Monthly Archives: November 2014

Learning Workshop

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Last week I co-facilitated a ‘learning workshop’ with Adam the new Deputy Country Director, for the four livelihoods projects in CU.

We structured the program through looking at four of the OECD measures of program success: Efficiency, Effectiveness, Sustainability and Relevence.

The definition of sustainability caused problems, for the OECD definition relates quite specifically to environmental sustainability during the project lifetime, but the common usage in the organisation defines it more as ‘legacy after the project is completed’. We went for the latter.

I introduced World Cafe as a technique for the session on effectiveness, causing shocked silence when I demonstrated how participants should write on the table cloths (they presumed that the white clothes were the venues, but relaxed when assured that we had bought them for the purpose).

Tenthema (of the sugar out growers capacity building project) giving the discussion summary of the Effectiveness Successes World Cafe table.

Tenthema (of the sugar out growers capacity building project) giving the discussion summary of the Effectiveness Successes World Cafe table.

At the end of the first day, Adam did an outside exercise of brainstorming and ranking peoples big learnings for the day. He was so impressed with World Cafe that he wanted to use it again on the second day for participants to explore how the top four learnings should be incorporated into new project proposals. I was really impressed with what participants came up with for one of these; and I particularly liked the last sentence of point 10, which I think sums it all up for any development organisation.

Adam directing participants on the brainstorm & ranking exercise used at the end of the first day

Adam directing participants on the brainstorm & ranking exercise used at the end of the first day

EMPOWERING LOAL STRUCTURES TO CARRY OUT MOST OF THE ACTIVITIES – LESS PARTICIPATION BY CU STAFF

  •  CU to play an advisory/mentorship role in assisting beneficiaries or local organisations through awareness, sensitization, training instead of doing things for them

  • Identify local organisations/beneficiaries, social groups to work with

  • The identified local organisations need to participate in the need assessment e.g PRA (participatory research & analysis)

  • Need to assess their capacities e.g. financial, technical, social, literacy etc

  • Build local organisations capacity to address their  identified gaps

  • Promote self assessment of local organisations

  • Provide strategic sub-grants to local organisations

  • Develop coherent M&E to track the management of sub-grants

  • Community Advocacy should be emphasized e.g CAI

  • Focus entry point should be through CBOs (community based organisations) as they are more focused on what they are doing. Will require change of CU system

Impact Report 2

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I have just run the second workshop to gain staff input to the Impact report, this time with half of the WASH members. There are seven WASH (Water Sanitation and Hygiene) projects implemented by CU, which account for 23% of the total project expenditure, so I was pleased to have a few hours of their time as part of a Whole of WASH (WoW) get together.

WASH staff look at posters describing activities and outcomes across the whole of CU

WASH staff look at posters describing activities and outcomes across the whole of CU

I again used the poster process, but this time remembered how successful it was in ’19 points of connection’ to have sticky dot likert scales associated with each poster. These sticker dot surveys have given some Interesting insights into the development world.

It looks as if there is more support for water provision than sewage.. funny that.

It looks as if there is more support for water provision than sewage.. funny that.

Junaid Ahmad is senior director for the water global practice of the World Bank Group. He maintains that interventions that focus on collective behavior change and shifting social norms are vital in this war on open defecation. ‘In rural India, there are places with signs that say: “We will not give our daughters in marriage to someone from a village that doesn’t practice total sanitation.” This is the type of social movement that is required. In addition, political will at the highest level is absolutely fundamental…..’ Unfortunately Malawi is unlikely to make it’s Millennium Development Goals in this area, mainly because according to UNDP, there is not sufficient high level political will in the country.

OK, so it was WASH staff commenting on agriculture, but almost everyone in the country grows maize.

OK, so it was WASH staff commenting on agriculture, but almost everyone in the country grows maize.

I am pleased to see that there are some attempts at innovation, which when I consider the lack of political will to enact any change to carbon producing behaviour in other parts of the world it all makes Malawi look positively dynamic.