Written by Mekong Institute

Rural Development and Project Management for Infrastructure Development Series 2005: “Rural Development” and “Project Management for Infrastructure Development”. MI designed, developed and delivered these courses from 25 April to 1 July 2005 based on priority learning needs of GMS government agencies.   

Forty government officials from the six GMS countries attended the two courses. Participants hold a mixture of middle to senior level position from a wide variety of ministries, agencies and state-owned enterprises. Of participants,20% are women. All forty successfully completed their learning programs.

Nineteen resource persons facilitated learning sessions, guest presentations and field research visits over the fourteen weeks of the two learning programs. Participants confirmed that the resource persons are qualified, experienced people who were able to explain difficult content in clear and simple terms. Overall, participants felt resource persons were good or excellent and attained their teaching objectives.

Curriculum was divided into either module or topic segments. According to the MI questionnaires and country-group discussions, participants felt that all course content was either excellent or good. Participants also found integration of crosscutting issues (gender, environment, poverty, governance and regional cooperation) was excellent.

Program activities included a wide range of learning and social activities. Participants felt that the main learning activities, including professional skill development, were either excellent or good. They further felt that te additonal learning activities were very good and social activities were excellent. Partcipants also found MI to be a clean, well-run facility with dedicated, friendly staffs and very good IT and library services.

Many participants in the Rural Development course found the duration of the program too short due to the amount of materials and speed of lessons. They felt that six-weeks might be more appropriate.

Outcomes of the programs include knowledge and skills gained for professional development. Participants further developed professional skills, such as data and case analysis, presentation, Internet research, and professional networking. Participants felt they fully attained or attained the new knowledge and professional skills presented in the curriculum. Further, they made many new friendships and professional contacts.

This report concludes, based on the above feedback,that the learning programs were quite successful. Finally, recommendations for future program improvement are provided in Section 5 of this report.