From April 3–5, 2023, the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) jointly organized a training program on data visualization, using Power BI software. The training was conducted by a senior expert from IFPRI, who was invited to EPHI's National Training Center in Addis Ababa. The training was attended by a total of 15 participants, including team members from the National Information Platform for Nutrition (NIPN) Ethiopia, representatives from the Food Science and Nutrition Research Directorate at EPHI, IFPRI, GIZ, and the Ministries of Health and Education.
The program proved to be very interactive, practical, and useful for the trainees. During the training, the trainer covered a wide range of topics, including an introduction to Power BI, basic concepts, visualizations in Power BI, creating the first visualization, interface exploration, formatting visualizations, creating a dashboard for publication, and concluding with a Power BI and data visualization practical session. The trainees were encouraged to provide feedback on what they had learned the day before and their expectations for the following session, which enhanced the program's applicability and usefulness. Additionally, at the end of the training, the participants used their own data to practice using Power BI and presented their visualizations to the other participants. Finally, all participants received certification from EPHI and IFPRI for their successful completion of the course.
