Online Peer Assist Experiments

Ok guys! I'm in! As I am more experienced in themes 2 and 4, I can facilitate any of the others. Who else is facilitating so we can arrange?

Jaap and Alejandro, welcome! We aren't quite formally ready to start, but you know KM4Dev -- informal rules. So welcome. I've asked Yennenga if she can have a bit of a general conversation with us to learn a bit more about her context before we start diving into the questions! And to let others "arrive!"

Hi ! I've made it to this Comment wall!! Cant' believe it....

Nancy, I'm happy to have general conversation with you about my context.

Fabulous, Yennenga. Why don't you tell us a bit more about your work in West Africa. How did you get into this? What have been some key turning points?

My work in West Africa :

ok. I'll try to go straight to the point.

I am from Burkina Faso, where I live. From 2001 to 2004 I worked for an NGO in rural areas in the eastern part of Burkina. My work consisted in making interwiews with farmer with a voice recorder. Then I translated that material to create written and audio content for farmers organization. In 2006, I founded "Performances", a small news and knowledge lab to help rural (agric) organizations to create their own contents for experience sharing. From 2006 to 2011, I've tryed many experiments in data collecting : interviews - focus groups - writing worshops. Content sharing and brodcasting is still a big problem. i've also made some experiments there : Questions & answers service - mobile library - rural radios - talking books. 

 The biggest challenge  is to find a business model to make my work sustainable. We are now 5 persons trying to earn our living by working for Performances. Unbelievable!! So It has to become more and more professionnal and experiments have to be completed by succesful processes !

Some months ago, for the first time, A rural women leaders' network (Aliniha) asked me to help design and monitor a KM strategy. The reason : capitalize the existing expertize within the network (about 6,000 women in Burkina Faso, mali and Senegal) and create content for the local facilitators.

 As said before, my aim is to make my presence, as KM&O  irrelevant after two/three years. So the network members would be autonomous in KM, maybe with an external coaching from time to time. And I can multiply the networks and organizations I work for, spreading waht I learn as I am circulating from one organization to the other.

I'm a true autodidact in the work I do. That is why, having insights and thoughts / advices / assistance from you has highest value.

Wow, I am, as they say here in the States, "blown away" by your work, Yennenga. Fantastic! This is great for helping us get a sense of you and your work. I'll wait a day or two to see if there are other general questions, then we can jump into the questions! Thank you for this opportunity to really get a look inside your practice. 

Thanks Yenenga! Really nice!

I think it would also help if we know about the network you are working with: its history, its turning points, its aims and challenges..

hi yennenga, do these women have an form of financial assistance at the moment? what kind of crafts are they producing? 

About The "network ALiniha"

ntroduction: Aliniha, a collaboration between two southern partners for the development of skills

Aliniha is a methodology developed in West Africa, designed and implemented by three African organizations of Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal, that targets sustainable development through women. Specifically, the Aliniha International member structures

support women's groups and help them organize into associations allowing them to become leaders in the field of sustainable development by incorporating goals concerning natural resources management, social development and economic growth.

Aliniha was born of the meeting in 2007 of three social entrepreneurs from three West

African countries: Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal. These three development leaders each

have a specific area of expertise: development and improvement of women's skills, microfinance

and management of natural resources. Together, they decided to pool their experience

and incorporate these skills into a joint program: “a woman, a credit, a tree”. Thus a feasibility study was undertaken in 2008 and Aliniha was created in 2009, in three regions:

Gaoua in Burkina Faso, Kayes in Mali and Tambacounda in Senegal.

For three years

starting, Aliniha's three founders – Burkinabe Ini Damien, Malian Alou Keita

and Franco-Senegalese Jean Goepp – tested the implementation of this project. In 2012, a decision was made to turn this

combination of skills and experiences that is Aliniha into a

proper international structure. Thus on 22 March 2012, Aliniha International wasestablished.

Institutionalizing the program makes it possible to formalize the practices and ensure they can spread more widely.

About the women in the network ( response to Priyanka's question)

A network of women-leaders

In practice, the Aliniha women are taught to bring added value to the natural resources of

their environment, by transforming them into quality products which they can sell for revenue

allowing them to improve their daily lives.

