Dear Readers
Southern Hemisphere has been involved in wide variety of projects, ranging from open source software, to gender advocacy to peer education, to mention only a few. This has been a challenging, but rewarding experience as it has added to the diversity of our skills and knowledge base. We have established a strong core team, with well established consultancy base whom we draw expertise and learn from. For us, this has contributed immensely to the establishment of a learning organisation, which we can now take forward to the organisations that we work with.
In this newsletter, we give you an overview of the projects we have been involved in, and also provide you with an interesting topic about Structural Violence and Formal Education, taken from our intern, Hannah Muthoni's, dissertation. In our Organisational Development section, we will provide you with some useful tips to conducting Performance Appraisals.
Enjoy!
1) PROJECT WORK
Open Course in Project Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation
There is a growing awareness of the importance of the P, M&E in government and organisations involved in development projects and programmes, which has led to increased demand on training in this course. Last year, we held a very successful P, M and E course in Pretoria, and due to the interest attracted, we are now hosting another public course from the 8th to the 12th of May 2006 in Cape Town!
The aim of this course is to equip development practitioners with the knowledge and practical skills to be able to conduct their own planning, monitoring, evaluation and reporting, or to be able to guide project partners or external evaluators in doing so. The course is meant to draw participants from various organisations, including government, corporate companies, development workers, NGO’s and anyone who has an interest in this course.
Things course will enable you to:
* Understand and use the Logical Framework Approach (LFA) when planning
* Understand key M&E concepts
* Gain/broaden your knowledge of data collection & data analysis techniques
* Identify and develop 'SMART' objectives
* Identify and develop Indicators
* Construct evaluation reports
* A framework for planning, monitoring, evaluating and reporting on a
project you are involved in
The previous course was attended by organisations ranging from NGO's, donors, government departments, and academic institutions, some of which included the Department of Social Development, Health and Social Development,Parliament, CIVICUS, EU delegation to Malawi, DBSA, and the National Peace Accord Trust.
If you are interested in attending the course, please email us at info@southernhemisphere.co.za or see our training page for details. Because of the high demand for this course, we suggest you do this as soon as possible to secure your place.
In house training courses
As you know, Southern Hemisphere also conducts tailor made in-house P, M and E training to equip organisations in setting up their own plans, and monitoring and evaluation frameworks.
PASASA (Paraffin Safety Association of Southern Africa) – PASASA focuses on establishing safety measures for the widely used energy and paraffin resources. Training in P, M&E was conducted to assist projects undertaken by the PASASA to plan, monitor and evaluate in a way that will increase their effectiveness and impact on the target market, as well as improve the chances of their sustainability. Dena Lomofsky conducted this in February 2006 at PASASA.
Department of Finance and Economic Affairs (Mpumalanga) – Andries Mangokwana, our Junior Partner, and Tamarie Magaisa–Musangeya, our Consultant, will be conducting a 2-day crash course in P, M & E in early April. The aim of this course is to provide a broad and common understanding of key concepts in P, M and E, such as objectives, indicators, means of verification, etc., with specific reference to the LFA. The training will take place in Mpumalanga and we wish Andries and Tamarie well!
Monitoring & Evaluation projects
Gender Advocacy Programme (DanChurchAid) - Southern Hemisphere (contracted by DanChurchAid), with Nana Davies as project leader, has just completed an evaluation into the effectiveness, relevance, sustainibility and impact, as well as an organisational assessment of the Gender Advocacy Programme (GAP).
The programme has had an amazing impact in the Saldahnah and Atlantis regions, and Southern Hemisphere is proud to be associated with the work that GAP has done. After an extensive evaluation, a five-day project planning workshop was held to determine and plan a way forward for the various GAP projects, namely Women and Media, Domestic Violence, Women and Governance, Women and Local Government and Social Policy projects. We have really enjoyed working on this project, especially in the field where we could see the impact that GAP has had on changing the lives of women! Well done to the GAP team!
The Shuttleworth Foundation (TSF) – We have concurrently been doing two evaluations into the use of Open Source Software for the Shuttleworth Foundation. One has been in higher education institutions (HEI’s) where we explored the extent to which open source software (OSS) usage has accelerated among tertiary students. The Shuttleworth Foundation funded five HEI’s to set up a lab running purely on OSS, with the aim to increase access to and usage thereof. The results of the evaluation were quite positive, reflecting that the Shuttleworth Foundation has had a fairly good impact in creating access to and awareness and usage of OSS in the various institutions. Nana Davies was the project leader for this evaluation.
The other evaluation was of the Shuttleworth Foundation’s TuXlabs project, which is being implemented in 163 primary and high schools. The aim of the TuXlabs project is to showcase the ability of open source software and the TuXlab model to be a replicable and innovative ICT solution as well as a viable vehicle for curriculum delivery. This evaluation is being led by Dena Lomofsky, and is now in the analysis and report writing stage. Interviews were conducted with a wide range of stakeholders involved in the project (106 semi structured qualitative interviews), and students at 15 of the schools involved in the project (420 structured questionnaires).
Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning – Because of her extensive experience in M&E, Dena Lomofsky has been contracted by
Ninham Shand to produce a Biodiversity Monitoring System (BMS) to monitor the efficiency and effectiveness of the management of biodiversity by the Western Cape Nature Conservation Board (CapeNature).
Life Choices (PEPFER) - Life Choices is a programme of the Salesian Society, with a specific focus on teaching youth how to reduce the risk of contracting HIV, with the aim to change behaviour. With the aim of improving the long–term sustainability of the Life Choices programme, Dena Lomosky facilitated the setting up of a proper project plan, and effective monitoring and evaluation system. This will enable the Life Choices team to learn from the implementation of the project and improve continuously.
2)DISCUSSION GROUP
Evaluating behaviour change
How do you measure behaviour change? Many of our clients and colleagues are working in the field of behaviour change and have important lessons to share with each other regarding the monitoring and evaluation of behavior change. Thus together with the HIV and AIDS Unit at UCT, we initiated a reference group on evaluating behavior change. We have met 3 times with about five participating organizations, ranging from NGOs to consultancies, and we have all gained from the frank exchange of ideas and experiences. We are looking at behaviour change broadly in terms of health behaviour (e.g. HIV and AIDS), social behaviour (e.g. diversion programmes) and economic behaviour (e.g. workplace preparation). The focus will be on youth as the target / beneficiary group. The purpose of the reference group will be to share programme theories, programme design, objectives and indicators, tools and methodologies, and analysis techniques.
We will be meeting quarterly and are currently preparing a concept document, invitation and schedule of meetings. Should you be in the Western Cape and interested in attending, please contact Dena@southernhemisphere.co.za for more information.
3) SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Hannah Muthoni joined Southern Hemisphere in September last year as an intern. Hannah is from Kenya, and is finishing her MA in Peace and Development Studies though the Universitat Jaume I, in Spain. Her thesis is about education and underdevelopment in Kenya (her home country) between 1980 and 2000. Because of her interest and experience in education and underdevelopment, Hannah is now staying with Southern Hemisphere as Projects Officer where she will be involved in research work relevant to her field of speciality.
Southern Hemisphere has also given a Grade 11 scholar, Aasheeq Ismail, from Fairmount High School, an opportunity to gain some work experience. Aasheeq is doing a pre-learnership with the Services Seta and intends to study Engineering (majoring in Hydraulics and Pneumatics) through the SA Navy when he finishes school. Good luck Aasheeq!!!
4)TALKING ABOUT DEVELOPMENT
This is the latest addition to our newsletter where we will take the opportunity to share with you interesting topics that we have come across or conducted research on. In this edition, we cover an interesting topic that Hannah has written about in her thesis, 1980-2000: Education and Underdevelopment in Kenya. Hannah writes about how formal education, and other institutional structures can create some kind of structural forms of violence, through the inequality which it breeds. Read more....
Formal Education and Structural Violence in Kenya.
Structural violence refers to those conditions in which human beings are unable to realise their full potential (Mwagiru, 2000). In situations characterised by structural violence, there is no actor who commits direct violence to another. Indeed, structural violence is all about structures that generate or cause conflict in society. These structures are economic, psychological, social, religious and legal while in effect they create inequalities in various sectors such as health, education, income, employment and such a like (Mwagiru, 2000: 32). The essence of these structures in relation to structure violence is that it emerges from relationships within the society between the various groups. In the course of these relationships the structures creates disequilibrium and inequalities and thus generate structural violence.
Economic structures for instance can result to being instruments of creating inequalities footed on how this sector is managed. This structure comprises of such aspects as marketing of systems of cash crops, minimum wages, work conditions, recruitment patterns, and job variations among others. The modern economic systems in Kenya has its basis in the colonial capitalist mechanisms that introduced assorted types of commerce using agricultural and other types of products (Odhiambo, 2001). This economic system alienated land, which was the main source of livelihood for Kenya communities in favour of the settlers. It also confined farming for Africans to growing cash crops rather than food crops therefore generating peasantry culture, which according to Kenyan author E. S. Atieno Odhiambo were synonymous with poverty (Odhiambo, 2001: 5).
The inability to access land and benefits from farming during colonial and after independence eras represent the challenge resulting from unequal distribution of resources. In line with social peace, the impact of the inequalities was that although people did farm, agriculture failed to meet their expectations for a better life, resulting to frustrations and development failure, which is a cause of conflict.
