admin
Dr Rudo Grace Gwata-Charamba Correspondent
Several great lessons can be drawn from the painful Covid-19 experience, while the lockdown period provides an opportune moment for learning.
This is against the background of an evolving and complex global socio-economic environment that demands continuous learning for strengthening capacity for quality performance in problem solving and development.
Learning is thus regarded as the key to success and even the key to survival in some modern organisations.
Essentially, the notion entails utilising empirical evidence to improve performance through stimulating creativity, generating new insights and innovative practices.
The associated tasks encompass reflecting on experiences, identifying best practices and lessons learned from social and economic initiatives, considering how an entity can remain relevant in an evolving context as well as how to promote desired changes in people’s lives.
The information derived is incorporated into decision-making towards improving capacities for development and is subsequently developed into knowledge, a critical asset in most organisations.
Learning is, therefore, invaluable being both a product and a source of this critical asset.
However, finding time for this invaluable task often proves to be a significant challenge for many entities as they are ordinarily fully engaged with keeping regular business programmes on track.
Using the lockdown period for learning can thus prove to be worthwhile.
According to literature, there are no perfect project or programme plans, in real life, and hence the essence of continuous stakeholder learning, from both successes and failures of each initiative, and adjusting accordingly.
Explicitly, learning, from the experience of what works and what does not, leads to quality implementation of development initiatives.
This is mainly because the function enhances the capacity of individuals and organisations to make healthier future decisions relating to the formulation or adjustment as well as implementation of projects and programmes.
Such continuous learning is also a core feature and a major source of strength for the Results Based Management (RBM) approach, a proven powerful tool for authentic development.
Through it individuals and organisations develop high level capacities to refine as well as enrich strategies and initiatives leading to changed behaviour and ultimately improved performance and the achievement of goals.
Experiential evidence shows that in Zimbabwe, such learning was generally lacking as evidenced by the formulation and design of brilliant policies and programmes, especially in the First Republic, that consistently failed to yield the desired results despite several concerted attempts to implement them.
Utilising the lockdown period to pursue such learning can significantly improve capacities plus performance as well as promote the realisation of Vision 2030.
In the long term, continuous learning triggers changes in culture often typified by commitment to honest and open performance reporting so as to avail quality information for learning.
Consequently, a learning culture that includes valuing evidence-based information, creating time for learning as well as effectively supporting the learning processes is also created, strengthened or nurtured.
The evidence-based information, used for learning, is derived from all experiences namely success, mistakes and weak performance with higher levels of tolerance for failure.
For example, a learning event can be structured around the current fight against Covid-19 pandemic where the available information and evidence is compiled, in a digestible format for discussion, by all key stakeholders, to determine what the available evidence implies for future actions.
The impressive and highly commendable collaboration among stakeholders, from different sectors and entities in Zimbabwe, in the fight against Covid-19, regardless of background or status, made the epidemic more manageable.
This experience epitomises the ubuntu philosophy, discussed in earlier instalments, which stipulates strong community ties and embodies camaraderie, commitment, sacrifice, honesty plus hard work.
The gesture demonstrates the value of the philosophy in socio-economic processes and is truly worth replicating and expanding.
Moreover, literature shows that meaningful participation of all key stakeholders, notably the beneficiaries, also another basic principle of RBM, is key for effective problem solving and the sound implementation of initiatives.
Such participation entails their involvement in all project or programme processes, a factor that facilitates their commitment, influence, learning and ownership of the related initiatives.
Its major strength lies in the capacity to encourage stakeholder engagement hence increasing the likelihood of achieving relevant results.
Furthermore, the achievement of results motivates citizens to safeguard the results as well as continue to act as agents in their own development and, therefore, ensuring the sustainability of results.
Apart from providing evidence of the functionality of the innovative partnerships across sectors, the experience with Covid-19 also revealed the need for everyone to be part of the solution to the problem, with each group of stakeholders exploiting its unique capacities.
For example, the private sector demonstrated its capacity to mobilise resources, generate innovative solutions and scale them up timely while the non-profit sector served communities, including those in locations that were out of reach for the other sectors.
Furthermore, such partnerships often encourage the revelation of out-of-the-box, innovative ideas and solutions to problems by a wide range of stakeholders encompassing Government, academics, the Diaspora non-governmental and commercial entities, or any combination thereof.
It may, therefore, be worthwhile to consider maintaining or growing these partnerships, with subsequent revisions as necessary, for improved planning and implementation of development initiatives beyond the pandemic.
However, the need to promote mutual trust and accountability among the stakeholders cannot be overemphasised.
There are, unfortunately, many stakeholders who are obsessed with fiercely criticising of all the systems and initiatives aimed at problem-solving, albeit without, themselves, contributing to any of the general national development initiatives or the current fight against Covid-19.
The collaboration in the fight against Covid-19 thus provides an opportunity for members of society to appreciate the essence of participation, by different stakeholders, and also to be encouraged to “learn to participate” and improve the performance of initiatives.
In addition, lessons will emerge from the experiences relating to challenges faced during the lockdown period.
For example, the essence of close community ties in places of habitation is most likely to be appreciated in situations where members of society did not relate to their neighbours.
They, instead, solely relied on support from distant relations or acquaintances, a set-up that signifies a significant departure from the values and norms of the ubuntu philosophy where close-knit communities are valued highly.
During lockdown, these distant relations became inaccessible and thus unavailable for providing the usual support, leaving the households in distress.
Hopefully the lesson will be appropriated and the affected individuals plus households will possibly consider behavioural change such as the reintroduction of revised and modernised traditional settings that embrace close community ties.
The above-mentioned lessons from the Covid-19 experiences have significant potential for fostering active and meaningful participation in development processes which would help to accelerate socio-economic development and realising Vision 2030.
Strategies that include strengthening supportive information sharing and communication structures, encouraging the identification and communication of good practices, lessons learned plus factors that produced the effects can be utilised to promote such continuous learning.
That is, making concerted efforts to consistently and jointly learn, from both successes and failures, and ensuring that the derived information is meaningfully utilised can reasonably guarantee the sustainability of both the acceleration and impact of development initiatives.
Also, incorporating learning as a core organisational function where both people and organisations assume the responsibility for learning and accountability for demonstrating the ensuing results often further enhances the capacity of entities to improve and succeed.
In the same context, participation would support locally-led problem solving processes to foster broad-based ownership of development processes and ensure sustainability as stakeholders understand and support the related initiatives.
Dr Rudo Grace Gwata-Charamba is an author, development project/programme management consultant and researcher with a special interest in Results Based Management (RBM), Governance and Leadership. She can be contacted via email: [email protected]
Online Reporter