EPRN Training Calendar 2024 

• In addition to the list of courses highlighted here above, EPRN organizes tailor-made training programs for institutions upon demand depending on their areas of interest in the following areas: Impacts Assessments, Policy formulation and analysis, MIS and data management, gender and GBV, Agribusiness, climate change management, Project Management for Professionals (PMP), etc. 

• For more details call our customer care office through: +250788357648/0788305142 or email to: info@eprnrwanda.org. Visit our website: eprnrwanda.org

SUMMARY OF COURSES’ CONTENT 

1. Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting of Projects 

• An upgraded workable understanding of the key concepts in Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting
• An understanding of the importance of integrating Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting into project Planning, and an understanding of where they fit into the project cycle
• Knowledge of how to plan a project using the Logical Framework Approach
• Knowledge of how to develop a Result-based monitoring and evaluation framework
• A basic knowledge of data collection and analysis techniques, and their relationship to the different types of evaluation
• Identify and develop “SMART” objectives and indicators
• Identify and apply appropriate qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques
• Construct a terms of reference and an evaluation report 

2. Advanced Excel

• Introduction to Advanced Excel (Learn how modular templates can make your spreadsheets more consistent and much quicker to set up, Customizing the Excel interface to put the tools that you need at your fingertips, How to build in checks and controls from the outset… )
• Data Validation (Extended uses of Data Validation, Working with validation formulae, …)
• Preparing your data for analysis (Mastering lookup functions -INDEX, MATCH-, Creating helper columns using DATE and TEXT functions, Applying NESTED-IF, AND, OR to organize data…)
• Methods of Summarizing Data (Using SUMIFS and COUNTIFS, Advanced uses of PIVOT-TABLE features like Value Field Settings, Grouping Data and Slicers among others, Calculations and reporting in Power Pivot –an introduction to Data Analysis Expressions (DAX, …)
• Report Visualization Techniques in Excel (Report Interactivity -Using Pick-Lists, Form Controls like combo box & Excel Camera, Effectively using Conditional Formatting (formula-driven) for reporting, Calculations in Power Pivot –an introduction to Data Analysis Expressions (DAX),..)
• Decision Making with Excel (Apply advanced formulas to lay data in readiness for analysis, Use advanced techniques for report visualizations, Leverage on various methodologies of summarizing data, Understand and apply basic principles of laying out Excel models for decision making, etc.

3. Data analysis by using STATA 

• Importing data to Stata and saving Stata files
• Exploring your data: addressing missing values and working with different variable types
• Working with multiple Stata files: merge and append
• Tricks on automation in Stata: using macro and loops
• Introduction to regression analysis using Stata
• Descriptive analysis (univariate, bivariate and multivariate)
• Inferential statistics and regression analysis
• Overview of basic concepts in panel data
• Random-effects model
• Fixed-effects mode
• Cross-sectional estimation under endogeneity
• Panel-data estimation under endogeneity
• Dynamic models
• Probit models for panel data
• Logit models for panel data
• Poisson models for panel data
• Explain how to loop over the variables in a data set using given parameters.
• Identify the command used to examine all the coefficients returned by a regression output.
• Summarize the effect of using a numerical multiplier to change the marker size in a scatterplot.
• Recall how to properly express a standard normal probability density function.
• Recognize what information the regression offers in a given situation.
• Define “continuous polynomial interaction.”
• Explain the importance of using the reshape command for wide-form data when setting up panel data.
• Identify the variable that will have the largest standard deviation after running summary statistics for a data set of panel data.
• Name the linear panel estimator that assumes regression may be correlated to error terms.
• Explain the purpose of the Hausman test.

4. Project Management for Donor Funded Projects 

• Programming, which is the first phase of the project/programme cycle will involve an analysis of the process of setting broad national/regional/ sector policy objectives at the global/overall level.
• Following on from programming, the various techniques used in the Identification of projects/programs from the prioritized list of overall objectives will be explored in the second phase of the project cycle i.e. Identification.
• The third phase of the project cycle, Formulation will focus on designing and developing the concept of the project/programme and testing its logic and feasibility i.e. technically, socially and environmentally.
• In the fourth phase of Financing, the contractual obligations between the funding agency i.e. the Contracting Authority and the Implementing Agency/party will be examined.
• The Implementation Phase will involve outlining the stages of implementation with emphasis on what needs to happen in the three important stages of (i) Inception (2) Operational and (3) Phase out. The Principles of Monitoring will be discussed as well as how to design a monitoring system.
• The Evaluation Phase will analyze the 5 main Evaluation criteria used by the major Donor/Development Partners (Relevance, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Impact and sustainability). The rationale as to why different Donors/Development partners use more or less than 6 phases in their project/programme cycle will be explained

5. Cost Benefit Analysis and Feasibility Study 

Introduction to cost-benefit analysis

• Aim of cost-benefit analysis
• Importance to policy-makers and link to Impact Assessment
• Importance to regulated utilities and infrastructure investment
• Ex ante and ex post cost-benefit analysis
• Guidance documents (including Treasury Green Book)

Feasibility Analysis

• Contextual definition of the object
• Definition of the objectives
• Demand analysis
• Option analysis
• Technical analysis
• Financial analysis

