The Training and Capacity Building Branch of UN-HABITAT convened the workshop entitled "Making Learning Matter: Training Impact on Performance", held in Manchester from the 4-7 October 2005.

The workshop, hosted by the Institute for Development and Policy Management of the School of Environment and Development, University of Manchester, brought together 26 country participants from Africa and the Arab States, Asia, Europe and the Americas, including representatives of national training institutes and local government associations. In addition, a number of representatives from UN agencies and other support institutions were present at the workshop, which involved presentations, group work and case studies of innovative, successful or unsuccessful training impact evaluation methodologies as they pertain to performance and service delivery.
The workshop was designed to give participants the opportunity to explore and exchange training needs assessment, impact, and evaluation methodologies. The main objectives of the workshop were: to share experiences in what works and does not work regarding impact evaluation of large Local Government training programmes; to review methods and tools to evaluate training’s impact on trainee, organization and human settlements development outcomes; to reach an agreement on a strategy to enhance practice in Local Governments’ training impact evaluation.
This workshop was the first of its kind for TCBB on the issue of evaluation of the impact of training on performance. It clearly demonstrated the need and interest in developing this area of focus and enabling follow-up activities on the issue. As an outcome of the workshop, participants agreed to work further on tool development, to test this tool in their programmes and to review progress on the occasion of the World Urban Forum III in Vancouver.