Category Archives: dialogue

Facilitation Fundamentals – Theory & Practice

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1 Lit review

Richard scribing participants views of facilitation after doing a Lit Review

My observation is that there is a serious gap between rhetoric and reality in the international development world. There are people with positions called ‘field facilitators’ but with job descriptions based on achieving outputs such as ‘Numbers of people trained in …. ‘

Concentration

Concentration: Tiaone, Cecilia, Sithembile, Akimu, Masowi

Enjoying themselves

Enjoying themselves:Sithembile, Masowi, Barton, Cecilia, Tiaone

or ‘Number of villages declared ODF’. Similarly donors require workshops exploring ‘lessons learned’, but in practice everyone looks at their laptop before making a presentation and the most senior person makes a few comments that get noted as the ‘lessons learned’. I have been trying to show a few different ways of doing things, and CU asked me to run one day courses on ‘everything I know about those workshop techniques I’ve been using’.

Philemon and Blessings making a point to Richard

Discussion: Sithembile, Akimu and Masowi

At the end of the session I asked each to make a commitment to try out at least one of the techniques that they’d used during the day. They all seemed very keen to do so which was gratifying.

As the organisation is spread across quite a wide area, yesterday was the first of four.  I managed to demonstrate, and/or they practiced in the course of unpacking this thing called facilitation:
History wall, Lit Revew, NGT, Poster Process, Noisy RR, Silent RR, Card storming, Think/Pair/Share, Likert Scales and a long stream of introductions (as arrival times are always erratic). The group provided some hilarious energisers, which were slightly risqué but nothing compared with Village Dancing

I will of course make some changes, one of which will be to run a session on ground rules, with a question about mobile phone use….

 

Action Learning in Action

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Using the Lit Review process, participants explore Action & Reflective Learning

Using the Lit Review process, participants explore Action & Reflective Learning

The M&E technical working group continues to be my favourite Malawian project. Last week was TWG #4 where we further developed the idea of a centralised data base system and reviewed participants mini projects to improve data collection in their work. I was particularly pleased with this latter part of the workshop.

I started with a ‘Literature review’ on Action Learning and Reflective practice. This helped them better understand some completely new theory to all of them. After this backgrounding I ran a short sociometric exercise on how long they had been practicing M&E and from this created pairs with different levels of experience.

Some of the pairs with different skill levels helping each other in their presentation

Some of the pairs with different skill levels helping each other in their presentation

The next step was for each pair to help each other develop a 2min presentation on what they had developed in TWG #2, what they had done and to reflect on the process.

 

When asked to record what they had learned during the session, by far the majority referred to Action Learning in some way – some examples:

  • How the action research process works to improve M&E and the learning process
  • Learned from the actions taken by other M&E officers to achieve an improvement in data collection
  • At least that action research/learning, one needs to reflect and act upon the identification of gaps and what has worked and what has not worked
  • The application of action learning/research in day to day M&E activities and how it can help in reflection
  • The concept of action research and how to apply it in my day to day activities
  • What action research is and the importance of action reports
  • A reflection of the data collection process.
  • That I can use the action research approach to improve on data collection process of my project. It is good to get everyone involved in the process because it gets people talk the same language at the end of the day. – you plan together on what to collect and how – you implement – you reflect and then modify the tools or process where necessary.
Small steps or big goals? Not sure, probably too early to tell.

Small steps or big goals? Not sure, probably too early to tell.

Thank you!

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We held a report back and next steps session with all eight guards providing reports. They all gave heartfelt thanks to all those that had contributed towards their recovery following the damage caused by the wild weather.  The all provided at least one other to vouch that they had spent the money on what they claimed.

Austin giving his report back with our Japanese and Cameroonian neighbours in the background.

Austin giving his report back with our Japanese and Cameroonian neighbours in the background.

Joseph Purchased buckets, plates and plastic sheet and also sent money back home to his wife in the village.

Austin, whose rental accommodation was not damaged sent all the money to his parents in the village who had lost everything.

Willard explaining how he'd spent the money

Willard explaining how he’d spent the money

Willard : Purchased bricks and rebuilt half of what was knocked down and plastic sheet to cover the remainder. He also sent money to his widowed Mother.

Leveson: Bought bricks and a bag of cement. Rebuilt half the damaged wall. Also purchased plastic sheet to cover the remainder and household items, e.g.: plates and bucket.

Francis: Spent part of the money on child in hospital and the rest on plastic sheet to cover damage and some household items.

Robert C.: Took child for check up to hospital. Also bought plastic sheet and roof poles. Purchased household items e.g.; plates, dishes and buckets.

Ali: Bought 2000 bricks and two bags of cement and a sheet of plastic

Robert: Bought 3000 bricks and 2 bags of cement

Grace translating the report back sessions

Grace translating the report back sessions

 

As we have received some additional donations (thank you!) after the first workshop, we are trying a more community development focus with these funds. To start this we asked them for income generation ideas. (Grace was emphatic that they worked in pairs, otherwise she said they’d just say the same thing as each other) The ideas were:

  • Buy a goat and breed it
  • Buy flour and oil to make mandasi. Wife will sell by the road side
  • Buy second hand clothes or fish and re-sell
  • Pig farming
  • Set up a mini-shop to sell groceries
  • Find a job as auto-electrician (Joseph) or driver (Austin)

We asked them to come up with plans by the next meeting.

On a completely different and sad note, we attended Tigwirizane Nkhoma’s funeral yesterday. He was only 32 and apparently died of TB.

Bonding capital* rules – OK!

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Grace 1

Grace clarifying the question in the first small group discussion

small group 1

Small group discussion Question 2

At change over time on Saturday, we ran a (rough) participatory budgeting workshop with the eight permanent guards for them to decide how to distribute the $550 donated by our generous neighbours and  Australian friends. We designed a process for the barely literate, that is with simple instructions, little written out. Through Grace our interpreter we first asked them to discuss with each other three questions, asked sequentially: How had the big storm effected them? What would they do if they had a little bit of money to aid recovery? How would they demonstrate to each other that they had spent the money in that way?

allocation

Allocating funds with sugar sachets

After this process, we provided each with twenty sugar sachets, each worth roughly MK1200. They were to allocate these funds to each other. They were not allowed to allocate funds to themselves. However, after each distributing their 20 sachets they came to a collective realisation that this process had resulted in an uneven distribution of the funds. They demanded an opportunity to do it again. However then they realised it would always result in an uneven distribution, and as they did not want any body to be jealous, they wanted to split the funds equally. We went to great lengths to impress on them that this was their decision, not ours.

The Revolution: When they realised that the process would result in unequal allocation.

The Revolution: When they realised that the process would result in unequal allocation.

On Reflection: The designed process was OK in that they made the decision for equal allocation themselves. However I’m sure we could have designed something different that would have made them come to that decision without it being a revolution. Also even just having the names written was almost certainly too much writing for the (at least) one who was completely illiterate. (e.g.: We should have had photos).

They were all very grateful and wished to thank everyone that had helped them. They collectively decided that within the next two weeks they would each get two friends to visit them to see how they had spent the money  and report back.

*Bonding capital : Everyone with similar values – see each other through good and bad times, but don’t dare be different. Linking capital: Essentially all having the same values, but able to accept some individual differences. Bridging capital: Able to acknowledge and accept those with completely different value systems to oneself.

 

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