Course Code/Name: WGI 103: Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation Course

Theme: Managing for Results: A Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation Course

When/Where: Abuja, 2^nd – 5^th April, 2012 

Course Overview:

Monitoring and Evaluation are essential ingredients for development as they improve performance of governmental, non-governmental and private sector institutions. The scarcity of resources in developing countries demands that programmes and projects are carefully planned, monitored and evaluated to ensure that inputs and activities yield expected outputs, outcomes and impact in a transparent and accountable manner. This course seeks to address capacity gaps in M and E by clarifying concepts, de-mystifying the logframe approach to project design in a step-wise and practical manner, strengthen participants' skills and confidence in developing and implementing M and E plans within the transformative paradigm, mainstreaming gender in M and E, developing and using data collection tools and methods, analyzing data and writing reader-friendly M and E reports. The course is hinged on adult learning principles and applies several creative techniques that address the cognitive, affective and behavioural domains and enhance retention and recall. A practical evaluation exercise (fieldwork) has been included in this course.

Course Code/Name: WGI 105: Use of SPSS for Data Management

Theme: Use of SPSS for Data Management

When/Where: Abuja, 19^th – 21^st March, 2012

Course Overview

This 3-day workshop provides practical training on how to use SPSS for data analysis. The course is designed for researchers and staff of governmental and non-governmental organizations, consultants and students of higher institutions who have responsibility for/or are interested in data management. The course focuses more on descriptive statistical techniques and how these can be used to analyse data relevant to your research and programme needs, like means, median, percentages, cross-tabulation, etc. The training is laced with field work (for data collection) and practical (hands-on) sessions to ensure that every participant attains an appreciable level of comfort and familiarity with the package.

At the beginning of the 20^th Century, the World’s population was less than 2 billion people. Each year, it increases by about 80 million people. It is projected to rise to 7 billion by the end of 2011 and 9.3 billion by 2050. The largest increase is projected to be in Africa where total fertility rate (TFR) is more than 5 in over 20 countries.

Africa accounts for 20% of the World’s population and by all measures, is the fastest growing continent. Most countries in West Africa have TFRs between 3.0 and 8.0 - Ghana, 3.48; Liberia, 5.13; Sierra Leone, 4.94; Nigeria, 2.73; Benin, 5.33; Togo, 4.69; Mali, 7.38 and Niger, 7.37. Though the current TFRs represent a decline in the number of births per woman over the years, they do not indicate a decline in population growth as is the case in developed countries where TFRs have fallen dramatically below 2.6 in most instances.

Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa with a current population of over 158 million will maintain its first position with a projected population of at least 289 million by 2050. Nigeria is expected to overtake the population of the US by 2050 even though its total land area of 923,000 square kilometers is only one tenth of that occupied by the US.  The impoverished and drought-prone West African country Niger is projected to have a meteoric population rise from 16 million to 58 million by 2050 at the current population growth rate. This could portend massive food insecurity, social and environmental problems for the small Sahelian country.