The third round of online regional training on enhancing knowledge and understanding of key E&S professionals and practitioners on best practices for managing risks and impacts associated with an effective EIA process as well as meeting the requirements of environmental and social safeguards in development projects across the region was successfully carried out between March and May of 2022. The training covered participants from 18 countries, namely, Samoa, Fiji, Solomon Is, American Samoa, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Tonga, Vanuatu, Niue, PNG, Cook Islands, Australia, Nauru, Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, New Caledonia, New Zealand and Guam recording a total of 641 participants registered for all 9 training modules. However, about 60% (384) completed the online training evaluation on survey monkey from 11 PICs, namely Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. This is the data from which this evaluation reporting is based upon.
The regional training expanded beyond the target audience to include other professionals and practitioners from across various organizations that included: Pacific Island national Governments, private sector, international organizations, state-owned enterprise, university and research institutions. This is attributed to the vast network among participants and trainers when sharing the invitation or call to register for the regional training. In hindsight, this approach proved very useful as it ensured a good turn-up of participants rather than relying solely on a few targeted groups of EIA and Safeguard professionals.
The following results are presented:
- 54% of participants were male, 45% female and 1% did not answer. Most participants were employed with national Governments and State-Owned Enterprises.
- 99% of respondents agree that the training topic and contents were useful for their work. 98% responded that their learning objectives for all nine modules were fully met while only 2% indicated that it did not fulfill their expectations.
- 56% of respondents were very satisfied with another 40% registering satisfied while 3% were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied; bringing together an overall total of 96% deemed satisfied with all 9 training modules.
- Approximately 94% of respondents voted to continue with virtual training platforms for future PLP-ESS trainings compared to 1% who disagreed and another 5% that were unsure. Those who did not support future virtual trainings preferred face-to-face workshops.
- The majority of respondents at approximately 59% found the use of Zoom training as being excellent while 39% of respondents found it to be relatively good. Only 2% recorded having had poor experiences throughout all nine training sessions.
- An overwhelming percentage of respondents at 91% recorded their preference for Zoom Training, followed by MS Teams at only 4% and Webex at 3%. The high value recorded for Zoom indicates that participants deemed it as the top preference for delivering future virtual training across the Pacific region.
- 100% percent of respondents recorded significant learning took place after each training session; many registered significant learning by improving their knowledge base across 5 levels: (1) very poor knowledge; to (2) poor knowledge; to (3) okay knowledge; to (4) good knowledge; to (5) very good knowledge.