Application of Appreciative Inquiry and

1. Application of Appreciative Inquiry and lessons from “Watershed Approach” to pilot project design and implementation The case of Harmee Education for Development Association Presented on CSSP RBUC Learn-and-Share and Relationship Building Workshop February 07,2014, Addis Ababa By Daniel Keftassa

2. Purpose of the presentation To share experience on how • Appreciative Inquiry is used to design and implement the Pilot project and how • Watershed Approach is tested through the pilot project on “Mitigation of Challenges to Female Education” with focus on abduction, family imposed migration and school dropout andmitigation of violence against women

3. What is Appreciative Inquiry? • Appreciative – admire, honor, reward, recognize, acknowledge, grateful, valuing, encourage, • Inquiry – question, study, discover, look for, investigate, know, research, seek, see

4. Why Inquiry? • Change begins with the questions we ask • The act of inquiring is never neutral, it is in itself an intervention, and exerts some kind of influence. • The wording of the question largely determines the answer. • In other words, you find what you look for • There is difference between asking what have been the major achievements and what are the problems

5. Philosophical ground of AI • You find what you look for. If you go looking for what's broken, you will find lots of broken stuff. If you look for what's working, you will find that most things work

6. Discovery “What gives life?” The best of what is. Appreciating Destiny/Delivery “Innovate what will be?” Sustaining Dream “What might be?” Envisioning Results/Impact Positive Core Design “What should be—the ideal?” Co-constructing Appreciative Inquiry – the 4D Cycle • Appreciative cycle

7. Steps in the Appreciative Inquiry Process AI uses a change process called the 4-D model - dynamic process of continuous change. • Discovery - find out the strengths, capacity and opportunities - (assessment of the situation) not problems • Dream - Envisioning/Imagining ideal situation what it looks like when the challenges (abduction, violence, etc) are overcome - What do we want to achieve and how? • Design Setting up ways to create the ideal situation - planning • Deliveryputting dreams into action - project implementation - Introduce the desired Changes in practice

8. Application of Appreciative Inquiry • Strategic planning – a frame-work for internal and external analyses • Participatory Project design • Organizational and leadership development - application of the Organizational and Programmatic Capacity Assessment tools, Personal Development Plan • Monitoring and Knowledge Management - application of Results Management Review and other monitoring tools - find out the strengths and achievements and ask for what could even be better (for the future)

9. Benefits of Appreciative Inquiry • Unifying factor – everybody want to share success but not failure • Improved relations - Good feeling to each other, inclusive • Energizing – participants see capacity, potential to contribute/do more • Enhances commitment - People appreciate their organization, their work and themselves • Helped to build trust and commit to collaborate Appreciative Inquiry is neither denying the existence of problems nor is just being positive minded but it is a system of dealing with problems to achieve improvement • Not another intervention, but a new approach to existing interventions

10. Application of Appreciative Inquiry and testing the Watershed Approach through the pilot project on “Mitigation of Challenges to Female Education and Physical and Psychological Harm (VAW) of women and girls in Munessa woreda, Arssi Zone, Oromia Region

11. Civil society ‘watershed’ approach What is watershed in the context of social development process? • It is an approach to identify assets and capacities of different actors in a specific geographical context (or ‘watershed’) • It is a strategies for bringing people together to agree on and take action to change things. • It is CSSP’s approach for building coalitions of CSOs, CBOs, Communities, government for change

12. The underlying concept of watershed approach • Participation and contribution of all stakeholders/change agents is essential for sustainable change • Need for Coalition building for joint action based on trust, recognition of each others resourcefulness, collaborative action • Sustainability of the changes and impacts are the centre

13. The Watershed Analogy

14. Designing the pilot project in line with the “CSSP Watershed Approach” Key concept/steps in ‘watershed’ approach Multi-faceted Issues identified at a local level A variety of stakeholders or change agents identified The core concept is ensuring the coordinated effort of all change agents to address the issues through complementary activities

15. Steps followed to apply the “Watershed Approach” on Munessa Pilot project Step one - Consultation meetings (using Appreciative model of situational analyses) Discovery phase • Woreda government offices (administration, security, education, agriculture, women and children affaires), • Local communities, • Religious leaders, • Status based associations

16. Key question following Appreciative Inquiry model • Start by asking achievements, challenges and opportunities in the woreda • Allow respondents to tell success stories and opportunities to development in general, education sector, girls participation in education, the cultural basis for respect and status of women in the society

17. Outcome of step one (consultations) The following issues/challenges were identified • Unemployment of youth • Abduction, migration and school dropout of girls • Low education quality • Lack of medicines and service in the health institutions • Low level of technology use in agriculture • Lack of Support to the elderly and persons with disabilities • Low capacity of the women associations to address the issues of needy women, girls, children, etc.