For instance, Burkinabe groups of Aliniha women

have set up a shea transformation unit, using a local natural resource to make high quality

butter, creams and soaps, in high demand in their region.

In Senegal, some Aliniha women grow a tree called moringa which has a number of virtues, chief of which is its effectiveness in combating child malnutrition.

In Mali, many Aliniha women have turned to market gardening; garden produce such as groundnuts or capsicum peppers are subsequently sold in

the market or transformed into for instance groundnut paste, grilled or dried peanuts,

powdered capsicum, dried peppers or even capsicum pepper sauce, which are again sold in

the market.

To start these activities, women need a minimum amount of money for their working capital.

Aliniha's social credit system provides the means to address this. Women's groups

can request social credit from a micro-finance institution that is also part of Aliniha

International to carry out their entrepreneurial projects and receive training in micro-finance

and management of trade activities. The group is jointly liable for the financial support

received by each member.

Every woman belonging to the group receiving a micro-credit is also given 3 seedlings and is

taught how to plant and look after them.

With the revenue from their activities, Aliniha women can pay back their credits (including

interest) and generate benefits.

In addition, the women develop skills through the series of training courses tied to the trees and credits, covering many subjects, from literacy skills to management of a revenue-generating activity, through awareness of women's rights and the protection of the environment.

Today, the Aliniha women are grouped formally into several self-managed Aliniha associations or AAA for the French acronym – 5 in Mali, 3 in Senegal and 3 in Burkina Faso.

This "on the ground context" is really useful, thanks. As i read this, it reminds me that we don't often get to learn a lot about each others work in KM4Dev. So beyond the technical knowledge that can be shared in a peer assist, I'm reminded how much the knowledge that fosters social connection is important to me -- for my learning, for my sense of connection to you and others. I suspect, in my heart, that this is also a core value for Aliniha. I didn't know how much I was to gain out of this and we haven't even fully started. 

Hi Yennenga, this is great info to start with, kudos to this project!

Do I understand correctly that at this stage, we are focusing on question 1: " To capitalise, map and profile the job of "local facilitator" and then Produce a toolkit for the facilitators (what and how?)"? Nancy, correct me if this is not the case.

My quick question would be: Can we assume all the facilitators are literate? If not, what is their level/percentage of literacy?

Regarding the member network of  6,000 illiterate women, what pockets of literacy can you hope to find there, in order to recruit additional volunteers for those types advocacy efforts that would rely on literate middlemen/women?

Hi Johannes

There's about 24 local facilitators. Women in the great majority.  Some are literate in french, other in their local languages. So, I'm in touch with the 24 facilitators, and they are supposed to transfer facilitation capacity they have and will acquire to other women in the villages. And most women in villages are illeterate.

The three main organizations that created the network do have some literacy material on their activities. But there is no material for the women in their villages on the three main topics covered by the network : environement - social credit - women empowerment.

The core group of 24 facilitators, rely on oral transmission.

I hope my answer helps.

Yennenga - I agree with what everyone has said so far re: the strength of  the Aliniha  program and the information you have shared thus far. Congratulations to you and your peers on nurturing the program to this stage.  I think we are all eager to learn from each other through this process. 

Questions I would have at this point have to do with the roles of the facilitators.  For example.  What would be the main goal(s) of the kind of sessions the facilitators would be facilitating? That would help us to know what to include in a facilitators toolkit.

Hi everyone, its a great honour to be part of this discussion and hear about your work Yennega.   I've agreed to facilitate the first question, great to see discussion already underway - this is going to be easy!   So to recap we are looking at this action:

1. To capitalise, map and profile the job of "local facilitator" and then Produce a toolkit for the facilitators (what and how?)

We are starting with questions of clarification then will move onto offering ideas and action.  I would like to add  a couple of other questions to those asked by Bonnie and Johannes about the local facilitators.

What kind of training/support/development have they had so far?

Are they using standardised tools and approaches or creating and developing their approaches as they go? (probably a balance between the two but do you have a sense of what that balance is?)

If anyone else has questions of clarification, please speak now!  (Hold onto your advice until later if the week if you can..)   

I understand Yennega is out and about this week so not able to respond instantly.  Lets give her some time to respond to questions about the role of facilitators and move into sharing advice and experience towards the end of the week.   

