Get with the Program - West Africa
Issue 4: October 2009
Well what a few months it has been – after the quiet of the summer months when many people took time to recharge their batteries – we have charged into work with gusto. This issue carries two articles, one on how practical our program approach is proving to be by Uwe Korus and me, and a second on Impact Measurement written by Sarah Ralston, Mousa Fofana, Velina Petrova and Michael Drinkwater. Both are written in the light of a great Program Quality Forum meeting in Ségou in late September. We carry news highlights as always and a brief ‘let’s get creative’ section with some African Proverbs. Please do contribute your articles, thoughts, or questions! .
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Practice of Change
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Allison Burden and Uwe Korus
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The first ever Program Quality Forum in West Africa explored three key areas, theories of change, partnership and impact measurement all in the context of the shift to the programmatic approach. One participant noted in their evaluation of the event that, “the program approach is not theory, it’s practical.” A good summary of the journey the West Africa region has taken over the past year.
Mali, our Learning Laboratory, hosted us for the PQF. We visited the field, met with program participants and partners in the Women’s Empowerment Program. We reviewed three theories of change for Women’s Empowerment programs in the region (Mali, Niger and Benin). We also had a chance to see a summary of CARE Mali’s overall program framework and their impact indicators at CO and program levels. One of the most lasting impressions of all of this is one of practical coherence. As sense of making order from chaos.
In reviewing the theories of change, we were able to question our assumptions, to test the quality of our thinking together. We provided feedback to the CO teams and raised questions that might help further refine what we can practically do to bring about lasting change at broad scale. We realized the importance of identifying our impact groups; that this process enables us to practically find them, to work with them and to measure the changes that our work brings about in their lives. We realized the difference between those we seek to impact on and those we must work with in order to have impact. In Benin, for example, we saw that our theory of change did not feature the role of men in bringing about women’s empowerment and we explored how we might catalyze cultural change in their favor. These conversations were real world, practical reflections.
In meeting partners, my sense of coherence was reinforced. In Mali’s women’s empowerment program, partners spoke of how, for the first time, they have been involved in designing a program together with CARE and with other strategic partners. The program goal is not CARE’s goal; it is a joint, shared goal. One partner said, “With or without CARE’s funding, we now know what we are working for together. We will continue to work on the changes that we are jointly seeking.”
It’s clear that relationships have changed. We learnt some important things about our own humility in partnership; that we cannot do this alone, we must open up to others and facilitate a shared momentum for change. We understood that we might need to make decisions and limit the number of partners to those strategic ones we work and learn with while remaining capable together of recognizing and seizing opportunities for alliances along the way.
Partners also raised some important questions to us:
· As we build trust, and work more closely together, how can our systems facilitate the new relationship rather than undermine it? They described CARE as unreasonably demanding thus expressing a lack of trust despite long standing relationships.
· As partners take on more important roles in broader movements for social change, how do roles and business models need to adapt without either CARE or the partners loosing their identity?
· How can we work to create the sustainability of our partners without CARE to enable them to continue in their struggle for social change?
Our impact measurement conversations[1] reinforced a sense of coherence. Mali has started a baseline at CO level while Ghana and Niger preparing similar initiatives at program levels. In all cases COs work with CARE HQs, signature programs and partners to reflect on ways to ensure analysis, knowledge generation and learning after data collection.
CARE Mali shared their overall program framework[2]. It was an ‘aha’ moment for many of us. It suddenly made clear that the Program Approach is the key to improved program quality and impact. We saw the focus, the coherence, the linkage – a sense of clarity of purpose that unites the mission – a sense of simplicity within the complex work that we do. And our reflective practice showed how the program approach evolves as we know and understand more.
And as we evolve, we realized that it is our passion that will fuel us. Marc de Lamotte reminded us that our ability to think positively, to draw energy from our passion, to join our energy with that of others with humility would, in the end, be the key to our success. We left the PQF with renewed passion for the practice of social change in West Africa.
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Lasting change? Measuring our impact
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Sarah Ralston, Mousa Fofana, Velina Petrova, Michael Drinkwater
It’s exciting to see program quality working groups strengthening their collaboration across the organization, and the newest regional management unit WARMU is charging full speed ahead! Around 30 staff representing all West Africa COs, CARE USA and the regional management unit came together for the inaugural meeting of the West Africa Program Quality Forum in Segou, Mali Sept 28 - Oct 3.
The meeting was packed with interesting conversations, debates and visits to partners and communities. The group wrestled with subjects such as developing theories of change and quality partnerships. We also spent a very full day discussing one of the hottest topics at CARE right now, impact measurement. A key lesson learned was that this topic truly needs more than a day for discussion!
