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Written by Mekong Institute

The Mekong Institute was commissioned by the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to conduct a regional training course on Integrated Water Resources Management for the Mekong from 20 to 31 July 2009 in Khon Kaen, Thailand.

Eight young riparian professionals of the MRCs Junior Riparian Professional Project and four MI staff from Young Greater Mekong Sub-region Professional Program (YGMS) participated in this Learning Program. Among the twelve participants, only two were women.

The overall objective of the course is to provide the participants with knowledge and skills related to the IWRM in the context of Mekong Cooperation. At the end of this training course, the participants were expected to demonstrate their ability in applying IWRM principle and IWRM planning tools in their work and at the same time acquire three cross-cutting competencies: Communication skills, information management ability, and facilitation capabilities

The training program comprised of seven training modules:

Module 1: Introduction to IWRM and WRM Functions at the River Basin Scale
Module 2: Mekong Water and Peoples
Module 3: Development Potentials and Major Issues in Basin Planning in the Mekong River Basin
Module 4: Stakeholder Participation
Module 5: Basin Planning for Water Resources
Module 6: Using Indicators to Measure Progress and Performance
Module 7: The Role of Basin Planners and Core Competencies

All seven modules were delivered using a modular training approach, of which, all participants underwent three progressive learning stages: Learn to do, do to learn and share to learn. As part of this training program, a field study to Houi Sam Mo Sub-river Basin was organized for the participants to have first hand information on Integrated River Basin Planning and exposed to Thailand river basin organizational arrangement. This watershed was selected as a field site because it is a pilot project of MRC/GTZ Watershed Management Program and it is regarded as one of integrated river basin management models.

This learning program is proven very successful. This is evidenced by the results of pre and post training assessments and end-of-program evaluation. Participants expressed their appreciation for MI innovative training approaches, especially on the use of case studies, simulation exercises, videos, and field works as integral parts of their learning experience.

Written by Mekong Institute

Day 1:             Keynote Address and Setting the Context (Opening Remarks, Participant Familiarization, Exploring Expectation and Program Overview)

Day 2:             Visit Pro-poor Product Research Development Projects and Five-star SME OTOP at Royal Chitralada Projects and Aran-yik Knife Community

Day 3:             Visit Micro-finance at BAAC, OTOP Community by Sai Noi Womens Group and Local Learning Center on Sufficiency Economy by Ban Hae Community

Day 4:             Presentations of Reflection to the Visits, Synthesis and Learning Evaluation and Return to Home Countries

Over the four days of the program the MI program facilitators completely facilitated the learning visits.  The participants disclosed their feedback that the structure learning visit design in terms of knowledge gained, relevance and applicability to the job and meeting expectation were mostly attained(a total rating average 3.68%).

The participants evaluated that program service was very satisfied(a total rating average 4.55) in terms of material providing, time management and other logistic arrangement during the exposure visits.  With regard to overall satisfaction,  a total rating average 4.55 stated that program service was very satisfied.  Based on the participants feedback, this report concluded that the SLV on Area-based Development, Community Agribusiness, OTOP and SME Development was successful.

Written by Mekong Institute

The structured learning visit (SLV) program on Area-based Development, Community Agribusiness, OTOP and SME Development was organized from 25 to 28 November 2009 and the sponsor is InWEnt gGmbH - Capacity Building International, Germany in cooperation with Mekong Institute, Inter-governmental Organization.  The participants were District Governor, Manager and/or Chief level, Academic, Operating Officers/  Senior Trainers from government, non-government and private sector in the fields of capacity integration development from Cambodia and Lao PDR attended this learning visit program.

The SLV was designed to explore best practices of Thailand in pro-poor product research and development, five-star OTOP, Micro-finance and community business, SME Cluster and Community learning center on sufficiency economy through observation and interaction with community enterprise group, technical support organization, and community livelihood development project pioneers around the basket areas in the Central region of Thailand (Bangkok, Ayutthaya and Angthong Provinces).

The program consisted of four learning days:

Day 1:             Keynote Address and Setting the Context (Opening Remarks, Participant Familiarization, Exploring Expectation and Program Overview)

Day 2:             Visit Pro-poor Product Research Development Projects and Five-star SME OTOP at Royal Chitralada Projects and Aran-yik Knife Community

Day 3:             Visit Micro-finance at BAAC, OTOP Community by Sai Noi Womens Group and Local Learning Center on Sufficiency Economy by Ban Hae Community

Day 4:             Presentations of Reflection to the Visits, Synthesis and Learning Evaluation and Return to Home Countries

Over the four days of the program the MI program facilitators completely facilitated the learning visits.  The participants disclosed their feedback that the structure learning visit design in terms of knowledge gained, relevance and applicability to the job and meeting expectation were mostly attained(a total rating average 3.68%).