If you have any more questions of clarification please ask now.   greetings from a briefly sunny london! 

local facilitator's background and roles . Existing material in the network

Dear Bonnie and Catherine

Sorry about the delay in my answer.  Most of the facilitators are rural women and have been trained/ sensitized in their organizations by attending a variety of meetings and worshops about all kind of topics. They are generalists ! smile. 

 Based on general observation, I will say that the main types of training are : (1) attending worshops where an "expert" make oral presentation on a given theme. Sometimes the "expert" will speak in french, and what he/she says is translated simultanuously in the local language. So the people attending the training, just come, sit, listen and remember what he/she can. When they go back in their villages, they organize another meetin to share on  a oral basis what they have learnt.

(2)For other topics, observation is the way of learning. For gardening for example. Facilitators can assist to field demonstration and ask questions.  Sometimes they travel to another village or in one of the two others countries coverd by the aliniha network.

As far as the topic ofenvironment is concerned, video debate is the main tool used by facilitors to sensitize rural women. For the topics related to women empowerment, interactive theater performances are used. local facilitaors in Burkina Faso have their own theater group and can create and perform for their target groups.

Aliniha methodologie is on process and KM is supposed to play an active rôle in that process in order to create approches and standartized tools; that will make it possible for all facilitators of thealiniha network to deliver the same message content and technical procedures.  The facilitators toolkit is expected to play that role and even clarify what is expected from a facilitator during a session.

I hope it's a bit clear !

 Video watching or interactive per

Existing material in the network

Each of the three founder members of the aliniha network has some existing material, generally in french. These are power points, or Word files that they have received when attending tranining. But they have not developped their own material based on the experience/expertise .

I found it interesting that you are looking to standardize so people all get the same message. This triggers me to ask about the role of the participants. Are they only receiving the messages? Or are they shaping them, giving them local context and adding their knowledge? How do you accommodate for local context? (I have this image in my head of weaving a network of connections that carry both the shared messages, and also the local and unique knowledge? I'm idealistic!)

I think we also need some idealism !!!

Your question about participants' participation is really interesting. I know two situations. When the participants just listen; which is not suitable. And when the participants  give their opinion, debate, make testimonies.  What explains those differencies, are maybe the attitude of the facilitators, the gender problem (when women don't want to speak in presence of mem) or the nature of the discussion topic (for example, religon and culture may not encourage participant to speak out their mind). Well at this stage, it is really personnal reflexion that I'm giving.

While it may be a personal reflection, Yennenga, it sure feels very familiar to me. I still struggle to shift from the paradigm of information presenter/deliverer to facilitator of knowledge FLOW!!! ;-) I'm looking forward to when we begin to think of ideas and share experiences on this question.  I think it could strongly inform what kind of toolkit you create. It is not just content!!!

One more question. You mention that the leaders have not developed their own materials -- that might be a great opportunity to do a write shop and build both locally owned content, a process that can continue to do that AND some home grown identity for the group. (Uh oh, already slipping into ideas. It is so easy... see, I fall into the trap all the time!)

Definitely ! it's no just content ! It's sense, confidence, trust and autonomy.

hah, I want a "LIKE" button so I can "like" your last comment!

I have another question! This is great! :)

Yennenga:  Could you think of  an inventory of "facilitation assets" this facilitators might  easily get ? I am thinking from infraestructure (such as  a backyard, some land they can borrow for demonstrations, chairs and/or tables), supplies (such as boards, office suplies, notebooks..), we already know they have some information... and well, whatever you might think of as material devices at a hand.. I ask so we can imagine while still on earth... 

THanks Yennenga for answering our questions,  I think now it is time to start sharing ideas!!   ( Nancy already has!) 

So to recap - the area we are looking at is: 

1. To capitalise, map and profile the job of "local facilitator" and then Produce a toolkit for the facilitators (what and how?)

Some themes that have emerged so far are: 

-  inspiring sense confidence,trust and autonomy among the facilitators

-  understanding the physical assets they have to work with

-   supporting faciltators'  work to be about knowledge flow and sense making  not info sharing

- learning from the really exciting sounding methodologies the facilitators are already using (eg theatre performances) 

-  considering gender (and other identity and power issues) in their work

So lets hear those ideas!   

Facilitation assets

Hi Alejandro !

