Transparency and Accountability Impact and Learning The launch of a community of practice to transform the field Cape Town February 17-20, 2013
Who came to Cape Town? Funders Civil Society Organizations Researchers Anu Joshi ACIJ Ford ARI Article 33 Better Eval. GPSA CCS CIESAS CEGSS CIPESA CEU 3ie Hewlett ERA Fundar Global Integrity Ateneo SofG J-PAL HIVOS IBP Grupo Faro Janaagraha Helene Grandvoinnet Lily Tsai PSAM R 4D RWI Stuti Khemani Omidyar U4 SERI SOTU T&A Network Michael Woolcock OSF UNDP TI-Zambia Twaweza TI T/AI Wenger-Trayner 18 people from 7 21 people from 20 local, 14 academics and organizations regional, and global CSOs evaluators
“A perfect mix of people” “An extraordinary convergence”
What happened in Cape Town? Day 1: exploring Day 2: working Day 3: planning We formed five practice In mixed and separate We formed new groups to groups to start working groups, we discussed what bring the different work on the issues we had were the main challenges plans together into an prioritized and to explore we needed to address overall community design, how we can make together and we voted on including activities for the progress on them the most pressing ones coming year together Prioritized issues Learning plans Community design
“It was fantastic to see everyone digging their teeth into these issues we all struggle with individually ...”
What issues are we working on? How to open the “black - box” where the “magic” happens - in order to better understand the connection between transparency, participation, and accountability How to shape funding The T-A-P relationships and nexus institutional structures How to analyze the context to promote learning of interventions to within and across understand how and organizations The issue Learning why they do or do not Key of context incentives transfer successfully issues to new contexts Methods and Learning learning to learn How to choose the right from failure How to collaborate methods, metrics, and and learn together about approaches to analyze interventions, embedding learning at the evaluate impact meaningfully, and learn core of our organizations from both successes and failures and networks
Where is this going? This year we want to make progress on each of the five issues we started work on. We intend to … … deepen our understanding, appreciation, and convergence of 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 Next year we can continue with this set of issues or start addressing some new ones.
How are we going to operate? 2013 May Ongoing March practice Case clinic: July Case clinic: Methods April group and T A June activities Webinar: reporting Etc … theory of Research on Webinar: change context Evaluation Community- factors framework wide Online discussions and real-time peer help activities Curating web resources Support activities Group Group Group Newsletter Newsletter leaders leaders leaders meeting meeting meeting 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.
Our aspirations We hope the learning of our community will produce the following kinds of stories: What we do What we produce How we benefit Insights on Funders collaborate to We inspect and compare We develop new ways to maximize impact barriers and foster collective learning our experience with incentives to from both successes and reporting requirements learning failures Knowledge of CSOs discover critical We review and critique tactics, factors they can leverage our respective theories stakeholders, to link transparency and of change and causal links accountability Researchers gain We examine the ability Links between insights from the field to of research methods to questions and frame their research address our questions methods to projects to produce from the field address them useful data
But will it work? Many of these communities do Yes, but in this case, not last key ingredients are in place … … sense of urgency Everyone … internal Members have agrees that taken key roles ongoing work on leadership to lead the this topic is critical community forward … group learning plans … institutional T/AI is going to support The five practice groups provide support presented plans of to help the activities to keep going for community achieve a year at least. its goals
Institutional support: the role of T/AI Providing support to … … a community of practice that for example governs and runs itself Strategy Communication Liaise with Host Practice Community funders yammer site groups Seek out opportunities Publish newsletter Monitor value Organize Support group leader annual meeting in organizing webinar Orient new Hire a consultant members to do research facilitating planning collecting connecting coaching brokering publishing hosting scouting documenting
How can you participate? Depending on your level of interest and commitment, you can … by browser by phone app … join any of the by phone five practice groups working on issues … attend webinars, case clinics and online events … sign up and participate in online discussions, contribute resources, or request peer help in real time … receive our newsletter and access by email our online resources by SMS by phone app by website If you are interested in taking leadership in designing our community, you can also join a community- design group to help … … set the … cultivate the … curate the … monitor the … deal with agenda community website(s) value created organizations
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 Give your boss keep limiting our progress. We expect to change the way we negotiate the scoop before reporting requirements, create incentives to learn from both successes and you reach the failures, and maximize impact collectively. This has the potential to be 7 th floor transformative.
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