November 4, 2009

DARA has completed a regional training course for 14 Asia-Pacific Country Offices of UNICEF in the Philippines, from September to October this year.

After introducing an evaluation policy in 2008, UNICEF Country Offices in the Asia Pacific region organized a training course in order to reinforce monitoring and evaluation capacities of UNICEF CO’s.

DARA, as the only external organisation to participate in the training, was invited to present the key note speech on new trends in evaluation in the context of aid effectiveness (Paris Declaration and Accra Agenda for Action), as well as the evaluation in humanitarian aid contexts and HRI modules. Additionally, the organisation also acted as discussant of the real-time evaluation module among others.

The training provided participants with an increased understanding of different types of evaluation and approaches, improving their capacity to use both quantitative and qualitative methods. It also enhanced their competencies for managing and contracting evaluations.

The course was based on first-hand experiences regarding lessons learned and good practices emanating from UNICEF and the UN system.

Like in this case, DARA encourages conducting needs assessments before carrying out training in order to guarantee these being demand driven and utilisation focused.