Learning, evaluation, health communication, living practice, lessons learned

The full FACTS report, containing recommendations and supporting resources, is currently being finalised. Below are the main lessons highlighted in the report relating to the FACTS project work, and the conduct of exchange workshops.

Measures of numbers of people involved in particular initiatives, and surveys of reported behaviour change do not give us a reliable sense of substantial changes in people’s behaviour.

Focus group discussions can provide an additional qualitative sense of changes in attitudes and practices and usefully ‘triangulate’ with other measures of change

Certain anecdotes or ‘emblematic stories’ can provide a useful qualitative sense of important areas of behaviour change and point to contexts where impact could be explored more rigorously.

Baseline surveys and needs assessments need to be used in an active and ongoing way to reflect on project work, and be followed up to measure changes in knowledge, attitudes, behaviour and practice.

Increased impact and the possibilities for sustainability were achieved in all the projects by collaboration with other governmental and non-governmental agencies, and the inclusion of a range of additional constituencies. Such ‘joined-up’ working is something that is part of received wisdom in development, but far less often practiced in actuality.

The importance of community ownership – involvement in selection of facilitators

The high level of local involvement in selecting facilitators increases the chances of sustainability of all the projects, even in the face of uncertainty about future funding.

Training of facilitators - in community medicine, sexual and reproductive health issues, participatory methodologies - adds to their confidence and general capacity, and is highly valued by both the facilitators and the communities where they work.

Regular monitoring and supervision meetings provide a useful support to ongoing work and an opportunity to reflect on progress.

Documenting project lessons and experiences, allows learning to be fed back into work in an ongoing way, but also captures them for wider audiences. It is vital that time for such documentation is explicitly taken account of in project planning. Documentation, reflection and analysis needs to be undertaken by people involved in the project at all levels for effective learning.

Rather than viewing non or low-literacy as a problem or having an exclusive focus on literacy training, it is important to develop and use methods which do not rely on literacy.

The ways in which participatory approaches and methods are used varies widely. Full participation is difficult to sustain, and it can be easy to revert to more didactic methods of ‘teaching’ or ‘imparting information’. In the case of sexual health, it is important for both genuine understanding, and to encourage self-determination, that young people are able to define and express their needs through participatory processes and activities. This is particularly the case where sufficient self-confidence and ability to negotiate safer sex is at stake. Where a number of different groups have quite different priorities and experiences, participatory methods are likely to bring these differences to the surface, revealing conflicting interests as a result.

A focus on reinforcing publicly accepted morality, at the expense of adequately engaging young people’s actual sexual practice, and allowing them to explore their experience and define their own needs, risks failing to engage the very people the project is aimed at.

A focus on gender issues allows power imbalances to be addressed, and brings a heightened awareness of the selective impact of development communication (to feed into subsequent programming). Gender relations are best seen as an ongoing dimension of project dynamics (and the power relations that are part of all social relationships) that will inform planning and action, rather than be ‘solved’ by any one-off technique or approach.

It is important to recognise, with any communication method, why it is appropriate or effective in a particular case.

Wider impact was also achieved by using a range of communication methods, some ‘traditional’ and some ‘innovative’. Combining these to reach different constituencies, and engage people in complementary ways, usually strengthens any communication strategy.

If projects are to be implemented in a responsive way, they clearly need to be adapted to different conditions in different settings. These may include differences of emphasis in the way the goals of the project are interpreted and operationalised, leading to differences in methods, activities, and focal issues. At the same time project goals may also be refracted through different cultural beliefs and practices, the contingencies of different country settings, and different understandings of participation. These all feed into variations of FACTS project activities in practice.

A target group such as ‘youth’ may include people from a range of different genders, ages, classes or socio-economics status’, castes, levels of literacy and education. Along each line of difference there are issues relating to allowing full participation of all, and adequately accessing their understandings and experiences so as to inform the project work. Ultimately the relationships of power across such lines are key to the way project activity proceeds and the way participatory workshops can be conducted

A growing body of evidence shows that people learn effectively by meeting face to face and talking, in a way that is difficult to sustain through more indirect communication. Bringing people together increases the chance for informal meetings over meals, during journeys and social activities, which are key for building trust, a sense of common purpose and allow dialogue to unfold. In addition, visits to field sites where project work is being conducted give people an immediate sense of the realities impinging on the work.

The way culture can affect the approach of different people to modes of participation in workshops and the way different activities are received is often neglected. It is important to explore and be sensitive to the particular ways culture affects social interaction. Respect for ‘culture’ can usually be balanced with sincere (sometimes naïve) questioning in situations were people from several cultures are brought together.

Sufficient time needs to be spent building trust and fostering an open atmosphere between participants, if people are to be able to honestly deal with the problems and constraints experienced in project work.

To get the most out of an exchange workshop, there needs to be a combination of thorough planning which includes a range of contingency plans and alternatives, coupled with a responsive and flexible approach to the workshop direction as it unfolds.

It is important to have at least two workshop facilitators both for variety of style and pace, and to allow them to work together to more effectively manage the contingencies of the workshop, even in the case of relatively small numbers.

Ongoing consecutive translation not only demands a great deal of workshop participants in terms of patience and attention, but it can also break the flow of dialogue and discussion.

It is important that workshop activities are diverse and lively enough to engage non-literate participants, something that needs to be adequately planned in at an early stage in workshop preparation, and appropriate tools and materials developed. The use of drama and role play is key in this regard.

There are limits to the kinds of experience likely to be expressed, and issues to be discussed, and the kind of participation and learning than can be drawn from a ‘mixed’ workshop setting. It is important to find a good balance of activities that allow people to work in groups according to ‘identity’ criteria, such as age, gender, positioning in the project, as well as those that involve everyone.

Summary of FACTS Project Key Lessons