Accra, Ghana (January 19, 2018) – As part of efforts to promote the development of research and evaluation skills of institutions and individuals in West and Central Africa, USAID/West Africa’s Evidence for Development (E4D), in conjunction with the African Evaluation Association (AfrEA), is launching a free online certificate program in health project evaluation and operations research, on January 19, 2019 for members of AfrEA and national evaluation associations in the Sub-Saharan Africa sub-region.

Hosted on AfrEA’s website, the online courses are intended to strengthen research and evaluation capacity of researchers throughout the sub-region. Specifically, the program aims to:

• increase the availability and utilization of evidence-based information using online dialogue and peer-to-peer learning;
• strengthen the capacities of AfrEA members to conduct research and evaluation activities;
• develop a platform for mainstreaming evaluation discussions and dissemination of evaluation results;
• present monitoring and evaluation principles as integrated concepts; and
• support south-to-south exchange in order to inform decisions and policies on the post-2015 development agenda.

“USAID/West Africa is committed to expanding the evidence base, building a strong network of local research institutions and acting as a convener and catalyst so that data is available and used to make sound decisions around public health programming for sustained health impact,” stated Sheila Mensah, Senior Communications, Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor, Regional Health Office USAID/West Africa.     

“Conducting operations research and evaluations and disseminating the findings is key to our work. The online certificate program is therefore meant to build on the research and evaluation skills of institutions and individuals in West and Central Africa, and beyond, so these skills will be sustained after the life of the E4D project,” said Tanou Diallo, Chief of Party of the USAID/West Africa’s E4D.

"AfrEA's mandate is to build and strengthen evaluation capacity in Africa.  It has become increasingly urgent that as many evaluators as possible access different platforms to increase their capacity to meet the rising demand for evaluations.  AfrEA is grateful to USAID/West Africa Evidence for Development for providing seed funding to set up an online platform. The online platform will reach out widely to our Voluntary Organizations for Professional Evaluation (VOPEs) and members in both French and English speaking Africa. It is hoped that the increased capacity will contribute to evaluators to undertake quality evaluations as well as influence governments in using evaluation results for evidence based decision making," said Adeline Sibanda, President of AfrEA.

Course registration is open and the courses will be accessible January 29, 2018.

About USAID/WA-E4D

The USAID/West Africa’s Evidence for Development is a five-year (January 2015 – January 2020) activity with the overall objective to increase the availability of evidence in health interventions to inform policy advocacy and program planning, including resource allocation. The USAID/WA-E4D activity is implemented by International Business and Technical Consultants, Inc (IBTCI).

To access the Online Certificate Program, please visit www.afrea.org and http://afrea.org/training/register/.