Cambridge MPhil Public Policy Supplemental Essay Example: Career Change (Score 92)

This MPhil in Public Policy will let me move from exploratory gender analysis to rigorous policy design. My undergraduate public policy studies in Lagos included a gender and equality analysis for a local NGO and a policy memo on women's access to public services; both revealed how much I still need structured training in causal inference and programme evaluation. Unlike my personal statement, which traces my broader motivation, this field addresses specific course mechanisms. The core modules in policy analysis and quantitative evaluation methods will equip me to test claims I could only describe qualitatively in my earlier applied project. Comparative policy frameworks offered in the programme will sharpen my ability to benchmark Nigerian gender mainstreaming against peer contexts in West Africa. For a dissertation, I aim to evaluate the effectiveness of Lagos State's gender mainstreaming directives using mixed methods—combining administrative data with stakeholder interviews—while explicitly addressing the attribution threat that observed gains may reflect concurrent federal reforms rather than state-level action.