The regional webinar on experiences on evaluation and evaluation tools for parenting programmes
A regional webinar on evaluation of parenting programmes was held online, on 15 March 2021, by the UNODC Regional Programme for Afghanistan and Neighbouring Countries (RP), in partnership with the UNODC Prevention, Treatment, Rehabilitation Section (PTRS). The webinar was built upon the previous concerted efforts undertaken in implementing family skills programmes - FAST, SFP 10-14, Strong Families and Family United in the Western and Central Asian region.
The main objective of this webinar was to build the capacity of policy makers in the education and health sectors as well as trainers/ facilitators of family skills-based programmes to support and guide them in evaluating the ongoing parenting programmes.
More than 100 participants from the eight regional programme countries (Afghanistan, I.R. Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) as well as UNODC DDR experts attended the webinar.
During the opening ceremony, Mr. Jeremy Milsom, Senior Programme Coordinator of the RP, highlighted the importance of regional connectivity in introducing prevention interventions. For years RP has been working on evidence-based drug use prevention programmes helping the youth to avoid substance use and risky behaviors in the region in partnership with Country Programmes for Afghanistan, I.R. Iran and Pakistan and the Programme for Central Asia.
Ms. Giovanna Campello, chief of the PTRS, emphasized the significance of evaluation of prevention interventions like parenting programmes and how evaluation is important to see the programme’s result and effectiveness to make it beneficial for children, families and community.
Three expert panelists joined the seminar. Dr. Wadih Maalouf, Global Programme Coordinator on drug use prevention from UNODC PTRS, Dr. Karin Haar, UNODC consultant on Family Skills Initiative and Dr. Aala El-Khani, Senior lecturer from Manchester University and UNODC consultant on Family Skills Initiative. Dr. Wadih Maalouf discussed the value of family and parenting skills and presented different types of evaluation of family skills programmes. In the second part, Dr. Aala El-Khani delivered a presentation on the ethics of research and importance of a qualitative research design. Dr. Karin Haar also emphasized the importance of how to conduct research, development of protocols and quantitative data collection.
At the end of the webinar, the participants were provided with an opportunity to raise their questions and comments.
RP thanked the Government of Finland and the European Union for supporting this activity.