A first day summary of the 2011 workshop 'Reflexive Monitoring in Action'
Published on: 06/04/2011
The first day of the Reflexive Monitoring in Action (RMA) workshop for resource centre network coordinators ended on a dining note yesterday, as we left the venue with a brain dead and an empty stomach for a well deserved dinner. In our mind was the onion.
Sector learning is some kind of an onion: it can be cooked in different ways, it has multiple layers and sometimes opening those layers makes you cry. Indeed layers of sector learning we found throughout yesterday: we all came up with different visions for the WASH sector by 2021, with different theories of change by 2012 and we will most likely end with different activities for the coming months.
From this rich first day – I’m still digesting that hardy bulb – we can distil some common qualities, different recipes and some basic observations...
What are the generic qualities of this onion we call sector learning?
What are the different recipes we can cook with it? There are simply too many different options... As we zoomed in on our in-country theory of change, with a 2012 time horizon, the specific focus spanned budget tracking measures, encouraging the use of in-depth information (vs. corporate information) and capacity building at municipal level, policy engagement to review the national strategy, local economic development to source funds to scale up effective WASH services, addressing unclarities in terms of roles and responsibilities and working on national water quality standards. And this is just a teaser, the full recipe book is coming up. At global level we even dreamed up a World Water Day about (WASH sector) learning to improve!
Some reflections from this first day: 1) We are all working on focused learning initiatives, we all have been doing so for a few years. And yet, we keep falling for the sirens of the sector: DO, DO, DO, don’t think! It proved very difficult to formulate our theories of change on the basis of outcomes and changes we desire (which reveal our underlying assumptions) – instead we proposed again activities! 2) We sometimes mix up learning and its effect: where do we seek changes, where do we think learning activities help us achieve these changes? They are not one and the same. 3) A pattern that emerges is the need to gather feedback, to assess and to measure what we are doing. We are moving to a finer understanding of sector learning processes to the extent that we can put the finger where it hitches 4) learning is all good and well but indeed the matter is to actively work, to DO something to change some aspects of the WASH sector. Let’s never forget the knowledge/learning to do what? question. In that sense, I personally think that sector learning is about serving three goals: ultimately, it is about ensuring (pro-poor / for all) delivery of sustainable WASH services but along the way it is also about encouraging and developing social learning and reflexivity (i.e. a dynamic capacity to reflect collectively) and thereby it is about empowering sector actors to drive development locally, on their own terms.
Many questions remain about this curious onion, and today we should have another stab at it - oh, more tears! As we better understand the qualities of our learning bulb, we can only hope it stops making us cry...
(By Ewen)
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