Final report of the contractor, the Population Council (PC), on a project (10/95-9/96) to strengthen the capability of youth-oriented NGOs in Botswana to deliver adolescent reproductive health and education services — the Youth Empowerment Project (YEP). Under the project, the Botswana National Productivity Centre (BNPC), a parastatal training and consulting organization, helped the NGOs identify and address organizational and managerial issues, while the Ministry of Health”s Health Research Unit (HRU) provided the NGOs training and TA in the use of operations research to improve the delivery of reproductive health services. The project was highly effective in training a number of NGO management and service personnel in basic management skills, including the use of operations research. The project also succeeded in raising awareness among NGO management about the need for systematically identifying and addressing the critical factors for effective organizational change and performance management. The increasing number of participants at workshops, their positive evaluation at the end of workshops, and their presentations at the final dissemination workshop all indicate that the project was highly welcomed by all the NGOs. Additionally, YEP enabled the participating NGOs to establish a relationship with the BNPC and the HRU. Factors leading to the project”s success included: early and close collaboration between PC and the local professional organizations; employment of a full-time project coordinator and local coordinating office; creation of a forum for NGOs to share experiences; and making discussions within the participating NGOs a part of the training experience itself. The major constraint to implementation was the short time-frame, which precluded important follow-up activities such as practical application of principles taught in the classroom, and the development of strategic plans initiated in response to operations research findings. Also, because of understaffing and the volunteer, top-heavy management structure of most NGOs, the management cadre was underrepresented in the YEP training activities. There is abundant evidence of positive changes in the short term. For example, the project raised awareness and appreciation of the need for strategic planning; by the end of the project, seven NGOs were developing, reviewing, or taking greater steps to implement strategic plans. Also, participants in the operations research training and studies gained skills and experience in the conduct and practical utilization of operations research. Their organizations have already demonstrated their appreciation of operations research as a management tool by using its results to implement changes in the organization of services. YEP participants recommend that additional training be provided in the very near future to enable those already trained to apply the knowledge and skills acquired more confidently and to transfer these to those not yet trained. (Author abstract, modified)
