A conference entitled Training in Africa: Best Practices,
Lessons Learned and Future Directions will be held in
Lusaka, Zambia from 18-20 August 2003.

The focus of the conference will be to examine best
training practices used in international healthcare
settings, with particular emphasis on family planning and
reproductive health in Africa. In addition, training
practices that have been employed successfully in sectors
other than healthcare will be examined and discussed for
their applicability to reproductive health programs.

The conference is being organized by the JHPIEGO
Corporation's Training in Reproductive Health project in
collaboration with the Office of Population and
Reproductive Health of the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) and a number of USAID
Cooperating Agencies.

Training is one of the primary interventions for improving
the performance of healthcare workers in Africa. What do we
know about effective training? We know that training occurs
as part of most efforts to strengthen healthcare systems
and improve the quality of services. We know that training
comes in many sizes and shapes, including classroom-based
learning, distance learning, self-directed learning,
technology-assisted learning and on-the-job training. We
know that training is applied across a broad range of
content areas including management, quality assurance,
logistics, community education, and clinical. So how do we
know effective training when we see it? What practices,
processes and approaches work best for family planning and
reproductive health in international settings?

The goal of this conference is to examine training
practices identified as best based on objective data, to
share lessons learned from implementing training in a
variety of settings, and to look at the horizon to see what
the future holds for training in Africa.

During the 3-day conference, the 150-200 participants will:
- attend skill-building workshops
- attend plenary sessions
- select concurrent sessions, based on individual interest

Concurrent sessions will be designed for 25-30 conference
attendees each and will be 90 minutes in length. The
skill-building workshops will be held on the first day of
the conference, will be 3-hours in length and will focus on
key training skills.

This conference is designed for individuals who have
responsibilities for the programming, design, delivery and
evaluation of training interventions to improve worker
performance, with a focus on family planning and
reproductive health in Africa. Conference attendees may
include trainers, instructional designers, materials
developers, facilitators, program managers and evaluators.

All conference information is on our website at:
http://www.jhpiego.org/bpconf/africa/index.htm [2]

Information on making hotel reservations can be found on
our website (see previous paragraph).
Remember--space is limited, so register early.

Please share this information with anyone who may be
interested in attending this conference.

Rick Sullivan
Director of Learning and Performance Support
JHPIEGO - An Affiliate of Johns Hopkins University
1615 Thames Street
Baltimore, MD 21231-3492, USA
Tel: +1-410-537-1931
Fax: +1-410-537-1476
Email: [email protected] [3]