Capacity building

Wherever CIET is, capacity building is part of the process. In fact, CIET does not normally agree to single surveys with little likelihood of follow-up because they do not provide either the time or the structures for local capacity building. CIET Research Fellows customarily work with a team of national, regional or local counterparts from government, local NGOs, universities or communities themselves. Survey cycles, repeated at one, two or three-year intervals allow step-by-step transfer of knowledge and skills. In every country where CIET has worked, it conducts short training seminars to share assessment and analysis skills. Hands-on training continues throughout the first cycle and those that follow. After four cycles, local counterparts should be able to carry on largely unaided. CIET remains available to respond to problems and guide interpretation of the data.

Additional means used by CIET for building institutional capacity include, where appropriate: longer training courses, production of training materials and, in some cases, the creation of national NGOs that bear the CIET name to carry out the work begun internationally. The latter measure makes skills available to governments and other development agencies at very short notice and at costs scaled to the national economy. CIET offices can be found in Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan and South Africa as well as in Canada, Europe and the United States.

Eight-week intensive residential courses have been given ifrequently since 1987 at CIET’s training centre in Mexico. Over 600 planners and researchers from 58 countries have attended the Mexico course. CIET also conducted eight-week courses in Portuguese (Mozambique or Angola) in 1991 through 1993. Shorter courses were conducted for UNICEF staff and government counterparts in Mexico in 1990, East Africa (Uganda) in 1995 and South Asia (Nepal) in 1996.

National counterparts are occasionally sent to CIET’s Mexico training center to take advantage of short special courses. Thus two members of the El Puente team from Brooklyn, New York were trained there in introductory field methods in 1996 and three Pakistanis worked on Data Analysis and Geographic Information Systems in Mexico in 1999.

CIET, through its centre at the University of Guerrero in Mexico, offers a Masters in Health Sciences degree whose purpose is to develop a group of professionals who can support communities throughout the world to gain voice in the planning process. The programme emphasizes the acquisition of the skills to conduct and train others in each of the methods that go into a CIET cycle of evidence-based planning. A combination of supervised academic work, intensive field experience and training of others is required, along with a thesis based on original field work.

CIET’s doctoral programme aims to qualify a smaller number of professionals who can serve as project team leaders having, in addition to the skills required for the Master’s degree, the ability to design and negotiate entire projects and programmes and take responsibility for bringing these to successful completion. Candidates must complete advanced course work under both CIET and non-CIET supervision, pass a doctoral examination, have several years of field experience, be fluent in English and another working language, and produce an original thesis of internationally recognized doctoral quality.

Although CIET has no funding of its own for interns, it does accept suitably qualified interns who bring their own funding with them or are included by the funding agency in a programme such as Health Canada’s LoPHID programme. CIET interns typically have high levels of academic qualifications and substantial work experience. Interns are recruited from a wide range of disciplines, important characteristics being an ability to work hard in a team, and a commitment to building the community voice into planning.

Internships with CIET are full-time over the course of at least a year. Under certain circumstances, a shorter period of voluntary attachment may be considered by the directors and accredited as an internship. Successful interns may be eligible for Research Asssociate or Programme Coordinator status, depending on progress made during the internship period. Because CIET functions as a fellowship of independent contractors funded on a project-specific basis, there can be no guarantee of employment when the internship terminates. The objective of CIET’s internship programme, however, is to recruit associates through the process by providing exposure to and training in the CIET methodology and philosophy.

Interns may be attached to any or several of the CIET offices worldwide, depending on availability of funds and the needs of the individual intern.

CAPACITY BUILDING