Distance Learning

A series of short training programs have been organized from time to time in the World Bank to strengthen the capacities of its HNP staff in dealing with poverty. These programs included sessions on topics such as benefit- and outcome- incidence analyses, beneficiary assessments, and targeting procedures.

Some of these training programs have been adapted for distance learning use. The objective is to make the material more readily available to HNP professionals in the Bank's field offices and outside the Bank. One such distance learning course available currently is titled as "The Poor and HNP Programs: Targeting The Inputs To The Poor."

About the course

The course has been developed under the close collaboration of HNP and Poverty Thematic and four other thematic groups of the Health Nutrition and Population family in the World Bank. Six lunch-time training workshops were used to pilot test the materials with the Bank staff in Washington in May 2001. The course materials were subsequently edited based on the  feedback provided by the workshop participants and improved to serve as a self-paced distance learning course. The course contains a total of six sessions:

1. HNP and the Poor: Introduction to the Main Framework and Linkages with World Bank Instruments
2. HNP and the Poor: Applying the Life Cycle Framework and Going Beyond Country Averages
3. HNP and the Poor: The Roles and Constraints of Households and Communities
4. HNP and the Poor: The Health System and the Poor
5. HNP and the Poor: Critical Factors Outside the Health Sector for Improving the HNP Outcomes for the Poor
6. HNP and the Poor: An Integrated Policy Framework for Improving the Outcomes for the Poor