Day 3 – Wednesday 30th November 2011: Facilitation Tools
After knowing about PAEPARD and the facilitation of ARD partnerships on Day 1 and 2 respectively, Day 3 was going to be about facilitation tools that can be used by the Agricultural Innovation Facilitator. Just like every morning, the opening plenary was at 08:30 and each process monitoring group had to present about what they have learned on Day 2, what was not clear and what should be improved the next day and during the week. When this exercise was over, the programme of the day was explained by Mr. Richard Hawkins, the lead facilitator of the workshop.
Role-play
The first session of Day 3 was very appreciated by all participants. It was a role-play by Janet Achora and Monica Kapiriri Namumbya (both from Uganda), whereby Monica had to approach Janet (consortium) as the Agricultural Innovation Facilitator trained by PAEPARD. The first thing that Monica did was that she called Janet, introduced herself and requested for an appointment. When Janet accepted, she went through the concept note of the consortium and then went for the meeting. During the whole process, the participants had to observe them and note the positive and negative point of the facilitator and consortium as well. After some five minutes, the simulation was over and the floor was open for discussion from the participants about how they found the performance of the 2 parties; the good points and mistakes, lessons learnt and other comments. The simulation can be watched on the video below:
PAEPARD Second Call Scenarios
The first Power-Point presentation of the day was on scenarios of the PAEPARD Second Call by Mr. Richard Hawkins. 3 scenarios were presented, including the possible outcomes, their advantages and disadvantages. Participants has to reflect on which scenario they prefer and why? They were also given the opportunity to suggest new scenarios. There was a plenary discussion after the presentation followed by a coffee-break.
Moderation, Coordination, Facilitation and Leadership
When participants were back from the break, a very short but interesting Power-Point presentation was presented on the differences between Moderation, Coordination, Facilitation and Leadership. It was very clear that all of them are different (but sometimes there may be some over-laps) and the role of a facilitator was clear to the audience.
Tools that can be used to facilitate – Brainstorming
As a facilitator, it is important to know what are the tools available to them and at the same time which one to use in which situation. There were 3 boards in front, on each one there was a question, written on a card of different colour:
Green Card: Achieve the task (Common objectives)
Blue Card: Manage the team and avoid conclict
Pink Card: Promote learning by partners
Since this was a brainstorming session, each participants had to give their input. They were provided with green, blue and pink cards and were required to propose tools that can be used for each one of them. At the same time that participants were writing, the workshop facilitators were pinning the cards to their respective boards. When the exercise was over, Mr. Richard Hawkins went over all the tools that were proposed and explained about them if some were not clear. It was also suggested to look for such tools on the ICRA website (http://www.icra-edu.org/). After this very productive session, the participants went for lunch.
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| Participants giving their inputs during the brainstorming session |
Generating Research Questions
The last exercise for the day was about Research Questions. Each country pair had to work together on their respective concept notes and had to generate 5 research questions and 3 sub-questions for each of the research questions. Participants were provided with a reading material on research question by ICRA. Just like the previous day, participants could go out of the plenary and work. This exercise was for about one and a half hour, and when they were back, there was presentation from 3 groups (Burkina Faso, Ghana and Farmer Organisation), followed by plenary discussion.
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| Presentation from Burkina Faso (francophone group) |
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| Presentation from Ghana (Anglophone group) |
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| Presentation from Farmer Organisation |
Day 3 was full of knowledge and reflection on the role of facilitator. Participants were sharing knowledge and experience, at the same time learning from each other. We were also enjoying our participation and there was no moment when we were bored. When we were a bit tired, there were very nice energisers to get our energy back! 🙂
Interesting updates. Enjoy as well!