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PDP course - Facilitation Skills and Participatory Approaches for Working in Development Projects

Facilitator: Michelle Whalen
Dates: 6-7 May (Tue-wed) 2007
Early Bird Registration: By 25 March 2007

Who is it for?

This course is for those who are, have been, or would like to be involved in development projects as fieldworkers, managers, researchers, and evaluators.

Course Description:

The course will explore techniques to enhance meaningful participation in development programs. Participatory approaches aim to engage beneficiaries and stakeholders in all stages of the development process, and are key to equitable and sustainable outcomes. Methodologies based on Participatory Learning for Action (PLA) tools enable us to engage with the views, perceptions and experience of others. These techniques have been applied to a wide range of development contexts, in sectors such as agriculture, education, health, and community development, and can be applied to all phases of project and program design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. The facilitation skills course includes mini presentations, small and large group work, role plays, games and energizers. Participatory tools include visual, verbal, and counting methods for information gathering and analysis. The course will be experiential and interactive and aims to provide participants with a range of practical tools applicable to their own work.

Course Content:

Principles of participatory learning and critical reflection
Facilitation skills for effective learning
Group dynamics and working with groups
Organizing workshops and field training
Participatory tools for information gathering and analysis – visual, verbal, and counting methods
Cross-cultural considerations
Interactive training games and exercises
Participatory evaluation techniques

Learning Outcomes:

Understand the current debates between practitioners around participatory approaches to development
Understand the key principles of “good” facilitation of participatory development
Understand how participatory approaches can be applied throughout the project cycle and in a variety of contexts.
Increased “toolbox” for facilitating participatory processes with groups.
Improved facilitation skills

Facilitator’s profile:

Michelle Whalen has fifteen years experience working in International Development in a broad range of roles. With a professional background as a teacher in Melbourne, she spent five years in Central America as a teacher and trainer with communities and local NGO’s whose practise of participatory development was shaped by popular education (Paolo Freire) and liberation theology. She developed a participative gender-training course for illiterate rural women in El Salvador that is still being used ten years later. Michelle is a highly regarded trainer and has facilitated participatory planning and training processes in both Central America and South East Asia, most recently in Timor Leste, across a range of areas such as Project Planning, Community Development, Gender, Organisational Development and Financial Management with both government and NGO’s.

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Course Fees:

The following course fees are applicable for participants based within Australia only (please click here for additional information relevant to overseas participants). All course fees are inclusive of GST. Course fees include course materials and meals during the course delivery.

To qualify for Early Bird registration fees, course fees must be paid to IDSS within the early bird registration deadline.

	Early Bird Fee	Regular Fee
Full Fee	AU$575.00	AU$675.00
Staff from ACFID member organisations	AU$525.00	AU$625.00
Students with assessment	AU$525.00	AU$600.00
Full-time students without assessment	AU$475.00	AU$525.00

Venue:

International Development Support Services (IDSS)

Level 12, 60 Albert Road

SOUTH MELBOURNE VIC 3205

AUSTRALIA

Registration:

Participants are requested to read the IDSS Training Policy before applying for registration/enrolmnet.

To register/enrol, visit the Training Registration section of this site.

For additional information please contact:

Atiq Rahman
Manager, Professional Development Program

International Development Support Services (IDSS)
Level 12, 60 Albert Road
South Melbourne VIC 3205

Phone: + 61 3 8683 1184
Fax: + 61 3 8683 1444
Email: atiqr@idss.com.au