Impact of training opportunities for women on fertility

Mid-term PES covers the period 9/79-3/81 and is based on a special evaluation (PN-AAP-321). The Centre for Population Activities (CEFPA) has completed Phase I on schedule, having held 15 in-country workshops (and 6 training of trainers workshops) in 7 countries. The in-country workshops, which focused on providing participants with the technical and management skills needed to plan, implement, and evaluate development projects, have, in turn, each generated 8-12 proposals for new projects in, e.g., family planning, health, day care, and income generation. The workshops have also led to numerous requests from CEFPA (on the part of local institutions, individuals, and Missions) for TA to expand women-in-management training, train more trainers, and assist trainees in planning and implementing spin-off projects. CEFPA"s performance has been enhanced by the use of appropriate training materials and methods, correct assessment of training needs, and astute selection of collaborating institutions and individuals. In several countries, governmental and private institutions see CEFPA activities as consonant with their efforts to promote community activities and to integrate women"s concerns with family planning and health delivery services. While it is too soon to measure the fertility impacts of projects resulting from CEFPA training, activities to date show that the CEFPA approach is an effective means of broadening the role of women as managers and decisionmakers. Lessons learned are: CEFPA training must be linked with intensive follow-up assistance; precise measurement of the impact of grant activities on fertility is implausible until at least the end of the 5-year grant period; and the demand for additional, similar training is likely to be great. The grant has been amended to permit CEFPA to organize up to 6 in-country organizations to provide follow-up assistance to workshop participants and to help Missions and others to replicate CEFPA"s women-in-management training. During Phase III, CEFPA will document the impact of the workshops rather than study the effects of spin-off projects.