Basic issues in cost-benefit analysis

• Defining the baseline
• Identifying costs and benefits
• Transfers and distributional impacts
• Using market prices to value impacts
• Taking account of inflation and relative price changes
• Discounting (How to discount future impacts, What discount rate to use)

How to deal with risk and uncertainty

• The importance of thinking about risk and uncertainty
• Scenario and sensitivity analysis
• Monte Carlo analysis
• Real options

In more detail: how to quantify costs and benefits

• Challenges in quantifying costs and benefits
• Methods of collecting data and analyzing impacts (Stakeholder engagement, Market research, Behavioral experiments, Statistical analysis, Case studies, Modelling)
• Assessing the additionally of impacts
• Adjusting for optimism bias

How to value non-market impacts

• Why non-market impacts are important
• Techniques for valuing non-market impacts (Using existing valuations, stated preference, Revealed preference)
• Examples of how to value non-market impacts (Time savings, Carbon impacts, Other environmental impacts 

6. Data analysis by using SPSS 

• Accessing data entry and importing from other sources
• Manipulating data to create new data fields
• Generating descriptive statistics
• Presenting data in tables and graphs for analysis and reporting
• Exploratory data analysis
• Assessing whether differences and correlations between groups and data fields statistically significant
• Basic trend analysis
• Levels of measurement of variables
• Correlation & regression Analysis
• Levels of measurement of variables, a refreshment
• Creating dummy variables for regression analysis
• OLS with categorical regressors
• Ordinal regression
• Binary logistic regression
• Multinomial logistic regression
• Prohibit regression
• Analysis of relationships in data
• Statistical reports and graphs
• Drawing conclusions based on statistical analysis
• Discriminate analysis
• Logistic regression (Binary & Multinomial)
• Survival Analysis (Kaplan-Meier)
• Cluster & Factor analysis
• Exploring relationships between variables
• MANOVA: multivariate analysis of variance
• Repeated Measures ANOVA
• Producing and editing charts & pivot tables 

7. FUNDRAISING, Grant Proposal Writing Skills AND BUSINESS PLANS WRITING 

• Tips to Write proposals with a higher chance of winning.
• Learn how to differentiate your proposals from competitors.
• Best practices, templates, guides, and tips and tricks.
• Proposal strategy, planning, drafting and improving.
• Thinking like a proposal analyst, funder, buyer or investor.
• Learning to win business via grants and contracts.
• Guided hands-on practical proposal writing sessions

8. Strategic Human Resource management 

• Importance of Human Resource Management;
• Recruitment and placement;
• Compensation and benefits;
• Human Resource Development;
• Relationship and conflict management;
• Leadership in workplace
• Understand the key strategic HR issues and trends that are relevant to today's HR managers 
• Learn how to design and implement an HR information system
• Know how to integrate job descriptions and performance evaluations
• Understand the principles and applications of performance benchmarking 

9. E-views, pythin and r-programming 

E-Views:

• Generating and Exporting E-Views graphs
• Properties of Time Series Data and Model Design;
• Specification and the use of Models;
• Evaluation of models
• Set up and interpret time series models in E-Views
• Forecast macroeconomic variables for Policy Analysis 

Python

• coding techniques and best practices
• Program flow control in Python
• Using databases in python
• Learn to work with the NumPy array, a faster and more powerful alternative to the list, and take your first steps in data exploration

R-programming

• Basic R programming concepts and techniques
• Writing R functions,
• Debugging R Programs
• Profiling R code,
• Organizing and commenting R code
• Data types and structures: factors, data frames and lists
• Use R to clean, analyze, and visualize data.

10. Corporate Governance and Leadership

• Corporate governance concepts and theories
• Models of corporate governance
• Corporate Governance issues in practices
• Ethical reasoning and corporate programs
• Principles of strategic leadership 

11. CONSULTANCY MANAGEMENT SKILLS 

• Self-development: making the most of your own potential
• Development of others: enabling other consultants to deliver better performance
• Managing consultancy business performance
• Managing the sales and marketing function
• Managing client relationships and achieving optimal positioning with the client
• Developing and leveraging corporate intellectual property
• Moving towards promotion
• Performance Management
• Risk Management

Application process 

Interested candidates (individuals OR institutions) are encouraged to register for courses through paying the training fees: 

• Bank Account: 000400694575007 RWF (Bank of Kigali)
• Title of the Account: Economic Policy Research Network 

Scan the bank slip and send it to:  info@eprnrwanda.org and copy to:  ed@eprnrwanda.org OR bring the hard copy of bank slip to EPRN office located at University of Rwanda Headquarters (former SFB) Gikondo. 

You can also pay through MTN MOMO PAY (*182*8*1*030683#) or through PayPal on our website (www.eprnrwanda.org) and notify us through info@eprnrwanda.org 

NB: Tailor-Made Course

We can also do this as tailor-made course to meet specific organizational needs. 

Certificates 

• EPRN issues completion certificates to participants who successfully attend the course and pass the course test. 

• At the end of the course, the trainer will deliver a test, and ONLY participants to pass the course with at least 60% will get the certificate. 

• Those failing to have 60% from the test will be encouraged to attend a similar training-same topic- but they won’t pay (free of charge). 

If you need further clarifications, call us through: +250788357648 or write to us:  info@eprnrwanda.org