Centre for Population Activities mid-grant evaluation report : impact of training opportunities for women on fertility

Mid-term special evaluation covers a period through 3/81 and is based on document review and visits to 5 countries. CEFPA"s extension to LDC"s of its Washington, D.C.-based Women-in-Management (WIM) training program for public and private sector women professionals has had good results to date. WIM workshops have been held in Egypt, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kenya, and Peru. One workshop was held in Malaysia, but the full program will not be implemented there under this grant. The workshops are planned in collaboration with in-country public, private, and quasi-governmental institutions and are preceded by establishment and training of a training team, which usually contains alumnae of the Washington, D.C. program. The training itself, which is participative, practical, and generally adapted to in-country needs and thus has been well-received, takes place through 2-week and 3-day workshops which cover, in varying mixes, skills in five major areas: general and specific project design and management, self-actualization, and human and community organization. Follow-up activities include helping trainees and their organizations develop proposals, locate funding, and implement action programs; these are behind schedule, however, and CEFPA now realizes that in-country organizational units are needed for such work. CEFPA has also collected data to study the impact of the WIM program, although monitoring projects developed by WIM trainees will not begin for some time. In fine, CEFPA has begun to provide a unique activity for which there is a clear demand from both public and private LDC institutions. Although not enough time has elapsed for many women to have projects funded and underway, the training programs have already had a beneficial impact on trainees (which in turn has a ripple effect) and have generated widespread local support and a desire to institutionalize the training/follow-up approach. Four in-country reports are appended.