The participants evaluated that program service was very satisfied(a total rating average 4.55) in terms of material providing, time management and other logistic arrangement during the exposure visits.  With regard to overall satisfaction,  a total rating average 4.55 stated that program service was very satisfied.  Based on the participants feedback, this report concluded that the SLV on Area-based Development, Community Agribusiness, OTOP and SME Development was successful. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE TH

Written by Mekong Institute

The Mekong Institute (MI) was commissioned by the InWEnt gGmbH Capacity Building International, Germany to co-design, develop and deliver a series of capacity building program for InWEnt targeted groups of Cambodia and Lao PDR. One of the programs is Microfinance Learning Experience in Northeast of Thailand.

This program was organized for fifteen non-governmental organization officers and government officials of Lao PDR. The structured learning visits aimed for participants to study Thailand Microfinance and community banking and financing system and to study role of BAAC in supporting microfinance and community financial institutions (village banks, village revolving fund and community enterprises).

The evaluations conducted throughout the learning visits confirmed that the objectives were achieved and the learning visit was successful. Most of the participants were very satisfied with the program as shown in the total average rating on 1) satisfaction on structured learning visits design, 2) Mekong Institute services satisfaction, and 3) overall impressions on the structured learning visit.

Written by Mekong Institute

The Mekong Institute (MI) was commissioned by Thailand International Development Cooperation Agency (TICA) to conduct a four-week annual international training course on Enhancing Entrepreneurship in SME Development and Export Consortia from 20 July to 14 August 2009 for twenty-six government officials and private sector personnel of seventeen developing countries in Asia and Africa.

The course aimed to develop participants appreciation of the importance and significance - and complexity - of sustainable enterprise development in a regional and national context.  It sought to develop the capacity of participants to assess and consider more effective enterprise and private sector development strategies and activities in their own countries.

The training course was designed and delivered using modular training approach where participants went through three progressive stages : i) Learn to Do training on concepts, techniques and tools to be employed; ii) Do to Learn the participants were required to apply what they learned in their work assignments with proper coaching from assigned advisors; and iii) Share to Learn the participants had opportunity to present the results of their group work, learning experiences and lessons learned.

Nine external resource persons and two in-house subject experts were invited to deliver lectures and facilitate discussions, and share experiences to the participants.  Nine structured learning visits in Khon Kaen, Nakhon Ratchasima, and Bangkok were conducted to enhance the participants understanding of the program contents and to apply the principles, process, structure, and stakeholders in planning and implementing business from the visits.

The training course comprised five inter-related modules. Module 1 Unleashing Entrepreneurship: Setting the Context allowed the facilitators and participants to introduce themselves and provided an overview of the learning program, methodology, and process. Module 2 The Essentials of Enterprise Development: Why and How presented experience of establishing enterprise Silk Net as well as simulation game on Business Strategy. Module 3 Ensuring Business Survival and Sustainable Growth covered the concepts of enabling environment such as business development and financial services, productivity and competitiveness, and value chains to strengthen the enterprise sector. Module 4 Managing Enterprises included study visits to enhance the participants understanding on the contents through observation and interaction with enterprises management teams. Module 5 Developing Cluster and Business-to-Business Networks (B2BNs) introduced the concepts and described key steps and suggested tools and methods for developing business clusters and networks.

The results from a range of evaluation methods showed high satisfaction rating by the participants. However, recommendations for improvement included providing more information on export consortia, SME policy and PPP, inviting guest speakers from senior management level, providing more case studies, and organizing discussion forum with local entrepreneurs.

Written by Mekong Institute

In conducting this structured learning visit, we have received help from many individuals. First, we would like to express our gratitude to all the participants who participated fully in this learning visit as well as to their public and private institutions for nominating and encouraging them.

We would like to thank InWents Capacity Building International, Germany for the financial support and also thank InWents local partners in Lao PDR for the co-designed this structured learning visit.

We grateful to our external resource person, Mr. Konesavanh Vongxay from Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Vientiane, for his valuable suggestions, support and guidance throughout the visit.

