“Research Methods for Guiding Policy and Evaluation with Special Application to Population and Health”

Date: May 2 – July 22, 2010
Venue: Social Research Center of the American University in Cairo.

The Social Research Center of the American University in Cairo is pleased to announce the 9th round of the training course “Research Methods for Guiding Policy and Evaluation with Special Application to Population and Health”. The three-month training course is directed to Arab nationals and will be held during May 2 – July 22, 2010 at the Social Research Center of the American University in Cairo.

The training course aims to acquaint participants with principles of research methods and its application in the field of population and health.
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Against Transparency: The perils of openness in government.

Being a keen advocate of greater transparency by aid agencies and programmes this article interested me.

See it on the New Replublic website, published on October 9, 2009

The author, Lawrence Lessig, “is professor of law and director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard Law School, and the author most recently of Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy (Penguin). He is on the advisory board of the Sunlight Foundation and on the board of Maplight.org

Training: MOST SIGNIFICANT CHANGE TECHNIQUE (Indonesia)

Date: 25-26th November 2009
Venue: Bogor, Indonesia

The Most Significant Change technique is a dynamic qualitative and participatory monitoring and evaluation method.  Through collecting stories of the impact of our program with the program stakeholders we analyse our work.  Through this process of selecting the stories, change management and organizational learning is facilitated. MSC has a particular ability to capture impact in complex cross cultural social change contexts.

With the shift in monitoring and evaluation to a mixed methods approach MSC is a method that fills the gap in data collection. MSC gathers rich qualitative data that captures intangible impact and unexpected outcomes of the program.

This two day training presents MSC through practical examples and exercises.  The training is designed for active learning.
At the end of the training the participants will:
•  Understand how MSC works
•  Understand how MSC fits into a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework,
•  Know the best situation to use MSC and when not to use MSC
•  Understand how MSC facilitates development of stakeholder relationships and organizational learning & development
•  Have learnt through practical exercises, skills to undertake MSC (story collection, story selection & feedback)
•  Know the specific adaptation of MSC for an Indonesian context
•  Have designed an MSC system for your program.

Who Should Attend These Trainings?
Organisations, teams and individuals seeking to:
•  Develop a program’s direction or clarify a shared vision
•  Try something new in an organisational learning context
•  Capture intangible and unexpected outcomes

Download flyers in English and Indonesian Details of the trainers, the location, the costs and contact names and email addresses are all in the flyer

Most Significant Change Training in Melbourne 1-2 December

Date: 1-2 December
Venue: Melbourne

MSC is a powerful tool for monitoring, evaluation and organisational learning. MSC goes beyond merely capturing and documenting participants’ stories of impact, to offering a means of engaging in effective dialogue. Each story represents the storyteller’s interpretation of impact, which is then reviewed and discussed. The process offers an opportunity for a diverse range of stakeholders to enter into a dialogue about program intention, impact and ultimately future direction. This two day workshop provides an introduction to MSC which includes designing your own MSC process. Participants will be provided with experiential learning opportunities and examples of real applications of the technique throughout the workshop.

This two day course includes the Evaluation Summit training. Evaluation Summit will take place on the second half of day two.

You can register online here

As well as our regular courses we are also seeking expressions of interest for two brand new courses in management: Management Core Concepts and Change Management Toolkit facilitated by Carolynne Wilson our newly appointed senior consultant!