The College of Public Policy (CPP) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), in collaboration with the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland (UMD), is  presenting a three-day, online executive course titled “Program Evaluation: Determining What Works” from May 24-26. 

Developed especially for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, the course will provide a practical overview of program evaluation tools - both to assess evaluations of public and private programs, and to help plan, procure, and manage new evaluations. The program is suitable for mid-level administrators and program officers in national and local governments, multinational organizations, NGOs, and research firms, as well as graduate students seeking a targeted, yet comprehensive education to advance in the field. No prior experience in program evaluation is required to enrol in the course.

The course will help participants navigate an increasingly evaluation-oriented world, where governments, nonprofits, funders, and multinational organizations need information to assess program performance. Such information includes rigorous evidence about the operations and effectiveness of their programs, systems for monitoring programs on an ongoing basis, and mechanisms for utilizing this information for program improvement and planning. Topics will include the idea of causal attribution, the “counterfactual,” and the main techniques for measuring a program's effectiveness (including case studies, pre/post comparisons, comparisons to others, randomized control trials, econometric evaluations, and natural experiments), and considerations for drawing policy conclusions (with a discussion of generalizability and the statistical and policy significance of evaluation findings).

Combining the expertise and resources of UMD and HBKU, faculty members presenting the course include Professor Douglas Besharov, UMD School of Public Policy; Dr. Douglas Call, deputy director, UMD Center for International Policy Exchanges; and Dr. Anis Ben Brik, associate professor of evaluation at HBKU CPP and founding president of the MENA Evaluation Society. Guest faculty will include Dr. David Myers, President and CEO, and Dr. David Seidenfeld, Vice President, International Research and Evaluation, at the American Institutes for Research; and Dr. Anu Rangarajan, a senior vice president and the director of climate change at Mathematica Policy Research. 

Expanding on the course objectives, Dr. Ben Brik, associate professor and founding director of the program for social policy evaluation and research (PROSPER), CPP, said: “Governments, nonprofits, funders, and multinational organizations increasingly want rigorous evidence about the operations and effectiveness of their programs, systems for monitoring programs on an ongoing basis, and mechanisms for utilizing this information for program improvement and planning. Meeting these demands requires specialized knowledge, and this course will set you on your way. The course will provide participants with the tools needed to assess evaluations of existing public and private programs as well as to plan, procure, and manage new evaluations.”

“Program Evaluation: Determining What Works” will be facilitated in English with on-screen Arabic subtitles, from May 24-26. Participants will be presented with a joint certificate from HBKU CPP and UMD on completion of the program. 

For information and to register, please visit https://www.hbku.edu.qa/en/academic-events/program-evaluation-determining

For more information on the work of the College of Public Policy, please visit cpp.hbku.edu.qa