MDF - NewsLetter November 2008

Innovate and improve, this was the title of the third editorial. Also in this edition innovations are the core of the articles. You will read about new clients, new products and new approaches. That is what makes working in this field so fascinating. It is about development - never a dull moment. Sometimes changes come faster than one expects.

Recently I spoke to the management of an institute we are supporting in their organisational development and they clearly expressed satisfaction with the approach of our trainers and consultants. They told me that what they liked most is the open attitude of the MDF consultants, always ensuring that their messages and transfer of know-how is exactly what the staff of their organisation needed: a very down to earth and demand driven approach. Although very happy with the support, they also indicated that their organisational developments were sometimes faster than the consultant was expecting.

This client also had firm ideas on how they wanted certain organisation processes to be organised, in this case defining a strategy - a balance between participation and timely decisions by management. We discussed the importance of listening to each other, exploring ideas behind approaches and methods. We agreed that the only way to do the right thing for an adviser or trainer is to explore with an open mind and come up with workable solutions.
This may seems simple but is not at all easy, it is our challenge and your demand.

Herman Snelder, Director MDF

Training for private initiatives 2008

Wilde Ganzen (Wild Geese, a Dutch NGO) supports disadvantaged people, through their Dutch partners, who make an effort to achieve a better future for their community. Wilde Ganzen organises a training programme for private initiatives by citizens with the motto 'Investment in Development'. With this programme Wilde Ganzen wants to contribute to a professional project management, knowledge and skills of private initiatives, with the aim to improve the quality and sustainability of their interventions. The programme consists of three modules of one day each: the life cycle of a project, the world around your project and intercultural partnerships. The programme is financed by NCDO. MDF Training & Consultancy developed and implements the training modules.

The whole cycle has been repeated four times with success. A total of around 130 people have participated and received certificates. The reactions so far are very positive and more courses are being scheduled in 2009!

Mariëtte Gross en Heleen Reedijk

Tool from the field: Appreciative Inquiry

'Appreciative Inquiry' is about the search for the best in people, their organisations, and the relevant world around them. Appreciative inquiry involves the art and practice of asking questions that strengthen a system's capacity to apprehend, anticipate, and heighten its positive potential.

Of all new tools, schools and methods for change in organisations and communities that have dominated the discussions of the last years, 'Appreciative Inquiry' (AI) sticks out although it is not a new tool. It is not a new school. Nor a new method.

AI can be best described with a new paradigm in how we approach change in organisations and communities. It invites people to tell the stories they want to tell, and to jointly search for what gives life to organisations and communities. It is increasingly applied for both small and large change processes, ranging from small personal change to mega-cities or entire regions and multi-national companies such as McDonald's or IBIS Hotel chain.

More on 'Appreciative Inquiry' can be found in Tools from the field

Jolanda Buter

Staff Changes

New staff
Bennie Bloemberg joined us in November and will become the Director of our Branch Office in Arusha. Bennie has 30 years of professional experience in Tanzania. We welcome him and wish him lots of success.

Bouba Kone joined us in November as an assistant IT. Bouba is from Burkina Faso and is living and working in the Netherlands since 8 years.

Staff leaving

Rogier Verschoor has left MDF to work with ICCO in Nicaragua.

Reintegration of ex-guerillas and paramilitaries in Colombia

In July 2008 MDF was selected as implementer of a project - funded by NUFFIC - to enhance the quality of the education and training aspects of the reintegration process of voluntary disarmed and demobilized guerillas and paramilitaries.

This peaceful social and economic reintegration is considered by the Colombian Presidency to be a crucial instrument to ending the long lasting internal conflict, which, in one way or another, has already been going on for more than 40 years. The Presidency has established a High Commissioner for Reintegration who is responsible for the development and coordination of the process.

The low educational level (most of the participants can be considered to be functionally illiterate after many years in the jungle), the personal motivation, the mobility of the participants for security reasons are considered to be the main challenges with regard to a successful education and training process. The reintegration process includes both general and vocational education, offered in the existing public and private training institutes and psycho-social coaching offered by the ACR.

However, the characteristics of the target group demand a different educational approach, based upon the methodologies used for adult education, vulnerable groups and displaced people. Therefore one of the objectives of the project is to develop and implement a model for general education and a methodology for vocational education and training which addresses the specific demands and life situation of the participants, together with the development of cross-cutting modules in themes such as: values, norms, gender and environment.

Although many countries have experience with the reintegration of disarmed people only very few have been analysed systematically. Colombia intends to implement the model and to review its merits in practice. MDF will support this by making an initial inventory of experiences and results and by developing a system of monitoring and evaluation to follow the progress, results and challenges.

The project is planned from November 1st 2008 until October 31st 2010. In it's execution many local and regional experts will be needed.

Antoon Bloten and Sam Boering

Reinforcing trade-unions

MDF regularly supports trade-unions, either in their European headquarters or in their partner countries. The support consists of training courses for staff and assistance with (strategic) planning. The trade-unions supported are FNV and CNV in the Netherlands, and FGTB in Belgium, and their respective partner unions in ACP-countries: South Africa, Benin, Ghana, Cuba, and others.

In October and November MDF carried out two project evaluations for FNV Mondiaal.
One in Ghana: "Advancing the organisation of the self-employed rural workers within the trade unions" for the General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) of the Ghana Trades Union Congress.
And the other in Burkina Faso: Programme Africain pour le Développement de la Participation des Travailleurs (PADEP) for the united trade unions in Burkina Faso. With globalisation and economic crises, as well as democratisation processes, the trade unions are facing new challenges in Africa.

Both projects contribute considerably to the strengthening of the Civil Society. The Ghanaian project by focusing on the rural informal, agricultural sector (quite innovating in Africa), and the Burkinabe project by focusing on the strengthening of participation of all (formal and informal) workers, and on the unity-of-action principle of various trade unions.

In both projects there is a crucial role for research and capacity building (training) of all levels of trade union staff and members. Among the successes of the projects should be reckoned the engagement of the informal sector, both in urban, as well as in rural areas, the motivation and mobilisation for trade union actions, especially by women, and the relatively positive responses by enterprises and governments, who consider the trade unions more and more as respectable social partners. The unions do have an impact in these African countries, in the economic, social and governance sense; they challenge the NGO-world in these respects!

Sjoerd Zanen, trainer/ consultant MDF

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NewsLetter November 2008

MDF SERVICES

MDF GENERAL

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Content of this NewsLetter

Upcoming courses

Editorial

Training for private initiatives 2008

Tool from the field: Appreciative Inquiry

Staff Changes

Reintegration of ex-guerillas and paramilitaries in Colombia

Reinforcing trade-unions

New Director MDF ESA

Training Brochure 2009