Capacity Building Program
Why Capacity Building?
Dr. Alfred Latigo lectures on Africa's social & economic development to students at the Universities of Benin and Parakou, West Africa, 2012 on the invitation of Prof. Jules Dégila, Professor of Telecommunications Engineering, University of Benin and a member of GIDE Advisory Council.
1. A growing number of governments in low income countries are trying to improve their performance through enhanced capacity so they can operate more efficiently and provide better services to their people. Governments, international agencies and civil society organizations (CSOs) need to know how policies and programs shape the lives of people today and in future generations. And, it is now widely acknowledged that national development policies and programs should be informed by evidence generated by country-led monitoring and evaluation systems, rather than donor-led ones or based on opinion, while ensuring policy coherence at regional and global level.
2. The Malabo Declaration of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (June 24-27, 2014) in Equatorial Guinea on “Transforming Africa’s Agriculture for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods through Harnessing Opportunities for Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development" endorsed the commitment of African countries to "evidence-based planning, policy, efficiency, dialogue, review and accountability" and "Strengthening national and regional capacities for knowledge generation and management that support evidence-based planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation".
3. Year 2015 was officially declared as the International Year of Evaluation at the Third International Conference on National Evaluation Capacities held in São Paulo, Brazil, 29 September-2 October 2013. The aim of the International Year of Evaluation is to strengthen the demand for and use of evaluation and evidence-based policy making at international, regional, national and local levels. And, in 2015 the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will be replaced by a new set of internationally agreed goals, most likely to be called Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While the MDGs drove a global vision on human development and facilitated its implementation and monitoring, a comprehensive evaluation of what has been achieved has not been carried out so far. This is partly because the country level building blocks for such a review were not available. Also, citizen demands for evidence and greater accountability from governments are growing world-wide. The International Year of Evaluation, the upcoming SDGs and the growing bottom up movement for greater accountability that is leading to new innovations to strengthen and hold policy makers accountable together present a strong case for strengthening national capacity in impact evaluation in the coming years. Consequently, capacity building especially in impact evaluation is now a top priority for GIDE.
Objective of GIDE’s Capacity Building Program
The aim of GIDE's capacity building program is to enhance the capacities of national policy makers, researchers and CSOs to contribute to the improved country-led evaluation systems and policies for inclusive green growth.
In collaboration with the R&G Economic Consultants, the Global Institute for Development Evidence (GIDE), Hawaii, USA, Uganda and Zambia provides specialist training in Impact Evaluation (Systematic Reviews), Performance Evaluation of Projects, Programs and Policies, Environmental Impact Assessment and Mainstreaming Regional Integration through a blended learning mode. The course participants can elect to attend instructor-led highly participatory high impact training seminars and continue at their own pace through the Flowers Online Learning portal or via instructor-facilitated online learning. Professionals in government institutions, non-governmental organisations and academics in the environmental sciences, political science and economics will find these training programs helpful for enhanced decision-making.
To realize this objective, GIDE and its partners expect to work with and get support from bilateral and international development agencies operating in Africa. These institutions include the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Union Commission (AUC), the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), The Regional Economic Communities (RECs), The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and the World Bank.
Course Faculty: Dr. Alfred Latigo, Prof. Raphael O. Olaniyan and Prof. Francis Ejobi
1. Systematic Reviews (Evidence Based Practice)
GIDE in collaboration with the Flowers School of Management and Technology has embarked on the following program on Systematic Reviews:
- Developing a Training Manual on Systematic Reviews: Meta Data Analysis and Narrative Synthesis
- Training on Narrative Synthesis and Meta Data Analysis in Social and Economic Development, Agriculture; and Environment and Natural Resources through i) On line and in-class courses; and ii) Hands-on workshops in Africa and Asia.
2. Environmental Impact Assessment
3. Mainstreaming Regional Integration in National Plans