Capacity Building (2)
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Some thoughts on workshops: -
I would go for your option #1. But not write off workshops in limited
numbers. Workshops certainly disrupt everyone senior in the Ministry
almost all the time, and their desks are never cleared I think.
BUT - I fear you don't get undivided attention unless you get people into a
workshop; and I fear their salaries are so low that per diems are perhaps a
necessary inducement/motivator. There should be half as many workshops;
those who attend should be more carefully selected, and none should be
asked to participate if the obvious person is not available. Per diems
should be very small - $20 per day? Workshops should be held away from
shops - in distant suburbs or towns.
What about a condition of participation (with modest per diem) being a
daily summary of each session to be submitted by each person, and copied
back to them for their own records and reminding? Taking notes as they go,
and writing them up in the last half hour as a daily report would surely
concentrate the mind and keep it awake? That way the workshop could be
evaluated for penetration, and the participant could be evaluated for
his/her comprehension. And you could do quick pre and post workshop KAP
surveys or whatever is appropriate as an outcomes assessment. (I know
nothing is quick - but some sort of testing process might sharpen up the
whole process, and identify promising people for future workshops, resource
persons etc). Maybe donors are already routinely insisting on this stuff in
the health professions field - but they aren't doing it much in mine.
I agree workshops should reach lower levels as much or more - but if
supervisors aren't setting a good example no amount of workshops could
bring about improved performances in lower levels...
Distance education via e-mail sounds good, but unless all participants have
their own PC and own point, it�s gong to be too difficult for them to find
the right time when a common point is unoccupied, plus they won't have the
opportunity to acquire the familiarity and ease of use of e-mail which we
take for granted. (This has been my own experience - from my first contact
with PCs which was learning word processing on my own laptop in 1990 - and
my own observation - there is very little uptake of our outreach services
via e-mail except from expatriate doctors who come with their own PCs and
have been computer literate for years).
Regards,
Helga Patrikios
Medical Library
University of Zimbabwe
P.O. Box M.P.45
Mount Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe
Tel +263-4-791631
Fax +263-4-795019
e-mail: patrikios@healthnet.zw
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