Qualitative Methods for Evaluation
Moving from Afterthought to Forethought: Development and Introduction of a New International Curriculum
Join MEASURE Evaluation on February 22 at 9am EST for a one-hour webinar on a new short course on qualitative evaluation methods for professionals in developing countries.
Many evaluations add in a qualitative component as an afterthought and often conduct qualitative data collection and analysis without staff adequately trained in qualitative methods. To address this challenge, MEASURE Evaluation and the Global Evaluation and Monitoring Network for Health (GEMNet-Health) engaged in a collaborative process to develop a 50-hour short course on qualitative evaluation methods for professionals involved in implementing and evaluating health programs. The course aims to build on participants’ basic knowledge of qualitative methods and advance their capacity to apply these methods in evaluation of public health programs.
The short course on intermediate qualitative evaluation methods was designed and taught by experienced trainers from several countries, professions, and disciplinary backgrounds. It has been tested at a training-of-trainers workshop and then piloted with monitoring and evaluation professionals.
This webinar will describe the curriculum development process, highlight innovative content at the intermediate level, and share experiences addressing challenges from working with teams of diverse trainers and participants.
Register to attend the webinar.
Speakers
Phyllis Dako-Gyeke is a senior lecturer at the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon. Phyllis teaches and also researches. She has a specialization in health communication and has published extensively in international peer-reviewed journals considering social aspects of public health problems in areas such as HIV and AIDS, maternal and child health, gender and health, age-related issues in Ghana, etc. At the School of Public Health, Phyllis teaches qualitative research, both at the masters and PhD levels. In addition, she conducts several of her research projects using qualitative research approaches. She also consults for various public health projects as the qualitative research expert. Currently, Phyllis is the principal investigator for the WHO/TDR Regional Training Centre (RTC) for the African region leading capacity building in implementation research.
Carolina Mejia is an M&E technical advisor at MEASURE Evaluation. She has over 15 years of experience conducting public health and health services research, M&E, and providing technical assistance on a range of domestic and global public health issues and projects. Dr. Mejia has successfully conducted mixed-methods evaluations in various areas of healthcare, collaborating with culturally diverse, multidisciplinary teams in the U.S. and abroad, building capacity among healthcare workers, developing proposals, and managing programs to deliver value, key findings, and recommendations to internal and external partners and funders. Her expertise spans a wide range of quantitative and qualitative methodologies, developing study protocols, developing and testing survey instruments, supervising field and office staff, designing and monitoring quality-control activities, conducting data analysis, and writing interim and final reports. She has co-taught courses in qualitive methods and on the use of Atlas.ti for coding and analysis. She holds a PhD in Health Services Research and an MPH in Social and Behavioral Sciences from the University of Washington.
Pilar Torres is a researcher at the Center for Evaluation as well as the Center for Health Systems research in the National Institute of Public Health (INSP) in Mexico. She serves on the State Evaluation Council in her state, Morelos, and teaches the evaluation specialty at the INSP. She has extensive experience managing and coordinating evaluations of health and education programs, some of them at national level. Among her current evaluation projects are the Mexican national day care program (Estancias Infantiles), the Mexican national elderly support program, and a water, sanitation and hygiene program in 5 countries in Latin America. She is also lead for the mixed method evaluation of the environmental and health program of her institution (INSP), the results of which will be crucial in order to scale the program up to the national level. Pilar has collaborated in research teams in Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, USA, India, South Africa and Rwanda. Her experience as an anthropologist gives her a great capacity for working with people and adapting to different cultures. She has a particular interest in adolescents, AIDS, reproductive health in young people, sustainability and qualitative evaluation.