Your question is really innovating in our framework. Thank you ! Aliniha local facilitator don't have such assets but in the rural organization where they are supposed to facilitate session, we can find gardens owned by women. Some Aliniha women groups have a space called "case aliniha" where women meet. In those "case aliniha" we can find a space for selling, a space for meeting, a space for credit making. There is one "case aliniha" in each of the three countries.

am I in a different time zone to you guys?  seems like it all gets interesting when I am reading my toddler bedtime stories!  

I just wanted to clarify my point on considering gender identity and power issues.

These  this was to pick up on the point that Yennenga made about gender factors affecting how people engage with the facilitators and the knowledge sharing process..this might equally apply to other power dynamics such as relative wealth, ethnicity etc.   Practical stuff for facilitators will be simple ideas around organising groups and activities in ways that help to counter balance inequities.   There's loads of stuff around on this (Robert Chambers my personal go to..) and of course facilitators will have their own ideas! 

The question of cultural factors (including religon) is slightly different as it may determine what is ok to discuss but will also shape lenses or frames through which people take info and turn it into knowledge or meaning for themselves. Feel a bit out of my depth here but practically it might be about ways of relating new info to existing belief systems or ways of knowing.    At its most simple this might be about using effective metaphors (Chiku Malungu has written about this) or examples.    At another level,  it might be about facilitators being able to  help people to reflect on how they learn, how they assess info, who they trust and why -  I think there is a lot of this kind of work happening around climate change adaptation that might be useful to tap into.    Am on verge of deleting this as it might be heading in the wrong direction... but will leave you to ignore if you think so!   

Look forward to hearing from you all! 

Thanks Alejandro!       I'd like to revisit Nancy's suggestion of a write shop.   This could serve both to map and profile the job and generate a list of topic areas for the toolkit, some case studies, and (depending on how long the workshop was) even write the content for it.

Do you think that would be an option Yennenga?

Yes Catherine, Writeshops are good options.  I'm in a kind of writeshop since yesterday with aliniha new KM 4 members team. We have been defining together the 12 topics content of the "facilitator's toolkit" = Four topic per area (Environnement, women empowerment and social microfinance). Then for each topic, we have : a short presentation of its meaning+ three messages + three bad and good practises reported from the field.

Cool! As I understand your current process, Yennenga, they are doing this offline, right? Is it in French? English? WOuld it be possible to share here online?

Yes Nancy. We have just finished. We were at Performances (my lab) for this workshop. We work in french.

Hi Yennenga,  hope the write shop went well.    You mentioned you have been working on the facilitators toolkit  - is this the same toolkit we are talking about in this strand?

 Or do you envisage 2 toolkits, 1 on content (eg topics on environment) and 1 on process (support and inspiration on how to be an effective facilitator)?  

I think discussion so far has been more about the process of being a facilitator, how that can be understood and supported.   And I'm sure there is loads of experience and ideas that people have to share.  

As a reminder, we are 1 1/2 weeks into this process and there are 4 questions to go so I suggest we wind up this discussion on Monday to enable the next topic to start.   So please keep those ideas coming now!  

Bonjour Catherine. Yes, it's the same toolkit we are working on, on this KM4dev ning page. 

Is there anything we learned from the http://www.kstoolkit.org that would be useful here!

sounds like you are already underway with your toolkit!  I am going offline for the weekend so am going to share a few ideas before we wind up early next week.    Nothing particularly original, i hope others can contribute!

The toolkit is most likely to be useful if the people for whom it is intended shape the content and it includes interesting case studies.  

So if there is a going to be a workshop involving the write shop you might think about a process that includes the following elements:

- asking facilitators to share with each other a time when their work went really well (for example using appreciative enquiry approaches) then trying to draw out the factors that  contributed to that success  - take time to celebrate those successes! 

- use this discussion to begin to generate ideas for topics for a toolkit - perhaps through some kind of card sort exercise to prioritise (some of the topics we identified earlier in this discussion may come up!) 

- ask people to self organise into groups to begin to share ideas and examples that could form the content of each section of the toolkit.  

Use your digital camera and voice recorder to get as much A/V material of the examples and case studies as you can!  

Those are my ideas, hope others get a chance to share too.  All the best, Catherine