[Health programme evaluation training in Africa : personal experience and discussion]

There is still a major need for health programme evaluation training in French-speaking West Africa. Based on a ten-year experience of this type of training in a number of countries, this review article describes and discusses the content of proposed training programmes. These short vocational and participative training programmes concern the essential themes of evaluation practice : general introduction to the concepts and the evaluation approach, the pre-evaluation phase and intervention theory/logic, the various approaches to (participative, directive, etc.) and types of evaluation (needs, implantation, process, efficacy, etc.), data collection methods and tools, communication and use of the results, professional practice standards. Reflective analysis shows that a non-directive, participative educational approach, based on case studies is highly appreciated by participants. Several essential elements of professional evaluation practice are perceived as very novel by participants : the pre-evaluation phase, the rigorous approach, the primary concern for the usefulness of the results, practice standards. Quantitative analyses are well known, but not well utilized and qualitative analyses are poorly known and poorly understood. The deployment of health promotion evaluation programme training has become essential. It is consubstantial with rigorous professional practice, which must be useful to decision-makers in Africa.