regulatory Governance
Regulatory quality and policy — how rules are made, reviewed and enforced so that regulation protects the public without strangling enterprise.
Budgetary Governance
The budget as a governance instrument: linking policy to allocation, execution discipline, transparency and value for money.
Digital Government
Digital government strategy and maturity — service redesign, data and interoperability, and where technology genuinely improves outcomes.
Open Government
Transparency, participation and accountability to citizens as design principles rather than compliance obligations.
SDG Integration
Embedding the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063 into national and institutional planning, budgeting and reporting rather than appending them.
Government Performance
Measuring what matters: governance indicators, performance systems, and reporting that informs decisions rather than decorating them.
Body of knowledge
Approximately twelve global references
Executive teaches from the frameworks governments are already measured against — not from opinion, and not from any single institution's house view.
OECD
7 references- Policy Framework on Sound Public Governance
- Recommendation on Public Integrity
- Recommendation on Open Government
- Recommendation on Regulatory Policy and Governance
- Recommendation on Budgetary Governance
- Recommendation on Digital Government Strategies
- Recommendation on Public Service Leadership and Capability
United Nations
3 references- UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
- UNDP Governance for Sustainable Development
- UN E-Government Survey
World Bank
2 references- Worldwide Governance Indicators
- GovTech Maturity Index
African Union
1 reference- Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want
The reference base is cumulative. Foundation begins with 2 definitive references. Executive works from approximately 12. Practitioner carries all of these forward and adds to 20+, Professional to 30+, and Leader to 40+.
Learning outcomes
What you leave with
By the end of PGT Executive you are applying global best practice inside your own institution — with the evidence to justify it and the language to carry others with you.
- Design stronger policies
- Improve governance across your institution
- Strengthen institutional coordination
- Deliver better public value
- Align the SDGs with government priorities
- Build citizen trust through integrity and openness
PGT Executive Certification
Level 2 of the five-level Policy, Governance and Transformation certification pathway.
- Course code PGT 200 · primary focus: governance and policy leadership
- 5 days · 10 modules
- Approximately 12 global references
- The second rung of the PGT pathway
Where it leads
Apply, then design and implement
The five levels move from understanding governance to shaping nations. Each is a complete certification in its own right.
PGT Practitioner
Policy Design, Delivery and National Development — ten days for policy specialists, programme managers, M&E specialists and reform teams, working from 20+ references across regulatory impact assessment, results-based management, risk, evaluation and performance measurement.
Questions
Before you register
Should I complete Foundation first?
Foundation is free, self-paced and establishes the principles Executive applies — the OECD framework, the SDGs, the policy lifecycle. Many participants take it first for that reason. Executive is written for senior officials whose experience may already cover that ground.
How is Executive different from Foundation?
By what you do with the knowledge. Foundation is about understanding governance; Executive is about applying it — analysing policy, governing regulation and the budget, leading digital and open government, integrating the SDGs and measuring performance in your own institution.
What will we actually be working from?
Approximately twelve global references: seven OECD frameworks and recommendations, the UN 2030 Agenda alongside UNDP and E-Government guidance, the World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators and GovTech Maturity Index, and African Union Agenda 2063.
Can a ministry or agency put a cohort through together?
Yes. Directors and heads of department from the same institution learn more working the same problems together, and leave with a shared vocabulary that outlasts the week. Contact the programme team with your numbers.
Is Agenda 2063 really part of the curriculum?
Yes. Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want sits in the Executive body of knowledge alongside the global frameworks, and SDG integration is taught against both the continental and the global agenda.
What comes after Executive?
PGT Practitioner, the ten-day certification in policy design, delivery and national development — the level where the methods and tools of implementation and evaluation are taught in depth.