Finally, we would never have completed this learning visit successfully without the cooperation of the team member and other colleagues at Mekong Institute, for which we thank them sincerely.

Written by Mekong Institute

The Mekong Institute (MI) was commissioned by New Zealands International Aid and Development Agency (NZAID) and Thailand International Development Cooperation Agency (TICA) to conduct a four-week regional learning program on Managing Public Sector Reform from 19 October to 13 November 2009 for eighteen government officials of the Greater Mekong Sub-region countries.  The program aimed to acquaint participants with modern public administration concepts and administrative structures that promote better service delivery. It sought to improve participants knowledge and skills in leading and managing public sector reform and enhance their skills through sharing experience and lessons learned from selected public enterprises. The course also set out to promote communication, cooperation and trust among professionals across the GMS by encouraging participants to exchange experience on public sector reform and reform initiatives in the GMS.    

The learning program was designed and delivered using modular training approach where participants went through three progressive stages : i) Learn to Do training on concepts, techniques and tools to be employed; ii) Do to Learn the participants were required to apply what they learned in their work assignments with proper coaching from assigned advisors; and iii) Share to Learn the participants had opportunity to present the results of their group works and share their experiences and lessons learned.

Three external resource persons and three in-house subject experts were invited to deliver lectures and facilitate discussions, and share experiences with the participants. Five structured learning visits in the Khon Kaen Province of Northeastern of Thailand were organized to enhance the participants understanding of the contents and help them to apply the acquired knowledge into their works.

The learning program is comprised of four inter-related modules. Program overview Setting the context allowed the participants to explore their expectations, and acquaint with each other. It also provided an overview of the learning program, methodologies and process. Module 1 Understanding the Need for Reform introduced the concepts of public sector reform in general, and impact of globalization on GMS public sectors and importance of good governance in particular. Module 2 Managing Public Sector Reform covered different approaches of transforming public agencies and enterprises through restructuring, decentralization, corporation and privatization. Module 3 Sustaining Reform focused on several key areas of public sector reform, including decentralization, administrative reform, provision of services (outsourcing, one-stop-shops, public private partnerships) and privatization. The modules provided participants with insights on how to lead effective and sustainable change.

The results from a range of evaluation methods showed high satisfaction rating by the participants. However, recommendations for improvement included more time, more case studies and group activities especially for the sessions such as impact of globalization and leadership, and field visits for each module.

 

Written by Mekong Institute

This report presents an evaluation of the learning program "Income Generation and Poverty Reduction for Development" conducted at Mekong Institute (MI), Khon Kaen, Thailand from 24 July-11 August 2007. The course was jointly funded by Thailand International Development Cooperation Agency (TICA) and Colombo Plan Secretariat.

A total of 18 participants from 12 developing countries of Asia, Africa and South America attended the course, with women's participation accounting over one-third. The participants held a mixture of middle-level to senior-level positions at a wide array of the government ministries and departments, and universities.

"Income Generation and Poverty Reduction for Development" was a three-week intensive learning program. The program was aimed at assisting participants in the analyzing poverty, understanding various poverty reduction strategies, and monitoring and evaluation of poverty reduction interventions in diverse socio-economic and environmental contexts. The course provided the participants with an opportunity to share experiences and ideas to build confidence n understanding and addressing the issue of poverty. The course was also successful in fostering an important network among professionals from different countries.

The course activities included presentations by facilitators, class discussions, group works/ assignments, case studies, study visits to " Sufficiency Economy Village" and "Population and Development Association" in Mahasarakham and Khon Kaen provinces, respectively. Besides, excursions to various parts of North-east Thailand and a variety of social and recreational activities were organized at weekends.

All learning activities, classroom sessions as well as field trips, were rated high in terms of contents and organization of the course by most of the participants. They were also appreciative of the resource persons not only for the course content but also for their ability to explain difficult content in clear and simple terms. Most of the participants indicated that 2-days time for field trip was rather inadequate and they suggested including more field trips in future. On the whole, all participants expressed their satisfaction with the MI facilities and support services, remarking MI facilities as efficient and well-run with dedicated and friendly staff. This report also contains recommendations drawn from the participants' feedback and MI staffs' assessment. These recommendations provide basis for future revision of the course organization and content.

