“International Workshop on Evaluation With Participation (EWP)” held in Beijing

An "International Workshop on Evaluation With Participation (EWP)" was held in Beijing between August 21st and 23rd. This is one of the series of activities organized by the Rural Education Action Project (REAP) in order to share its projects and research progress with the general public.

The Policy Forum on Rural Education Challenges in China was held on the first day (August 21st). Professor Jikun Huang, the Director of the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy (CCAP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Dr. Jin He, the Ford Foundation's Program Officer, gave the opening address. Dr. Linxiu Zhang, Deputy Director of CCAP and Director of REAP-China, chaired the opening ceremony. During the day, REAP team members and collaborators shared their most recent research findings on multiple topics: nutrition and education in rural areas, rural boarding school management, barriers to higher education for the rural poor, and the migrant children's education . Experts from other organizations were also invited to share the results from their research.

From August 22nd to 23rd, Paul Glewwe, a professor from the University of Minnesota, gave a two-day intensive training on the "Methods for Project Evaluation." At Glewwe's side was Professor Scott Rozelle, the Co-Director of REAP from Stanford University, who summarized the presentation with his fluent Chinese and translated on the spot.

Nearly 140 participants from government organizations, universities, research organizations, NGOs, businesses, and the media, attended the policy forum and the methodology training. The participants all agreed that the training was very helpful. They also expressed their keen interest in building up their research capacities through similar training workshops in the future.