The day began with a presentation on the Ubora system and how it enables CARE to better measure our impact and the quality of our programming. We explored the new Ubora Program Quality Assessment Tool (PQAT) and its role in enabling better reflection about the quality of program design and ongoing implementation. We then spent the majority of the day discussing impact measurement and learning systems at the global and CO levels.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the day was making the discussion more concrete through a case study of CARE Mali. We looked at ways Mali used the PQAT over the past year to evaluate the quality of its programming and identify ways to improve CO strategic priorities such as partnership. Mali also presented their impact measurement framework, including 6 CO-level impact indicators measuring change in the lives of their impact group as well as indicators measuring the social, political, behavioral and structural domains of change articulated in their Theory of Change. We concluded the case study by hearing from Moussa Fofana, M&E Coordinator for CARE Mali, about the baseline study underway and the pitfalls to avoid. He set the group laughing at the end of a long day when he delved into complex formulas and described his difficulty in determining how to define a woman!
In the midst of the discussion about impact measurement, Marc De Lamotte, Regional Director for WARMU, posed a question that made us all stop and think: “After 65 years of working on this, what makes us think we can do it now? What will we do differently to actually make it happen?” Afurika Juvenal, ACD Program Quality for Gulf of Guinea, ventured a response, saying, “The only answer we can give is that we must figure it out. We are handicapped by the project model. In the past we could live with it, but now we’re at the point of ‘live or die’ as an organization when it comes to impact.”
The group’s discussion reinforced that measuring impact is dependent on the program approach. We know that social change is complex. We can only achieve true impact by working over a long period of time to address underlying causes of poverty for specific groups of marginalized and vulnerable people.
Measuring this type of long-term, sustainable change is no easy task. The group identified a list of barriers to developing impact measurement and learning systems and then shared their feelings about the task ahead of us by putting their thumbs up, sideways or down. We found that we are a diverse mix of optimists, pessimists and realists!
By the end of the day, however, we agreed that we have hope. Impact measurement is simpler than we make it out to be, and we are not starting from scratch. Many of the challenges identified overlap with good practices in place that just need to be modified and strengthened. We did discuss some of the broader organizational changes that need to be made, and emphasized the importance of having CO experiences inform the decision-making processes underway this year at the global level about how to proceed with impact measurement. Soliciting input from this PQF and other regional program quality groups is a key first step in doing so.
A big thanks to the WARMU PQF for their insights and contributions to this discussion! We invite you all to continue to engage in this important conversation throughout the year. As Michael Drinkwater and Allison Burden demonstrated for us at the end of the day, only by taking steps together, arm in arm, can we journey down the path toward impact!
Visit the pshift wiki page (http://p-shift.care2share.wikispaces.net/Impact+Measurement) for more information.
Other news
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Did you know about the Réseau Francophone? This is an email list of Francophone colleagues across CARE who share information, opportunities and ideas together. It was set up a number of years ago and has continued to be active. If you would like to be a part of the Reseau – write to and get on the list or simply find out who is a member in your CO and they can introduce you. If you are already a member, why not remind colleagues about it and introduce them!
The Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) team has a listserv to disseminate information to interested staff and partners on SRH. We are always looking for new members to join and contribute to its success. The listserv is a community of development practitioners providing access to information; it encourages networking, learning and information sharing within the field of SRH. The listserv unites CARE’s global SRH community and enables us to take advantage of new resources and tools to improve the quality of CARE’s SRH programs. Staff and partners on the listserv receive links to technical updates, research findings, newsletters, new publications, and global conferences. The listserv is also used to distribute information on SRH (e.g. invitations to meetings, funding opportunities and job postings). Join today, contact Brooke Barnes at .
We have developed a complimentary CARE SRH Listserv Google Group to store resources and messages sent through the listserv. The Google Group is a one-stop hub to read and access SRH information and link to relevant and up-to-date resources online. You can also create your own profile and exchange information with other CARE staff. Take a look: http://groups.google.com/group/care-srh-listserv
CARE Nederland, Health/Net TPO, ZOA and Save the Children Nederland have decided to establish a consortium focusing on reconstruction efforts in post conflict areas and fragile states. The consortium is to submit a proposal to the Netherland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the program period of 2011-2015. The proposal which will be submitted will be of a considerable size. The key selected countries for the proposal are at this moment: DRC, Sudan, Uganda, Burundi, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Côte d’Ivoire. The latter three WARMU COs will gather from 20th to 21st October in Monrovia in order to consolidate their respective proposals into one coherent regional program. Expected program areas are economic livelihoods, health, education and governance.
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And, finally, let’s get creative
Take a look at these proverbs from West Africa – pretty neat eh? The editor reserved the right to put them in the order she felt was most reflective of the moment.
v One is more effective if one is with another.
v You cannot wash your hands with one finger.
v When the music changes, so does the dance.
v The teeth that laugh are also those that bite.
v Perhaps you do not understand me because
you do not love me.
v By crawling, a child learns to stand.
v Your hand is never the worse for doing its
own work.
v At the bottom of patience one finds heaven.
v Silence is also speech.
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[1] For more about these conversations, please see Sarah Ralston’s article in this issue.
[2] You can find this on the Wiki at http://p-shift.care2share.wikispaces.net/