The Basic Training Course (TOT) on Poverty Analysis Completed

　　During November 1 – 8, 2005, the International Poverty Reduction Center in China hosted a Basic Training Course on Poverty Analysis. Wang Guoliang, Deputy Director General of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, Ruben Lamdany, Director of the Sector and Thematic Department of the World Bank Institute were invited to present at the training course and address the trainees. Zhang Lei, Managing Director of IPRCC chaired the opening ceremony.
　　The training is a component of activities under the World Bank IDF Grant Program. As the first collaboration between the World Bank and IPRCC, the IDF Program was designed to support enhancing IPRCC capacity building and promoting its ability in poverty analysis, monitoring and evaluation. As the mandate of IPRCC is to provide trainings for government officials, practitioners and experts and to enhance the poverty reduction capacity of the international community, through discussion with the World Bank, IPRCC decided to expand the beneficiaries of trainings to relevant staff from government agencies, public service units and research institutes.
　　The Training covered the following topics: poverty concept, poverty data collection and analysis and poverty monitoring and evaluation, application of the Stata software, poverty line, poverty determinants, inequality, poverty reduction policies and experiences in China. The trainees totaled 35, including staff from IPRCC, LGOPAD, Chinese National Aged Job Committee's Office, Jiangxi Provincial Poverty Reduction Office, State Council Foreign-Funded Project Management Center, National Training Center for Executives in Poor Areas, Statistical Center of Health Ministry, College of Agriculture and Rural Development with China Agriculture University, Institute of Agricultural Economy and Development with Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, etc. The resource persons for the training included Celia M. Reyes, PEP Co-Director &CPMS Network Leader, Wang Yan, Senior Economist of the World Bank, Wang Sangui, researcher fellow in the Institute of Agricultural Economics with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wang Heng, Post-Doctor in the Institute of Agricultural Economics with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Yan Fang, Senior Statistician with the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics, Ruben Lamdany, Director of the Sector and Thematic Programs with World Bank Institute and Zhang Lei, Managing Director of IPRCC.
　　The questionnaires after the course showed that most of the trainees highly regarded the training. The most hailed parts are introduction on China poverty reduction policy and poverty analysis, and the next is Application of Stata Software and Analysis on Poverty Determinants. The topics on top of the list that trainees desire for are the evolvement of poverty reduction policies and the current development of poverty reduction in China. And the next is the introduction of the theory and methodologies of poverty reduction, case studies and advanced statistic analysis. GTZ had a staffer to the course and expressed the hope that IPRCC can help organize similar training courses in Jiangxi Province.
　　Despite the positive comments from trainees about the curriculum design, composition of resource persons, organization and service, the training is still not flawless as we are in lack of experience. IPRCC is now reviewing its work and hopefully the result can serve as a guide for the next event.