{"metadata":{"id":"002347b7d8f1b1e96c36b0f29215a201","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f998d8a0-0669-4d7a-9f08-5e8d7ad27a3f/retrieve"},"pageCount":6,"title":"EXPERIENCE CAPITALIZATION -WE ARE ALL IN THE SAME BOAT","keywords":[],"chapters":[{"head":"","index":1,"paragraphs":[{"index":1,"size":65,"text":"I received an invitation from CTA to attend an experience capitalization workshop in Goa, India, in April 2017. I had no idea what the workshop would involve. The facilitator, Shalini Kala, sent some pre-workshop exercises to help us introduce ourselves and the project we were working on, which was the Integrated Livelihood Support Project (ILSP), and share this information with all participants -and get started."},{"index":2,"size":100,"text":"I had been working in the field of communication and documentation for 15 years by the time I attended the workshop, and for the last 3 years, had been handling the Knowledge Management (KM) portfolio for ILSP. As in other projects and initiatives, we faced different challenges, especially when trying to capture tacit knowledge from the field; analyse data regarding our production or marketing efforts; when trying to strengthen the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system which is used to capture and disseminate learning during project implementation; or when trying to ensure the M&E and KM systems effectively support project implementation."},{"index":3,"size":168,"text":"In ILSP, managers for M&E, KM and the Monitoring Information System (MIS -the system used to capture field data), directly report to the project director. Other managers within the programme are involved in its implementation and report to the chief programme manager. After attending the first experience capitalization workshop, I was developing a case study on how village level producer groups are promoting goat production as their prime economic activity. I was going through all the MIS data and analysing it with the M&E format for the project. However, every time I sent my case to the CTA facilitator, she wrote back with more questions regarding the case. I dug deeper into the data and asked more questions to the stakeholders involved. For example, I asked the field level staff, \"Why do some villagers not join the goat groups?\" The answer to this question provided valuable insights into the culture of the village: goat rearing, for example, is a caste-based profession and not done by the upper castes."},{"index":4,"size":88,"text":"Focusing on the analysis, I was able to make a story out of the data available, showing the main challenges we faced and the results we found. And through this process, I learned that MIS, M&E and KM are all interlinked and must be better coordinated to be more effective and productive. A culture that supports experience capitalization needs to be built within the project to trigger this process. This realisation was the starting point of my journey as a practitioner and \"champion\" of the experience capitalization approach."},{"index":5,"size":78,"text":"Within development projects, the monitoring and evaluation and knowledge management systems are interlinked, and must be coordinated effectively to support project implementation. As we have seen in the Integrated Livelihood Support Project (ILSP) in Uttarakhand, India, both systems can be strengthened with experience capitalization, a process which involves the critical analysis of project experiences. Through a capitalization process, information gathered from a specific experience can be turned into institutional knowledge and utilised for improving project activities and impact."}]},{"head":"Cover \"I had a meeting with my colleagues and convinced them to work together...\" Above A training workshop for the ILSP staff, for some of its NGO partners, and for two of the project implementation agencies: Uttarakhand Gramya Vikas Samiti (UGVS), and the Project Society -Watershed Management Directorate (PS-WMD)","index":2,"paragraphs":[]},{"head":"Clarity and institutionalization action","index":3,"paragraphs":[{"index":1,"size":119,"text":"Through a very interactive facilitation process with CTA, I was able to develop the first draft of my case on goat rearing. With this draft, I attended the next experience capitalization workshop in Pondicherry, India in September 2017. This time, Mrs. Shalini was accompanied by another facilitator, Pankaj Srivastav. In this workshop, the participants discussed their own individual cases and completed a peer review process that helped to improve their analyses. The feedback I received from the co-facilitator was especially helpful in improving my case. He taught me how to relate a particular field experience with the national and international development goals. He also provided me with insights of some great work and research done on livestock and goats."},{"index":2,"size":45,"text":"We discussed the need to institutionalise the experience capitalization approach to a great extent, and listed the activities that needed to be done to achieve this within our projects. I prepared an Action Plan and supportive narratives to implement it, which included specific activities to:"},{"index":3,"size":17,"text":"• orient the project director towards experience capitalization and show him the potential benefits of its institutionalization;"},{"index":4,"size":21,"text":"• orient my colleagues and show them how experience capitalization can be a better tool for achieving the project's envisaged outcomes;"},{"index":5,"size":10,"text":"• identify the resources needed to complete a capitalization process;"},{"index":6,"size":13,"text":"• identify the themes within the project for which knowledge can be capitalised;"},{"index":7,"size":8,"text":"• identify indicators to monitor the process; and"},{"index":8,"size":4,"text":"• replicate the process."},{"index":9,"size":66,"text":"As per the action plan, I met with the project director to explain the benefits of experience capitalization, and how we could adopt this participatory approach to document project learning. During this meeting, we also discussed how experience capitalization could help increase our project's impact. I briefed him that we needed to train our field staff, and develop their capacities to collect data and analyse it."