We talked to Mila Josifovska, the administration and logistics officer in CID, about her participation in the training course „NGO Do it yourself”, which is the fourth and final training course in a cycle meant to cover main aspects of organisational management: strategic management, team management, finances, and monitoring and evaluation. The training took place near Berlin, between 23-29 of November and gathered participants from eight countries.
Mila told us that the training course was a good opportunity to share expertise on evaluation techniques in NGOs. As a group, they learned how to design different tools for evaluation: „I knew how to design questionnaires, but I learned that we can also use many other techniques, like the SWAT analysis, the benchmark, blind voting, the barometer, quizzes and graphic content that makes evaluation more interactive. We designed questionnaires to evaluate the whole cycle of training courses that will be sent to all the previous participants”, shares Mila.
The sessions focused on exploring what monitoring and evaluation is, providing the participants with different methods of evaluation and non-formal education and discussing case studies on risk management. Besides the educational content, Mila mentioned that the intercultural learning was a great part of the experience – participants went through a process of getting to know each other and work together by valuing each other’s skills and competences.
Asked what she valued the most about the training course, she said she especially enjoyed the open discussions, in which people felt free to share, debate and challenge their opinions. The NGO sector is diverse and multilateral, and a healthy exchange of opinions is beneficial for growth.
The outcomes from the training course will be creating an online platform that would connect all the organisations that participated in the training courses and publishing a brochure with the results from discussions and activities, which means that the cooperation will not stop with the last training course. Mila is feeling motivated to import into the practices of CID what she learned during the raining course, believing that it would help bring more coordination between the members and have a clearer idea on everyone´s input.