Developing Regional Capacity in Operations Research and Economic Evaluation in South Asia

The project contributed significantly to the capacity building of regional professionals in planning, implementing, and monitoring reproductive health programs. During 2001-2005, 157 professionals from 17 countries received training in various aspects of reproductive health in nine workshops, including operations research, economic evaluation, qualitative research methods, proposal writing, and process documentation and enhancing the utilization of research findings in reproductive health programs. Forty-three percent of workshop participants were program managers from government health programs and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Success in leveraging resources from other collaborating agencies (CAs) and other donors helped the project to organize more workshops than originally planned and train more professionals than expected. Out of the funds spent, 52 percent was successfully leveraged from other agencies. A survey of the workshop participants four to 38 months after training revealed that 70 percent of respondents were using their newly acquired skills in programmatic improvement, program development, and conducting operations research.

Link to material: http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/Pnadh439.pdf