SESRIC organised a training course on “Rural Development Projects Impact Assessment” on 21-23 December 2015 in Islamabad, Pakistan, in collaboration with the NGO World Foundation. The course was designed for NGOs working in development areas in Islamabad with a view to building their capacity in the field of project impact analysis. The course was facilitated by Mr. Mozharul Islam, an expert on impact analysis and a Ph.D. researcher at Hacettepe University, Turkey, with the participation of officials from NGOs, as well as researchers.

The course was held within the framework of partnership agreement between SESRIC and The NGO World Foundation on carrying out an impact analysis study of “Barkat Project” that was implemented in rural areas of Pakistan by The NGO World Foundation, and sought to be replicated in other regions based upon the findings of the impact study. The impact analysis will be conducted over 5 months and will be a combination of a training program, an evaluation meeting, field visits, and preparation of final report.

The training course mainly covered the following headings:

• Impact Assessment: Introduction, Aims, Variables
• Methodology: General Methodology, Data and Sampling
• Field Research and Data Collection Procedure: Developing Questionnaire, Interview Process, Observation, FGD, Role of Researchers, Data Analysis
• Discussion on specific topics such as Environment, Adaptation, Poverty Alleviation and Gender Issues
• Simulation Game (Application of a particular topic)
• Evaluation of ‘Barkat Project’