The introduction of new ideas or initiative for bring any change in the community, training is considered as most useful and effective tools. There are many alternatives, but training and orientation regarded as one of the most effective alternatives to disseminate the ideas and knowledge to acquaint the new program, system of implementation, procedure to be followed. The introduction of study circle at the grass root level to build a viable democratic culture and sound democratic processes in Bangladesh requires through understanding of the study circle method. The understanding of the method and process of implementation requires adequate information and knowledge and it is only possible by providing information and knowledge through training and orientation of the targeted people. In the process, trained and motivated persons are expected to guide the citizens to discuss the issue/s democratically, express their opinions freely and understand their rights and responsibilities. The National Democratic Institute (NDI) considered training as most important factor to create a cadre of skilled and trained manpower to implement the study circle program at the grass root level and build capacity of the partner NGOs. NDI provided training and orientation at different levels of operation to increase the capacity of the participating NGOs to both conduct citizen participation programs and to expand their study circle initiatives. The levels of operations are policy and decision making level, decision implementation level and field level workers.

For the officials of policy and decision making level, NDI organized day-long orientation workshop for the key officials such as executive directors and program managers of the selected partner NGOs. The objective of the orientation workshop was to provide information on the new phase of the study circle activities, analyze previous experiences and activities, and identify implementation problems likely to arise over the course of the program and ways to address them. The day-long orientation was attended by senior officials from the selected NGOs. In the orientation workshop, a number of topics, including: conceptual aspects and key elements of the study circles, accounting requirements and reporting systems; financial controls; management of study circle funds; organizational matters; developing discussion guidebooks; capacity building for program officials; and guidelines for the project covered.

For successful and effective implementation of the study circle program, NDI has always given emphasis on building capacity of Partner NGOs and develop skills of the personnel, involved in organizing study circle project activities and work independently develop and organize project activities. In order to ensure the skill and competent staff to oversee the study circle program by the decision implementation level, NDI provided training to the officials related to the financial management with the aims to acquaint with accounting systems and procedures and management and maintenance of study circle grant funds. The Institute also addressed the roles and responsibilities of the NDI and sub grantee, application procedures, sub grant monitoring procedures, close-out procedures, internal controls, office management and budgets.

Similarly field level officials also required organizational and facilitation skills on program management, organize citizens to form study circle, conduct and facilitate the circle discussions. These required to be done by two groups of functionaries’ i.e program organizers and study circle facilitators. The organizational and facilitation function & skills are again relatively different function altogether, but often people consider that these two functions can be performed by the same person. But these notions are based on wrong perception. However NDI consider that the functionaries directly working with the people are most vital human resources for successful implementation of the study circle program and emphasize on the regular and concurrent training for the organizational and facilitation officials. Accordingly NDI organized and conducted training and refreshers programs for the project coordinators and organizers in various stages of program implementation. The objectives of the training were to acquaint project coordinators and organizers with program systems and procedures and enhance their knowledge of the organizational and managerial aspects of study circles. The training program covered topics on the history, comparative advantages over other methods, duties, roles and responsibilities of the organizers, operational guidelines, communication skills, evaluation and reporting systems. A total of 35 field officials were provided training facilities, and five of whom were females. NDI study circle team members organized and facilitated the training program, and Mr. Prabir Sikder, senior journalist from the Faridpur Press Club, presided over the certificate award ceremony. The program was evaluated in five scale point and the evaluation revealed that training was considered as very satisfactory, and the participants rated the training on higher scale.

NDI continuously monitoring the working of the field officials and effectiveness of the training program conducted earlier and carefully observed that a short re-orientation on study circle program essential to improve the organizational and managerial skill of the personnel working in the project. In order to give more impetus to the work of the organizers and project coordinators, and make them practical oriented, NDI organized a series of refreshers training course for the field level officials at a regular interval. This has been done to improve the working capabilities and give more impetus in the grass root level activities. The program covered various practical aspects of organization and management. The emphasis was given on the evaluation and reporting system.

The accomplishment of study circle program mostly depends on the skills of facilitation. It has been observed that most trainers likely to be unproductive in the study circle facilitation process, unless s/he knows the processes, characteristics and inner significance of the study circle. In the training, trainer considered to be the key actor in the scene, whereas in the study circle participants are considered to be the key players in the scene. Here, the facilitator assists the participants to provide links, to stimulate the discussions and in most time listen to the participant’s view points without making any comments and encourage non-communicative one to participate in the discussions, allows free and frank expressions. Considering the importance of the study circle facilitation processes, NDI organized a series of facilitation training program for the facilitators to conduct study circle discussion. The objectives of the training program were to provide necessary skills to conduct study circle discussion and provide knowledge-base information on study circle method. 3-day training program on facilitation skill covered topics on the conceptual aspects, characteristics, roles and responsibilities of facilitators, qualities of facilitators, time management, self-development, and communication skill, practical demonstration, evaluation etc. A total of 105 field officials were provided training facilities, and of these 32 were females (30.48%). NDI study circle team members organized and facilitated the training program, and each training program was evaluated on five point scale. Based on evaluation and feed back received from the participants, the training program rated highly. At the end of each training program, certificates were awarded to each successful participant by dignitaries. The development of facilitation skills for conducting study circle discussion is a continuous process and in future, NDI is likely to organize more training program on facilitation skill.