Development Pros Sharpen Skills at Georgetown in Qatar

“Facts and figures,” declared Dr. Khalid Ali Al-Quradaghi. “Providing scientific ways to measure the impact evaluation, that’s what a successful development program is based on.”

Dr. Al-Quradaghi is the Director of Programs for the Qatar National Research Fund. He attended the recent Executive Education on Impact Evaluation workshop at Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q).

“The benefit of this training workshop is that it addresses the impact of evaluating development programs from start until the end. This will measure any institution to support their performance indicators,” Dr. Al-Quradaghi said.

Dr. Al-Quradaghi was one of 35 attendees at the Executive Education on Impact Evaluation workshop held at Georgetown. It was the first of its kind in the region.

Participants came from organizations recognized as local and regional high-flyers in the world of philanthropy and public service. Qatar’s Ministry of Economy and Finance, Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Supreme Education Council, Silatech, Enterprise Qatar, the Social Development Center, Qatar Diabetes Association, Qatar Charity, The Emirates Foundation and the World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists were among those represented.

Economist Dr. Ganesh Seshan, assistant professor at GU-Q and the program’s organizer, arranged the partnership between Georgetown and the Innovation for Poverty Action (IPA) that brought this training course to Qatar and made it available to the region.

“Raising awareness about assessments and building local and regional capacity to pursue evidence-based policy-making is essential for effective programs,” said Dr. Seshan. “Good program management leads to high-quality results. Qatar’s tremendous progress is clear.”

The eight training sessions over two days included topics on evaluations, research initiatives, randomizations, and measurements, among others. Assessing effectiveness of programs and determining if objectives have been met were in focus as well.

Upon completion of the presentations and case studies, it became clear that for the attending policy-makers, government researchers, NGO leaders, and managers of international development organizations, the Executive Education on Impact Evaluation workshop had been a success.

The Impact Evaluation workshop is just one of the initiatives Georgetown in Qatar has implemented to make the University’s resources and expertise available for the benefit of the community and for society at large.