Author: Neftaly Malatjie

The workshop used an appreciative inquiry and it was framed as a joint learning process to identify, share and validate the experiences and evidence from the partners’ projects. The workshop methodology comprised a range of facilitator-led discussions in plenary and in small groups; writing/journaling; peer reflection/peer coaching; experiential exercises and reflection; right-brain/creative exercises; checking in and out of the day; debriefings; and presentations from participants in plenary. The experiences and perspectives of the participants were incorporated in the discussions.

The SeViSSA project is an intervention aimed at tackling the drivers of sexual violence against girls in South African schools. The project is funded by Comic Relief and implemented by the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and its partners across four provinces, namely Western Cape, Gauteng, Eastern Cape and Limpopo. During the last three years that the five-year project has been under implementation to date, NMCF’s partners have reported a reduction of violence as a result of their interventions.

However, eliciting verifiable and concrete evidence from the implementing partners has so far proved a challenge for NMCF. This is despite implementation of the reported activities and budget expenditure.

A facilitated learning and reflection event was convened from 4-7 March 2018, for all implementing partners to surface the outcomes, changes and impact from the project.

• Facilitate a process of reflection and learning for SeViSSA partners in order to draw out concrete evidence and the impact of the programme.

• Facilitate sharing and peer review of the specific project intervention strategies developed and employed by each partner, that is the practical procedures and methods, and the outcomes thereof. This will help in developing evidence-based and replicable strategies for SeViSSA and duly acknowledge the respective partners as well as ‘patent’ their methods.

• Stakeholder analysis in order to identify influential and supportive anchors for systemic change within the different systems the partners are working from.

• Facilitating a space to surface the partners’ perceptions to the multiple possibilities and ways of understanding and practicing monitoring, evaluation and reporting as a way of growing and learning constantly.

• Allowing participants to discover their own energy and meaning in learning, monitoring, evaluation and reporting, and give them the confidence and space to discover that they can take charge of and responsibility for defining and shaping reflective learning practices that serve their needs and nurture their own development and growth.

Overview:

• Welcome, introductions, intentions and programme, social contract

Intentions:

• Familiarise participants with the intentions, ways of working and the envisioned process for the 3 days, get to know one another, agree to ways of working/social contract and commit to quality attention and joint care for process
• Anchoring the process
• Finding and holding the energy

• Official welcome by Mampe on behalf of NMCF 

Since SeViSSA started, this is first Learning and Reflection event.  Key areas that need to be addressed are the reporting elements and demonstrating evidence of impact of the amazing work being done.

• Facilitators introduce themselves.  Overview of methods and facilitation as container:
  • Seamless co-creation/co-facilitation
  • Various streams of conversations
  • Free writing/journaling
  • Peer reflection/peer coaching
  • Experiential exercises and joint reflections
  • Right brain/creative exercises
  • Check in and check out daily
    
    
• Introductions (each person introduce themselves and their organization, province) and check-in

Participants checked in in with the overall feeling that is in their body, mind or spirit at that moment.

• Intention and process

Participants were asked to write themselves a welcome note to the workshop, comprising 3 sentences. They were also asked to set their own intentions for the workshop, thus at the end of the 3 days, if this workshop has been a success and worth my time x, y and z should have happened for me.

Overview of the intentions shared by participants…

• To learn new ideas, skills, and tools from others and share stories and experiences;
  • To participate fully, be energetic, cooperative, have fun and a positive attitude;
  • Learn what others are doing and be inspired;
  • To engage, ask questions, give feedback, listen and reflect;
  • To assess if on right track, identify ways to improve or grow the work and fill gaps;
  • To see how to take back and implement new knowledge;
  • To process, unpack and learn lessons from the work;
  • To improve on report-writing (tell the stories of impact);
  • To be able to single out a SeViSSA child from the rest;
  • To explore different issues and context of different coalitions and also best practices;
  • To explore good communication with each other and share different strategies;
  • To feel confident in the work that is being done;
  • To learn about self-care strategies (emotional wellbeing) from others;
  • Identify a way forward beyond SeViSSA;
  • To celebrate all the work and acknowledge the knowledge and experiences;
  • To treat each other with respect;
  • Improve ways of working and enable achieving of results;
  • To move from activity to impact in reporting (change made is missing);

• The following Social contract (agreement on ways of working) was agreed with the participants;
  • Trust allowance, emergent process
  • One meeting, one forum (speak through the facilitator)
  • Take responsibility for co-creation
  • Principle of 50:50 – give and take
  • Take responsibility or personal care and comfort
  • Embrace diversity – different ways of looking and see
  • Time management – use time efficiently
  • Being respectful
  • Ease up and have fun and colour in process
  • Phone on silent/vibration (answer responsibly and respectfully)

Each day participants volunteered for roles as process facilitators, time keepers and energizers. Sharing of these roles between the lead facilitators and participants helped (i) to maintain a tight energy container for the workshop, and (ii) to underscore the joint responsibility for a successful event.

• It is important to build and support young people to lead interventions. This is more sustainable and also has greater odds of succeeding as young people are able to reach out to other young people in their context.
• Individual interventions are necessary as part of the continuum of social change, however, organisations have to take care to build self-reliance so that they do not become dependent on the organisations delivering the interventions.
• Sustainability is a constant issue and concern for all the organisations working in SeViSSA. These are at the level of financial, but beyond it as well.
• It is important to engage a spectrum of other actors such as parents, cops, church, teachers, media and traditional authorities as this creates a conducive environment for the ultimate outcomes envisaged by SeViSSA.
• Legal and advocacy approaches are necessary to support the work of building the individual. Once people are aware of their rights, they may need advocacy support in claiming such rights.
• The importance of flexibility and adaptiveness when doing these kinds of interventions means that the interventions will always be shaped and responsive to what is needed in a particular context.
• Organisations have to systematically collaborate with one another as one organization alone cannot address the deluge of issues that contribute to gender and sexual violence.