18. Step two: one urgent/core issue identified Challenges to female education - Abduction, migration and school dropout with its expansion to violence against women and girls • High abduction of girls for marriage in the woreda (20-30 per year) • High number of school age migration of female students to Middle East Countries (about 900 per year) • High school dropout (close to 4000 or 20% of the total female students in the woreda) • High rate of violence against women – rape, physical harassment, FGM, economic harassement • Consultation made with major change agents on the issue and desired changes – build consensus

19. Step three: Key actors/stakeholders identified • Woreda government offices and kebele administration • the police and judiciary • the school communities – students, teachers, parents, school boards • the elders, women associations, idir leaders • Leaders of the faith based organizations • mass based organizations – women, teachers, youth associations

20. Step four -Project design, appraisal and approval process – dream and design phases of AI • Project designed/planned following participatory methods • Project agreement with the local gov’t signed

21. Step five: Project implementation - delivery phase of AI • Project launched with the major change agents (stakeholders) • Project implementation Development of the Memorandum of Understanding • The woreda attorney produced a document on the legal provisions (criminal codes and family law) on violence on women and girls with focus on abduction of girls for marriage and rape and below age family imposed migration • The Roles and responsibilities of the government offices and all other stakeholders identified and agreement reached

22. Actions and strategies • Establishment of woreda taskforce (composed of all stakeholders) that is chaired by Woreda administrator • Training and meetings of the taskforce members • Awareness raising to the public – conferences, meetings, trainings, posters, leaflets • Establishment of girls clubs in 58 schools • Establishment/strengthening community policing in 38 kebeles • Make schools attractive to the students with focus on female students –extra tutorial classes

23. Girls Internship program – complementary activity Purpose • To create competence and self confidence of young female professionals • To create favorable environment for the young girls/women professionals to successfully compete in the labor market • To create role models in the society and for the girls in schools

24. Girls Internship program - process • 20 professional girls participated in the program– most of them are from the field of sociology and social works, education planning and management, psychology • Attached to different government offices and associations to analyze the legal frame-work, achievements, opportunities, challenges, etc in each office

25. The benefits of the girls Internship program to the participants • Enhanced their understanding of the local context and working environment • Enhanced their understanding about the realities under which women, female students, people with disabilities and older people live and their wishes • 40 research reports produced in groups and individually • Helped them to understand themselves better – who am I? what is my role in the society? What can I contribute?

26. Achievements of the Pilot project • Abduction reduced from 18 (officially reported) in 2004 EC to 6 in 2005 (close to 70% reduction) • Family imposed Migration reduced from 1101 (928 female in 2004 E.C to231 students (223 female) in 2005 (75% reduction) • School dropout reduced from 7551 students (3972 female) in 2004 E.C in 2004 to2164 students (939 female) in 2005 – 741 students were brought back to the schools by the school girls clubs • 13,500 women organized in 28 women associations (so far) – to take responsibility to mitigate violence against women

27. Process outcomes • The relationship among different government sectors, community and HEfDA enhanced • Strong bond between the government structure and women associations and school girls clubs • The operation of the taskforce gave new ways of collaboration among government offices

28. Impacts on HEfDA- the implementing CSO • New approaches to enhnce technical and organizational systems introduced – score cards, ladder of change, Results chain, Result management review, personal development plan • HEfDA became more visible in the woreda • The trust and partnership with the government offices enhanced

29. Lessons • Trust building among stakeholders/Government - appreciation, identification of gaps and building partnership • Windows of hope to dialogue with the government on what has been understood as ”grey areas” for CSOs interventions– differentiation of dealing with the issues/practice and advocacy for the victims

30. Lessons that ensure sustainability of the impacts of the pilot project • CSO - Not as a forerunner but as a facilitator for change – the positive lesson from the taskforce (coalition building at kebele and woreda levels) • Trust building and collaboration with the government offices and the society at large • Support the people to take responsibility over their issues – strengthen the women associations or school girls clubs to deal with issue of violence against women and girls

31. What follows? • Draw lessons – what, why, how • Share the lessons – modeling positive experiences- coaching/mentoring of emerging and young CSOs • Expanding the watershed – scaling up – based on the evidences and learning e.g. mitigation of different forms of violence against women on wider geographic area more stakeholders

32. Galatooma