NGO support toolkit (English)  >  Institutional Change 

Sharing lessons and exchange

In the context of NGO support work, the unique relationships between NGO/CBO support providers (NSPs), their partner organisations and the donor community puts NSPs in an advantaged position to share lessons and facilitate information exchange at multiple levels:

• between NGOs and CBOs
• between NSPs and other intermediary organisations
• between people working at the community level and those developing and influencing policy.

Many NSPs operate at national and international levels where they are in a position to facilitate learning and information exchange across, as well as within, countries. They also often work with a range of organisations (e.g. related to different sectors or groups of people) and can facilitate cross-learning between different disciplines and sectors of society. In this regard, NSPs have an important mission to analyse, reflect, identify and promote good practice at multiple levels.

Sharing lessons is a process that involves systematic documentation of information followed by analysis, synthesis, packaging and dissemination of the information into appropriate forms for the intended audience. Sharing of lessons can happen in a variety of ways, ranging from more formal mechanisms such as conferences, seminars and study tours to informal methods such as a telephone call, an email or face-to-face meeting.

Lessons learned need to be focused in order to have maximum impact. This particularly applies to NSPs, as they may be sharing lessons with a wide range of audiences, from members of small CBOs to government officials. For example, NSPs can share programmatic lessons between partner organisations working with state health service providers or articulate the same lessons to donors interested in strengthening the quality of care and support services at the community level. The lessons learned are applicable to both audiences but need to be articulated in a way that makes them clearly relevant to each specifically.

Facilitating information exchange is another key function of NSPs. Again, this can happen at various levels. It may, for example, only involve introducing one partner organisation to another. At the other extreme it could involve working closely with bilateral and multilateral donors to identify programmatic or geographical gaps in order to promote complementarity of programmes.

NSPs can also signpost or act as a central source of information for their partner organisations. Information such as changes in donor policy, available resources, learning materials, new technologies and treatments are of critical importance for NGOs and CBOs to enhance and sustain their programmes.

Issues to consider

• Sharing lessons and facilitating information exchange requires that all parties see the benefit of the end goal, as it takes commitment to document and analyse experiences for the benefit of others in the hope that they will do the same.
• NSPs must be sensitive to the dynamics between organisations and promote an environment that is conducive to mutual learning and exchange.
• NSPs should internalise and implement the good practice that they promote by acting as a good example.
• NSPs need to understand which lessons are context specific and which are universally applicable.
• Documents and information should be written in appropriate and accessible language, and specific to the target audience. However producing resources in multiple languages is costly, and NSPs should consider the nature of the resource and who may benefit from it. High level reports are unlikely to be relevant for community workers, and community level tools are of little use unless written in local languages.
• This type of work requires an investment of time and human and financial resources if it is to be effective. As with any other programmatic area, it should be budgeted for and have a clear place in an organisation’s workplan.
• There are opportunities to learn throughout the project/programme cycle. By having systematic and periodic reviews throughout the cycle NSPs can proactively encourage partners to incorporate lessons learned into project replanning.
• NSPs may consider themselves to be more confident, experienced or skilled at giving presentations than their partner NGOs or CBOs, and may want to present at conferences on their behalf. However, the potential benefits of partner organisations presenting their own data and experiences is great. It brings greater legitimacy to the information being shared, allows the audience to ask questions directly about people’s experiences and provides an opportunity to build the capacity of partners.
• Since the introduction of the internet and other technologies, there is potential for information overload. NSPs need to be selective and provide only information that is relevant to their partner organisations.

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