• Overview
• Learning for NGOs
• Influencing AusAID policy and programs
• Learning workshops

Overview

This section provides a summary of the key lessons that emanated from the program during its first year and the platforms that were created to encourage learning within the AACES partnership to inform long-term program design and delivery.

Learning for NGOs

Lonika Mvula proudly shows the yield at the demonstration plot in Dowa Village, Malawi. Demonstration plots were used to enhance farming practices in communities where CADECOM is implementing the AACES food security programme. Photo: Tsitsi Singizi/AACES Resource Facility

• Community engagement: The engagement and inclusion of marginalised groups in the design, planning and implementation of programs targeting them is vital. It enhances ownership and the likelihood of achieving the program's objectives, and ensures the sustainability of interventions beyond the life of the program. In the inception year, program partners put in place structures for community engagement and representation in program delivery.
• Representation: While most programs increased the representation of women or people with disabilities in community fora, partners noted that numbers do not necessarily translate to active participation and influence in decision making. It is therefore important to ensure that representation translates into participation. To optimise this, AACES partners continued to build the capacity of women and other groups to give them relevant skills to participate meaningfully in decision making in their lives, relationships and communities.
• Strengths-based approach: Most partners recognise that the strengths-based approach is important because it focuses on using community strengths and assets to address development challenges, rather than on needs and deficiencies. However strong leadership and community incentives are essential for driving the strengths-based approach and allowing communities to reach their full potential.
• Working with young people: Young people are an important group for development programs. They often comprise the majority of people in communities targeted by AACES projects, yet their interests and perspectives are often overlooked. Partners working in maternal and child health in particular highlight the need to prioritise young people in the delivery of services. Young people were also identified as being critical for motivating change at community level.
• Government and local authorities: Working with government and local authorities is important for influencing communities but such partnerships and collaboration require time, flexibility, tact and an understanding of existing political dynamics.
• Community Health Workers: Community Health Workers (CHWs) are pivotal in building community health systems that can be maintained on an on-going basis from local resources. It is critical that a systematic approach to mentoring, training and monitoring them is introduced. To respond to these lessons, AACES partners are meeting and sharing experiences with government on ways to improve the effectiveness of CHWs.

Influencing AusAID policy and programs

An important part of AACES involves utilising the experience and expertise of the AACES NGOs to strengthen AusAID policies and programs in Africa, particularly in their ability to target and provide sustainable services for marginalised people. It focuses on learning and communication in order to strengthen and benefit AusAID and NGO programs.

In the first year of AACES, the focus was on identifying themes or areas where AusAID and NGOs had a mutual interest in policy and/or programs. It is still very early, but there are already some good examples, such as a meeting between the AusAID Climate Change Scoping Mission team and NGOs in Kenya. This discussion influenced the selection of target beneficiaries for the AusAID funded program and provided advice on approaches to take in order to reach vulnerable people.

The objectives and principles of AACES have informed the development of several other civil society programs in AusAID, including: the Civil Society WASH program; the Australia Mekong–NGO Engagement Platform; the draft African Mining and Communities program; and a new civil society program for Afghanistan.

Learning workshops

Participants at the June 2012 AACES Reflection Workshop held in Nairobi, Kenya. Photo: Ernest Etti/AACES Resource Facility

The AACES Reflection Workshop

AACES includes an Annual Reflection Workshop to promote networking, learning and overall improvement during the life of the program. The first Annual Reflection Workshop brought together representatives from AusAID, Australian NGOs and in-Africa NGOs to reflect on progress in the first year of implementation and make recommendations on how to: reinforce partnerships, strengthen communication and sharing of knowledge between partners; ensure projects reach the most marginalised people; and to identify areas of mutual policy or programming interest for NGOs and AusAID. A key outcome from the Reflection Workshop was the formation of sector working groups which mapped strategies to address critical issues identified.

Disability Workshop

To enhance inclusive development, AACES partners prioritised learning around how to promote the inclusion of people with disabilities. A workshop on this theme was organised that successfully built a common understanding from the diverse experiences of participants in the area of disability. The workshop was informed by AusAID's 'Development for All Strategy: Towards a disability-inclusive Australian aid program' and facilitated by an inclusive development expert from World Vision Australia. Importantly the workshop provided participants with practical tools and approaches for incorporating the rights and needs of people with disabilities into the design and delivery of programs.