},{"index":10,"size":89,"text":"I had a meeting with my colleagues to try to convince them to work together with the field level staff and capture information on different project themes, such as the development of specific value chains, marketing issues and gender sensitization. We identified staff members who could join as participants, and selected the key themes that the experience capitalization training session would cover. Our assumption was that we would be able to capture the \"real\" experiences of the project with this approach, and we planned and prepared a new workshop."},{"index":11,"size":21,"text":"In this workshop, participants discussed their own individual cases and completed a peer review process that helped to improve their analyses."},{"index":12,"size":14,"text":"Pankaj Srivastav agreed to be the recourse person for this new experience capitalization workshop."},{"index":13,"size":63,"text":"The key challenge however, was that all the workshop documents were prepared in English and the field level staff only spoke Hindi. All the formats therefore had to be translated, but this was possible with the help of the facilitator. We met a total of 32 participants in Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, between the 13th and the 17th of December 2017 (please visit: http://experience-capitalization.cta. int/a-new-initiative-in-india/)."}]},{"head":"The workshop","index":4,"paragraphs":[{"index":1,"size":103,"text":"As I had joined a similar workshop before, and had already completed a first article, I co-facilitated this new process. Participants identified 12 themes, and we developed 30 different case studies. Taking part in the experience capitalization workshop allowed field-level staff, for the first time, to play an active role in the analysis of the activities they are all involved in. As one of the participants commented, \"This was the first time we have been involved in the process of experience capitalization. It allowed us to 'observe' the project and analyse the data we have generated during last four years of project's implementation.''"},{"index":2,"size":85,"text":"Organising this initial workshop was the first step towards institutionalization. But we also held a separate session with 12 senior staff members of the project to enhance their capacity to become experience capitalization \"champions\". The objective of this session was to help these staff members facilitate experience capitalization processes in future, and become focal points for its institutionalization. In ILSP there are two project implementation agencies, and it was the first time that officials representing these two organisations had come together to share their experiences."},{"index":3,"size":93,"text":"I led the process for getting approval from the senior management, engaging the project team and instituting a process for selecting suitable and interested staff to train. I was also responsible for identifying the capitalization themes, formulating a communication plan for experience capitalization, identifying appropriate technical support, and I was also in charge of other tasks related to the organisation of workshops, including budgets and other resources. Unfortunately, and due to personal reasons, I left this position in April 2018. The last three points of the action plan were implemented by my successor."}]},{"head":"Reflection","index":5,"paragraphs":[{"index":1,"size":48,"text":"One of the key lessons I've drawn from this experience is that if we capture knowledge and information from the field in a systematic way -as this methodology teaches us -we can see that in development projects all staff members are equally responsible for their implementation and results."},{"index":2,"size":40,"text":"The efforts of all those working at all levels can be translated into institutional knowledge and utilised for improving project activities and impact. This knowledge can also be adopted by other organisations implementing projects with similar activities and envisaged results."},{"index":3,"size":82,"text":"The 30 case studies produced in the initial workshop were presented to the IFAD review mission in September 2017, along with a report with the main observations made during the two experience capitalization workshops. As the final report mentioned, \"this was found to be very helpful and we now propose to organise two experience capitalization workshops in the state. It would be useful to prepare grassroots level case studies by local staff. The project implementing agencies should consider planning these workshops together.\""},{"index":4,"size":17,"text":"Below The adoption of experience capitalization requires teams to make it part of the project implementation processes"},{"index":5,"size":31,"text":"Last, and in terms of sustainability, it is important that a team identifies who will be the experience capitalization \"champions\", covering the different districts or regions where a project is implemented."}]},{"head":"Final remarks","index":6,"paragraphs":[{"index":1,"size":17,"text":"As rightly said by Anton Chekhov, \"Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.\""},{"index":2,"size":56,"text":"It is time to put the experience capitalization knowledge into practice. I have started the process of institutionalising the experience capitalization approach in the new projects where I work, and helping other organisations to do the same. I believe that experience capitalization will become recognised world-over as a ground-breaking methodology within the KM and M&E domain."},{"index":3,"size":32,"text":"Anil Maikhuri led the knowledge management department at the Integrated Livelihood Support Project in Uttarakhand, India. Presently, he works at the EKAM Foundation, an NGO within the community health sector. E-mail: anilmaikhuri@gmail.com "}]}],"figures":[{"text":"  "},{"text":"  "},{"text":"  "},{"text":"  "},{"text":" This is one of the results of the process started by the \"Capitalization of Experiences for Greater Impact in Rural Development\" project, implemented by CTA, FAO and IICA and supported by IFAD.  "}],"sieverID":"7e55d757-3a32-459d-b6d9-720face480c1","abstract":""}