Training course on the Use of the Smart Toolkit for Monitoring and Evaluation, held in Windhoek, Namibia, 9-13 November 2009
Twenty-nine information managers, lecturers, librarians and trainers from Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe participated in the Smart Toolkit Training workshop held in Windhoek, Namibia last year. The main objective of the course was to build the capacity of information professionals to monitor and evaluate their information projects, products and services using the Smart Toolkit as the main resource.
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During this five-day training course, participants were exposed to key concepts used in monitoring and evaluation (M&E) as well as basic techniques used to support the setting up and carrying out of monitoring and evaluation. Sessions were characterised by formal presentations and discussion groups to distil the essence of the key questions, practical exercises related to cases identified by the participants during the first day of the course as well as group presentations. Selected presentations focused on M&E in relation to managing information projects, products and services, an introduction to M& E, the steps involved in an evaluation, formulating a rich picture to help one understand the context of the information project, developing the terms of reference, identifying stakeholder’s information needs, key evaluation questions and indicators and selected planning and evaluation frameworks. Optional evening sessions on participatory video for M&E and Web 2.0 tools for use in evaluation also took place. On the last day, participants presented their participatory action plans which is a draft outline of what they intend to do in the next two to four months within their organisations.
