Reaching remote communities in Myanmar: building a network for the British Council
The context and the challenge
The British Council relies on partner organisations to bring English education to communities that its own offices cannot easily reach: rural areas, marginalised groups and remote regions. Building a functioning network, however, requires more than a list of partners. It requires a shared vision, agreed structures and a plan for working together.
Covid-19 limited in-person work, which meant the entire process of developing the network had to happen online. Against that constraint, the task was to help the British Council and its network members build the foundations they would need to work together effectively.
The approach and results
MDF facilitated a participatory process to develop the network from the ground up. Workshops gave members the chance to get to know each other, build a shared understanding of their purpose and agree on a mission, vision and set of values. Consultations fed into a theory of change for the network, grounding the strategy in what members believed would actually make a difference.
The process was designed to do two things at once: produce the planning documents the network needed, and build the relationships and shared ownership that would make those documents meaningful.
By the end of the process, the Myanmar Outreach Network had a strategic plan built on its theory of change, a monitoring framework to track progress, an agreed governance structure, a capacity development plan and a financial sustainability plan.