Another feature of Kenya’s economy is founded in the education sector where the development of skills and knowledge has been the core drive. Kenyan leaders mainly the political elites and those who had acquired western education by the time of independence felt that the backwardness of the country was due to inadequate education, particularly in the higher levels of education. They therefore regarded education as a necessary weapon for uplifting the poor and unequal conditions generated by educational and economic inequalities of the colonial days (Mazrui, 1978). The focus was therefore to expand the education sector rather than deal with the unequal access created by the colonial system, which favoured a certain class of people and regions.
The result of investment in education was growth of enrolment in the elementary level, which did not however, find equal capacity in the secondary and higher levels of education. And although as discussed earlier the secondary and higher institution of learning increased in number the capacity available could not accommodate all those who wanted to join these institutions. Public secondary schools especially the best performing schools, which had been started by missionaries and colonial government for the settler farmers’ children, could not provide enough vacancies for the Kenyan children. These schools had limited opportunities tamed for a certain number of pupils. The failure to expand admission opportunities in this school created a system where only a few pupils most of whom belonged to the elite class could join. Alternatively Kivuva (2001) notes that overall where expansion was implemented it was not backed with economic growth. As a result those who dropped out from school were left out without training while graduates were gradually drowned into unemployment web.
Sifuna (1980) reasons that by enhancing the survival of those who are successful in the economic structure education appears to have been manipulated and designed for this purpose. One can consider national examination system, which tends to measure; certain aspects that largely favour children’s socio-economic background (Sifuna, 1980: 134). For instance, in primary schools, children with a good command of English tend to perform better than those who learn English as a language of instruction. For the former, English is the language of instruction and the language of playing field, while for the latter English is used as a language of instruction. As a result children learn bad English and this affects their performance in the national examination.
Stratifying education linguistically by using African languages partly in primary schools and English in secondary school though sometimes dictated by practical necessities tends to produce social cleavage (Mazonde, undated). This is because in any case the linguistic demands of secondary school although anticipated by many primary school few pupils are prepared to be handicapped in their opportunities of secondary education by linguistic deficiencies. Linguistic disparities continue as pupils are assumed to ‘learn’ English in primary classes and ‘use’ English in secondary school. The issue of language of instruction draws in the question of culture and human rights.
Knowledge in school is organised in a way that ensure only those with the requisite cultural capital or dominant habitual will succeed (Sifuna, 1980). Considering the emphasis given to the modern knowledge in the development process, students seek to absorb the dominant system of knowledge founded in formal education. This according to Ntarangwi (2003) construct imaginary picture of prosperity that are shaped in foreign lifestyle.
Education that encourages or otherwise students in Kenya aspire to a better life than what their communities may be able to offer them. On the other hand those who have not achieved education are considered as failures. Surprisingly, when most of those even with formal education do not benefit from the educational expectations it becomes difficult for them to fit in the very society.
This itself illustrate the psychological disequilibrium resulting from acquisition of modern knowledge. It also divides the society with regard to those who have absorbed modern education and those not do complete the education ladder. In a nutshell through its most crucial function of knowledge perpetuation schools perform their most important social goal of maintaining stratification (Sifuna, 1980).
Please email Hannah, hannah@southernhemisphere.co.za, if you would like to comment or request more information on this topic.
Also send your suggestions on what you would like us to write about in the future to info@southernhemisphere.co.za, with "Website update" in the subject space.
5) ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Performance appraisals seem to have connotations of a threatening nature to many employees. However, if performance appraisals are executed in an effective manner, it can be an enriching experience. We thought that we would share some of our methods and tips with other organisations, to assist them in conducting appraisals that facilitate learning and growth.
When preparing for performance appraisals, it is good to create an environment where the process is seen as:
· An opportunity to give and receive feedback in a constructive manner
· A good way of reflecting on personal achievements and future goals
· An opportunity to understand how one operates in the working environment
· Understanding personal and organisational strengths and weaknesses
To achieve the this, consider the following tips when conducting performance appraisals:
· Create a safe and respectful environment for employees to give and receive feedback (this could be done by determining and agreeing to a set of “ground rules” that govern the process)
· Allow appraisees to reflect on and rate personal performance before the appraisal session (encourage positive and negative reflection and gaps for improvement)
· Encourage employer-employee feedback as well as feedback between team members, especially where team work is key to productivity
· Allow appraisees to jointly discuss organisational strengths and weaknesses, which hinder them from achieving their goals, and make suggestions for improvement
· Collate all feedback received and allow appraisees to suggest their own way forward based on this feedback. This will facilitate more ownership of the development process and could then be used to feed into their Individual Development Plans or Performance Standards.
Appraisals can form the basis for learning and growth in an organisation, and therefore should be used as a platform to discuss issues, both positive and negative, which could otherwise be awkward to discuss. It is therefore worth it to take the time to design a process, which will value the opinions of all involved, and more so allow each person to walk away with direction, for themselves and their role in the organisation!
Please send any comments or questions about this topic to Wilma, wilma@southernhemisphere.co.za.
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