Written by Mekong Institute

The learning course, " Education Decentralization in the Context of Public Sector Management Reform," which is part of the Professional Development Series (PDS) at the Mekong Institute Foundation, was held at the Mekong Institute in Khon Kaen University, Northeast Thailand, from 12 February to 2 March 2007. The participants were mid-level government officials from the Ministries of Education, Finance and Planning from central departments, provincial and decentralized units, as well as reserch institutions involved in education policy research in GMS countries.

MI entered into partnership and sought technical support from Education Policy and Reform Unit of UNESCO Bangkok to design, conduct and evaluate the first education course in 2007. On 28 November 2006, MI and UNESCO Bangkok signed a Letter of Agreement specifying the objectives and modalities for cooperation in the design and provision of a course on "Education Decentralization in the Context of Public Sector Management Reform in the Greater Mekong Sub-region".

New Zealand's International Aid and Development Agency (NZAID) dedicated its financial assistance to achieving the learning programme goals. Fourteen participants, four of whom are women, from the six GMS countries (Cambodia, China (Yunan province), Laos PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam) successfully completed the learning programme.

The course consisted of five training modules, as follows:

Module-1: Information on ongoing developments of government - donor cooperation and overview of the current situation of education sector reform and development in the GMS countries.

Module-2: Concept, methods and tools for modern education sector planning in decentralized country context.

Module-3: Information base for modern education sector planning and management.

Module-4: Hands-on traning on the use of the analysis and projection tool for modern education sector planning (ANPRO model). Module-5 : International partnerships ni EFA and cross-cutting themes in education.

Over the three weeks of the learning programme, 8 resource persons as well as the MI Programme Manager and Program Administrator facilitated the learning sessions and guest presentations. Participants confirmed that the resource personnel were qualified, experienced and able to explain difficult content topics in clear and simple terms. Overall, the participants rated resource persons as "good" or "excellent" and were able to achieve their teaching objectives.

The participants evaluated the modules at the end of each module delivery.The majority of participants indicated that they have "fully attained" the knowledge and skills from the respective modules and topics conducted. Participants expressed that the main learning activities-lectures, class discussions, presentations, group work and a hands-on training-were useful.

In addition, the participants were fully convinced that they had achieved levels of social development in their careers (friendship and professional contacts) after the three-week course. Participants perceived MIto be a clean, well-run facility with dedicated,friendly staffa and adequate IT and library services. With regard to overall satisfaction, 50% of them stated that they were fully satisfied, which 44% and 6% of participants were very satisfied and satisfied respectively, with none indicating disatisfaction.

Based on the above evaluation by the participants, this report concludes that the learning program was successful.

Written by Mekong Institute

This report evaluates a learning programs within the Mekong Institute( MI) Professional Development Series 2006/2007: "Regional Cooperation in the Greater Mekong Subregion" conducted at MI from 25 June to 13 July 2007. MI designed, developed and delivered this course based on priority learning needs of GMS government agencies complied in 2005. Despite regional cooperation has been announced as one of the MI cross-cutting issues for many year, it was the first attempt of MI to run it as a stand-alone learning program.

A total of thirty participants from the six GMS countries attended the course. Women's participants accounted for one third of total participants. Participants hold a mixture of junior to senior level positions from both government departments and private company. Regional cooperation in the GMS was a three-week leaning program aimed at developing participants' appreciation of the importance of regional cooperation as well as increased their capacity to assess, plan and intensify subregional cooperation in order to improve GMS cooperation and mutual development. It was thus started with the analysis of GMS history, commonalities and conflicts in order to develop a sense of regional identity before examining institutions established in the GMS, how their aims and objectives affect to their policies implemented region-wide. Finally, the course explored further to the future state of the GMS integration by comparing with other regional integraton initiatives to learn what other have done to achieve the current stage and whether te current GMS cooperation necesssarily leads to integration n the region.

The learning program also aimed at nurturing friendship and strengthen "GMS Spirit" among participants. The learning activities included presentations by resource persons and guest speakers, class discussions, exercise, field research visits and group work assignments as well as the social and recreational activities. Outcomes of the programs therefore comprised of knowledge and skills gained through all mentioned program activities which received high satisfaction from most participants. They also expressed their appreciation on most resource persons fro their valuable knowledge which made the three modules well connected and useful. Overall, participants expressed that MI facilities and services are efficient and well-run with dedicated, friendly staff.

With its outcomes and recommendations drawn from the participants' feedback and MI staff observation, this report concluded that the learning programs were successful. Recommendations for future program improvement are provided on section 5 of this report.