Study Tours

EPRI has extensive experience in coordinating and conducting study tours that reinforce links between relevant policymakers and officials from participating countries, building consensus and momentum for social protection programme implementation. They also enable South-South learning and foster peer-to-peer networking between countries.

 Study tours include teach-in lectures conducted by international experts, focus group discussions and field trips to provide participants exposure to social protection policy and practical implementation issues at national, provincial and/ or local levels,  see social. Interaction with key stakeholders, such as policymakers and programme implementers, provided practical and relevant information for adaptation in delegates’ own countries. Sessions also aimed to identify optimal interventions to meet specific needs and constraints faced in delegates home countries, such as Iraq’s large number of war veterans and antiquated banking system, the DRC’s underdeveloped documentation system, or the stigma around cash handouts in Ethiopia. Participants developed an understanding of the roles played by government, civil society and the private sector in social protection programmes’ design, delivery and evaluation.

EPRI’s Experience in Conducting Study Tours

EPRI has offered dozens of courses and study tours for international participants since 1996. In 2007, EPRI was commissioned by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) to run a series of one-week study tours for key government officials from developing countries to learn about the design and implementation of effective national social protection programmes.

Between February 2007 and April 2009, EPRI hosted delegates from nine countries: Pakistan, Nigeria, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Lesotho, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq and Ethiopia. EPRI also hosted a second tour of Mozambican delegates, funded by the Government of Mozambique, in November/December of 2009, and study tours for Government of Fiji (June 2011) officials, Government of Uganda officials (September 2012, Government of Ethiopia officials (November 2012) and more recently for Government of Nigeria officials (December 2014).

If you are interested in organising a study tour through EPRI contact directors@epri.org.za