Impact and Learning The launch of a community of practice to - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Transparency and Accountability Impact and Learning

The launch of a community of practice

Cape Town February 17-20, 2013

to transform the field

Who came to Cape Town?

Funders Civil Society Organizations Researchers

18 people from 7

• rganizations

21 people from 20 local, regional, and global CSOs 14 academics and evaluators

UNDP Hewlett Ford Omidyar OSF GPSA HIVOS

ACIJ CCS CIESAS ERA Grupo Faro RWI

T&A Network

CEGSS Fundar IBP PSAM

SERI

Twaweza Article 33 CIPESA

Global Integrity

Janaagraha R 4D

SOTU TI TI-Zambia ARI

Anu Joshi CEU J-PAL 3ie Lily Tsai T/AI Better Eval.

Michael Woolcock Stuti Khemani

U4

Wenger-Trayner Helene Grandvoinnet

Ateneo SofG

“A perfect mix

• f people”

“An extraordinary convergence”

What happened in Cape Town?

Day 1: exploring Day 2: working Day 3: planning

Prioritized issues Learning plans Community design

In mixed and separate groups, we discussed what were the main challenges we needed to address together and we voted on the most pressing ones We formed five practice groups to start working

• n the issues we had

prioritized and to explore how we can make progress on them together We formed new groups to bring the different work plans together into an

• verall community design,

including activities for the coming year

“It was fantastic to see everyone digging their teeth into these issues we all struggle with individually ...”

Key issues

How to open the “black-box” where the “magic” happens - in order to better understand the connection between transparency, participation, and accountability How to analyze the context

• f interventions to

understand how and why they do or do not transfer successfully to new contexts How to choose the right methods, metrics, and approaches to analyze interventions, evaluate impact meaningfully, and learn from both successes and failures How to collaborate and learn together about embedding learning at the core of our organizations and networks How to shape funding relationships and institutional structures to promote learning within and across

• rganizations

What issues are we working on?

The T-A-P nexus Learning incentives Learning to learn The issue

• f context

Methods and learning from failure

Where is this going?

Next year we can continue with this set of issues or start addressing some new ones.

… deepen our understanding, appreciation, and convergence

• f different voices

… leverage this diversity as a creative resource … help each other on concrete challenges … be open, non-defensive, and constructive … produce useful resources … have a collective impact on the field

This year we want to make progress on each of the five issues we started work on. We intend to …

How are we going to operate?

In February 2014 we aim to hold another event where group leaders and active members will consolidate our learning and launch a new year of activities.

Ongoing practice group activities Community- wide activities

Support activities

Online discussions and real-time peer help

Group leaders meeting

Curating web resources

Newsletter Newsletter

Group leaders meeting Group leaders meeting

2013

Case clinic:

T  A theory of change

March Case clinic:

Methods and reporting

May Webinar:

Research on context factors

April Webinar:

Evaluation framework

June Etc … July

Our aspirations

We hope the learning of our community will produce the following kinds of stories:

Funders collaborate to foster collective learning from both successes and failures CSOs discover critical factors they can leverage to link transparency and accountability Researchers gain insights from the field to frame their research projects to produce useful data

What we do What we produce How we benefit

We inspect and compare

• ur experience with

reporting requirements We review and critique

• ur respective theories
• f change

We examine the ability

• f research methods to

address our questions from the field

We develop new ways to maximize impact

Insights on barriers and incentives to learning Knowledge of tactics, stakeholders, and causal links Links between questions and methods to address them

Members have taken key roles to lead the community forward T/AI is going to provide support to help the community achieve its goals The five practice groups presented plans of activities to keep going for a year at least. Everyone agrees that

• ngoing work on

this topic is critical

But will it work?

Many of these communities do not last Yes, but in this case, key ingredients are in place … … sense of urgency … group learning plans … institutional support … internal leadership

Institutional support: the role of T/AI

… a community

• f practice that

governs and runs itself Providing support to …

brokering scouting

Publish newsletter Monitor value Organize annual meeting Host yammer site

planning Practice groups Community

Communication

Strategy hosting facilitating coaching documenting publishing

Hire a consultant to do research Support group leader in organizing webinar Orient new members

collecting

Liaise with funders Seek out

• pportunities

for example

connecting

How can you participate?

… join any of the five practice groups working on issues Depending on your level of interest and commitment, you can … … sign up and participate in online discussions, contribute resources, or request peer help in real time … attend webinars, case clinics and online events If you are interested in taking leadership in designing our community, you can also join a community-design group to help …

 by browser  by phone app  by phone  by email  by SMS  by phone app  by website

… receive our newsletter and access

• ur online resources

… set the agenda … cultivate the community … curate the website(s) … monitor the value created … deal with

• rganizations

The elevator speech

We just had an amazing meeting in Cape Town. The Transparency and Accountability Initiative brought together donors, CSOs, and researchers from all over the world for three days: no speeches, just working sessions. The idea is to launch a community of practice, to work together on impact and learning. And I think we did it. We formed practice groups around five key issues like understanding the transparency-accountability link, incentives for learning, research methods, etc. These practice groups are committed to keep on working on their issue. We’ll have web-conferences and online discussions throughout the year and get together again in early 2014. Many of these communities fizzle out, but I see enough commitment here for this thing to succeed. The need is so great. After 20 years, we ought to figure out how we learn what works, what does not, and why. We really need a safe place for funders, CSOs, and researchers to work this out together. If we don't have these conversations, systemic disincentives to learn will keep limiting our progress. We expect to change the way we negotiate reporting requirements, create incentives to learn from both successes and failures, and maximize impact collectively. This has the potential to be transformative.

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