Where is this course held?

In person at Network Hub, 300 Kensal Road, London W10 5BE. Nearest stations: Kensal Green and Kensal Rise (London Overground).

How many people are in each group?

Sessions are capped at 10 participants to keep the training practical and ensure every participant gets direct attention from the trainers.

Who delivers the training?

Sessions are typically delivered by two trainers from Strategic Agenda. Gerald Clark and Fola Yahaya lead the majority of courses.

Is there a bursary or reduced-price option?

Yes. Every public cohort has at least one bursary seat reserved for participants from small charities or individuals who could not otherwise afford to attend. Contact SA Training before booking to discuss availability.

Can SA Training run this course for my team?

Yes. Bespoke team days are available in person at your office or online, designed around your team's specific work. Contact SA Training to arrange a free 30-minute scoping call.

Hybrid

Interpreting Data with AI

A practical half-day workshop for humanitarian and development teams — turn your M&E data into clear, defensible insights without being caught out by a confident wrong answer.

Interpreting Data with AI is a practical, small-group training course held in person at Network Hub, 300 Kensal Road, London W10 5BE, led by Gerald Clark and Fola Yahaya of SA Training (Strategic Agenda). The course runs as a 4-hour session with a maximum of 10 participants and is designed for Programme officers, M&E and MEAL staff, grants and reporting leads, comms officers, and managers across UN agencies and NGOs — anyone who is handed data and expected to make sense of it, but who isn't a data analyst and doesn't want to become one. No technical background needed. If you can open a spreadsheet or read a donor report, you're in the right room..

Humanitarian and development teams are buried in data that they often have insufficient time to process: indicator trackers, post-distribution monitoring, beneficiary headcounts, survey exports, budget-vs-actuals, situation reports. Yet the need to assess and creative an effective data story has never been more important. Whilst AI tools can take a wall of M&E data and turn it into a plain-English summary in they are still prone to hallucinations and need deep verification. In a sector where a wrong number in a donor report is a serious problem, and where beneficiary data is sensitive by definition, knowing how to use these tools safely isn't optional. This session teaches both halves: getting fast, useful insight out of your data, and never being caught out by a confident, but entirely wrong answer. Delivered in a hybrid format — in person at Network Hub, 300 Kensal Road, London W10 5BE, with remote participants joining live. Two trainers throughout: one leads, one supports breakouts and the remote room.

What will I leave with?

Understand what AI can and can't reliably do with data — and exactly why it can produce a confident but wrong beneficiary count or percentage. Get programme data into an AI tool safely, and ask clear questions to summarise it, spot trends across reporting periods, and compare figures (targets vs actuals, planned vs reached). Use AI to explain a chart, indicator table, or partner report in plain language — and suggest a simple way to visualise a point for a donor or SitRep. Always sense-check AI's claims — verifying figures, re-checking totals, and recognising when it has miscalculated or fabricated a number. Apply data protection in practice — know what beneficiary, personal, and sensitive operational data must never go into a public AI tool, in line with humanitarian data responsibility principles. Turn what the data shows into a clear, defensible takeaway for a donor report, board paper, or cluster meeting. Leave with a concrete action plan for the week ahead, tied to a real report or dataset you're currently working on.

Who is this course for?

Programme officers, M&E and MEAL staff, grants and reporting leads, comms officers, and managers across UN agencies and NGOs — anyone who is handed data and expected to make sense of it, but who isn't a data analyst and doesn't want to become one. No technical background needed. If you can open a spreadsheet or read a donor report, you're in the right room.

Prerequisites

No prior AI experience needed. Make sure you can log in to an AI tool before the session (ChatGPT, Claude, or Copilot — whichever your organisation permits; check your AI policy as some agencies mandate specific enterprise tools for data work). Bring one real, non-confidential piece of data you actually work with — a few rows of an indicator tracker, a survey summary, a budget table, or a chart from a report. It must contain nothing confidential or personal: anonymise or make a dummy version by changing names, locations, and any identifying figures. A laptop (not just a phone) with your AI tool open is required on the day.

Practical details

Location: Network Hub, 300 Kensal Road, London W10 5BE. Nearest stations: Kensal Green and Kensal Rise (London Overground).
Format: In-person, hands-on, small group.
Group size: Maximum 10 participants per session.
Trainers: Typically two trainers per session — Gerald Clark and Fola Yahaya.
What to bring: A laptop with the relevant tool accounts active. Full details sent with your booking confirmation.
Included: Refreshments and scheduled comfort breaks for in-person sessions.

Your trainer

Gerald Clark

Practical AI workflows for communications and design teams

Strategic Agenda. Leads training engagements on practical AI workflows for communications and design teams.

Fola Yahaya

AI, Digital Transformation, AI Strategy, AI workflows

Dr Fola Yahaya is an AI expert, published author and the Founder of Strategic Agenda, a global strategic communications consultancy which for more than 20 years has been helping clients like the UN share compelling stories so that the right people do the right things.