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APPENDIX D

Learning brief template

  1. PURPOSE

For DGMT, learning briefs are a valuable resource as we constantly seek to enhance our impact by funding effective, cutting edge programmes. We use them both in our review of overall strategy and as we consider new applications from prior grantees. Our ‘birds-eye-view’ as a funder also allows us the unique opportunity to identify best practice trends, effective programmatic models as well as new or unique responses to some of the most challenging and persistent problems affecting South African communities. We therefore believe it is important to systematically study what our grantees are learning and to share this information with civil society in order to contribute to learning, improved practice and innovation within the NGO sector.

  1. HOW DOES IT WORK?

We have restricted our reporting requirements (Appendix A) because we know that excessive reporting to a variety of funders is a time consuming activity for NGOs. It is however important to us that you share learning briefs that can be used by others, including other implementation partners and policy makers.

The first important characteristic of a learning brief is thus that the audience is not DGMT in the sense that you are submitting a report on your activities/outputs, but DGMT and civil society which means focusing on long term lessons learnt and contextualising that learning for an audience that is not always familiar with the work of your organisation or the specific project that you are implementing through DGMT’s support.

Learning briefs documenthigh level reflection by an organisation on what they have learned by implementing their programmes, certain aspects of their programmes or on dealing with specific issues impacting the social problem that they are addressing. DGMT will take on the task of formally sharing and promoting this learning with other NGOs, funders, government and relevant stakeholders if,(a) it is addressing important gaps in learning and if,(b) the technical standard of the document reflects a level of professionalism and allows for easy comprehension by a variety of readers.

In other words, for the learning briefs to be a valuable tool, the quality and content is key and while the process of developing these briefs hold considerable benefit, we realise that their development requires substantial effort from organisations. We will therefore work with you to identify suitable themes for learning briefs in areas of interest. These initial themes will be recorded in your grant agreement, but might be subject to change as new information emerges during the grant period. Changes to learning brief themes should be negotiated with the Portfolio Manager at least two weeks before the brief is due.

A selection oflearning briefs is published in our Hands-On Learning publication which ispublished three times per year.Both hard and electronic copies are distributed to all our grantees, fellow funders and other stakeholders like government representatives.

  1. HOW TO WRITE A LEARNING BRIEF

A learning brief is a high quality, four page article (approximately 2 400 words) which is best developed through a process where the entire project team has the opportunity to review and reflect on what has been learned. This process should ideally be led and documented by the project manager.Drawing on Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle (See page following), the team might approach this assignment using the following process:

a)Documenting/describing the background to/contextual information for the learning experience

b)Reflecting on or analysing the experience

c)Reflecting on the implications of the experience, for your organisation and for other organisations who may be tackling the same issues as well as for policy/practice if applicable

d)Developing and describing your plans for the future as a result of this experience and advice to other organisations

We encourage you to be creative and to insert your own headings and use paragraphs and bullets where appropriate, but it is important that the above items are addressed as part of your learning brief.

Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle as applied to DGMT learning briefs:

  1. THE DGMT CONFLUENCE OF IDEAS AND PRACTICE WEBSITE

In order to create an additional, less formal opportunity for the sharing of learning, we have developed theConfluence of Ideas and Practice website( This is an online space where we profile our grantees and create a space for them to share and interact with other practitioners and interested parties around what they have learned through implementation and in dealing with the social issue(s) being addressed by their organisation. We would like to share all the learning briefs that we receive on this website, thus please keep in mind the quality of your brief as it will represent your organisation. Yourprofile will be automatically generated once your grant becomes active. You will receive an email notification that the profile has been created with details on how to access it and guidelines on how to use it. Please note that this site is different to the Fluxx platform that you used to apply for your grant and to submit reports.

  1. SUBMITTING LEARNING BRIEF DOCUMENTS

As with your other feedback documents you will submit your learning brief document via our Fluxx Grantee Portal, which can be accessed from on our website.Submission dates are specified in your grant agreement. The learning brief documents are part of the reporting requirements and must be submitted at the same time as your other reports. You will find the space to enter your learning brief information when you click on the relevant report tab on your Fluxx profile. Note however that it might be easier to first develop and write your document in a word processing programme like Microsoft Word and then to paste it into Fluxx in plain text.

Your learning brief document will be reviewed by the Portfolio Manager supervising your grant who will also provide you with feedback if necessary. Such feedback might include technical feedback with requests for changes, notification that your brief has been selected for publication in Hands On (which will result in the Communications Manager liaising with you to finalise it for publication) or guidelines for future submissions. Once the learning brief has been approved, you will receive an email notification when it has been published on the Confluence of Ideas and Practice website.If your learning brief is not of a suitable quality it will not be published. You can download our Learning Brief Assessment Tool from Fluxx or from the Confluence website. It is strongly recommended that you use this tool to assess the quality of your brief before submitting it to us.

  1. EDITING, PUBLICATION AND COMMENTS ON LEARNING BRIEFS

DGMT will review your brief documents to ensure quality of content and consistency of language grammar and spelling before publication on either the web ) or in print.

Although DGMT might edit for length, language or grammatical mistakes, we will not make any changes that substantively alter the content of your brief. If the content of the learning brief is not appropriate you will be notified of the problems with the brief and asked to resubmit.

For publication in Hands-on Learning:

  • The learning brief will be published under the DGMT masthead as part of the Hands-on Learning series.
  • The edited brief will be sent to you for any final comments and approval. Your response is requested within one week of receipt of the draft and if needed we will do regular follow-up to ensure submission. Please note that the draft brief may not be substantially reworked at this time as it will result in unnecessary editing expense.
  • The logo and contact details of the grant recipient organisation will be included.

For publication on the Confluence of Ideas and Practice website:

  • Due to the number of briefs that we receive we are unable to implement a consultative editing process. You can however edit any published learning brief (or any other information about your organisation) by logging into your profile on the website. Alternatively you can let us know if there are serious problems with the published brief that you would like corrected.
  • Feedback/comments from external parties will be reviewed before publication to ensure that it is constructive. Comments will not be edited, but inappropriate comments will not be published.
  • You will receive notifications of comments to allow you to respond to comments and questions.
  • The logo and contact details of your organisation will be included as part of your Confluence of Ideas and Practice profile.
  1. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

The intention of the learning briefs is to create a systematic way of sharing information among grant recipients.The intellectual property of the learning briefs will remain with the grant organisation and/or author. However, in signing this agreement, the grant recipient authorises DGMT to publish the content of the learning brief approved by the author or authorised signatory of the grant organisation, without fee or expectation of remuneration.

DGMT Grant Agreement

Appendix D: Learning brief template