Comments on: Learning by un-doing: the magic of immersion

By: Aidan Eyakuze

Aidan Eyakuze — Mon, 07 Sep 2015 04:56:38 +0000

So, I moderated the opening panel of the Africa Open Data Conference in Dar es Salaam this past week. We waxed a lyrical about the amazing tech that is pregnant with possibilities of holding pubic authorities accountable by scraping, crunching and sowing terabytes of data, information and insight to the previously data-, information- and insight-starved citizens. And then I remembered my eye-opening tour of Akokor village during this immersion, and the sub-county office where a) the amount of money received from central government for the six or seven primary schools was on prominent display in a slightly tattered notice board (physical data portal?!); b) data about the number of visits by pregnant and nursing mothers to the sub-county clinic were glued to every available piece of empty wall real estate in the senior nurse’s office (a physical web page?) , and c) the leaking roof in the medical stores and in the birthing room were clearly visible to all who ventured therein, but it remained unrepaired despite numerous entreaties by the clinic’s medical staff to their superiors. I did observe something – my immersion host, pastor William Okurut, was taking copious notes during our clinic visit. He vowed to follow up the leaky roof issue. An affable, non-threatening, religious and affectionate man (I witnessed his affection to his young son, ever-smiling wife and even younger grandson Willy), he seemed highly-respected in the village and sub-county. I think he will, and I think it will make a difference.

By: Ian Attfield

Ian Attfield — Fri, 14 Aug 2015 12:35:47 +0000

Great post Varja! I’d love to get invited (and released) on one of these immersions.
Fascinating around deep rural private schooling…. Hoep to talk soon…

By: Duncan Green

Duncan Green — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 07:40:49 +0000

Ratings gold, no question

By: P Baker

P Baker — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 07:06:47 +0000

It would make a great TV reality programme: ‘I’m a DFID manager, get me out of here’, with Duncan and Owen as Ant & Dec… [apologies to non-UK readers]

By: Varja

Varja — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 15:20:22 +0000

Thanks P Baker, I’ve not thought about being head of DFID! But if I were, I would spend time with Owen Barder and colleagues and take seriously the thinking about how international aid has to change (particularly beyond financial flows) if it is to have any chance of achieving what it purports to achieve (SGDs, etc.). And the second thing I would do is institute immersion-type exercises for DIFD staff, particularly for those up the ladder. It matters.

By: Varja

Varja — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 15:14:09 +0000

Thanks Craig, and interesting link to RCA — immersion as evaluation; I enjoyed reading about it. For Twaweza, we have always maintained that immersion was not the time to monitor or evaluate anything. On the other hand, we have also used qualitative deep-dives as one of the approaches in a larger evaluation or study. I really am a big proponent of mixed method evaluations — i.e., asking a range of different questions, getting answers in different ways, and then seeing what the puzzle adds up to.

By: P Baker

P Baker — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 13:38:54 +0000

Indeed Varja, you have a gift!
If you were head of DFID, what new policies would you introduce, to improve the prospects for these villagers?

By: Craig Valters

Craig Valters — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 07:03:59 +0000

Thanks for a reflective post, I really enjoyed it. Made me think of the Reality Check method I’ve been discussing with colleagues recently.

http://reality-check-approach.com/

Ultimately the more everyone in the development industry gets out of air-conditioned offices and into the real world, the better. It can have the useful knock on effect of making us ditch (or at least rethink) unhelpful and alienating terminology that sounds great in London, but silly in a village in East Africa. More importantly it can give a sense of what really matters to people at that level.

This also reminded me of Duncan’s recent point about how some things become ‘development issues’ and some don’t. In many places I’ve been alcoholism is a major problem, but it just doesn’t get coverage – almost seems accepted as a part of life. Of course this is not just an issue for ‘developing countries’, but then nor are many things we imply are…