Monday 4 May 2009

Monitoring and Evaluation of Maternal and Neonatal Health Programmes: A practical course making a real difference

Robust monitoring and evaluation provides the foundation for evidence-based decision making and allows countries to track progress towards the Millennium Development Goals.

This short course has been developed in association with the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp; the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Ipact, University of Aberdeen and is supported by UNFPA. It has been designed for groups of maternal and neonatal health managers/officers working at national or regional level with governments, international organisations or local/international NGOs. Participants are trained in the theory and practice of monitoring and evaluation and at the end of the two weeks will have developed the skills needed to examine, evaluate and enhance current practice in monitoring, to design and implement evaluations and to use results to advocate for improved maternal and neonatal health.

Each participating country should be represented by a group of key MNH personnel. Participation is open to country teams of 4 to 6 people involved in MNH at a national level. Ideally, participants should be in a position to influence the design and execution of the national MNH monitoring and evaluation strategy. An ideal country group comprises national MNH officers, supported by representatives of a UN or other appropriate international agency and possibly a District representative who can contribute practical experience of programme management.

Participants in Arusha will be part funded by UNFPA International who have agreed to provide funding for 2/3 people in the country group (up to 15 participants) . It is hoped the remaining members of the country group will be funded by other similar organisations.

The course will be held at the MS-Training Centre for Development Cooperation, Arusha, Tanzania and will run from 17th-29th August, 2009. A course flyer and an application form are attached. I would be grateful if you could disseminate this information among your colleagues. Further information can be downloaded from www.ipact-int. com

Further training dates announced

Institute National d’Administration de Santé in Rabat, Morocco: October, 2009
BRAC University, Dhaka Bangladesh: December, 2009

I apologise if you have already received notification of the training.

Best regards

Shelagh Barr
Business Development Manager
Ipact, University of Aberdeen
Health Sciences Building
Foresterhill, Aberdeen, AB25 2ZD
Tel: +44 1224 554264
Fax: +44 1224 555704
Email: sbarr@ipact- int.com
www.ipact-int. com