The Asian Project Management Support Programme (APMAS) CDD Report: Best Practices and Lessons Learned on Community Driven Development and Gender Mainstreaming from the APMAS training/workshops, Hanoi and Delhi, November/December 2010 (21 pages). The Asian Project Management Support Programme (APMAS) aims to enhance capacity of project managers in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and India to implement and effectively manage gender sensitive, pro-poor rural development interventions, through training, information access and innovation. Late 2010 MDF Indochina has implemented two 4-day training programmes in Vietnam and India on Community Driven Development (CDD) and Gender Mainstreaming, from which the below lessons were drawn. The report below is a only a summary of highlights, as APMAS documented the events in full through pictures, and also captured facts tools at its website.

1. APMAS CDD Report
Best Practices and Lessons Learned on
Community Driven Development and Gender Mainstreaming
from the APMAS training/workshops,
Hanoi and Delhi, November/December 2010
Contents
Background 2
Summary of lessons learned 2
Community Participation versus CDD 2
Women in Development versus Gender and Development 3
Intervention Logic and Responsibility 3
See-Do-Get – Self-fulfilling management attitudes 4
Why and Challenges of Community Meetings 4
Adult Learning Cycle 4
Stakkeholder Analysis 5
 MDF Indochina copyright 2011
Key issues and lessons concerning PRA tools 6
Methods used in WB Watsan film Nepal 7
Comparison of some tools 7
Working with Cards 9
Notes on Wealth Ranking 9
Options Prioritisation Matrix (OPM) 10
Lessons on Visual Aids 11
Monitoring (versus supervision) 11
Examples of indicators in community self-monitoring 11
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Monitoring the effectiveness of your project community facilitators 12
Annex A: Participants’ Evaluations 13
Annex B: Participants’ Recommendations 18
Annex C: Trainers’ Recommendations 20
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2. APMAS CDD Report
Background
The Asian Project Management Support Programme (APMAS) aims to enhance capacity
of project managers in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and India to implement and effectively
manage gender sensitive, pro-poor rural development interventions, through training,
information access and innovation. Late 2010 MDF Indochina has implemented two 4-day
training programmes in Vietnam and India on Community Driven Development (CDD) and
Gender Mainstreaming, from which the below lessons were drawn. The report below is a
only a summary of highlights, as APMAS documented the events in full through pictures,
and also captured facts tools at its website
http://apmasnetwork.org (particularly at the community driven development tab)
Further note that IFAD has published a kit with CDD decision tools which is available at
http://www.ifad.org/english/cdd/pub/decisiontools.pdf
Besides the summary of lessons, this report also contains:
• The participants’ evaluations of the two trainings (Annex A)
• The participants’ recommendations for further capacity development (Annex B)
• MDF’s recommendations regarding further capacity development efforts (Annex C)
Summary of lessons learned
Community Participation versus CDD
Project Manager  MDF Indochina copyright 2011
Project Community
Participation
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Supporting Community
Driven Development
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3. APMAS CDD Report
Women in Development versus Gender and Development
WID: A gender GAD: A gender
unit organises unit ensures
separate mainstreaming
activities for of gender by all
women units
$
Intervention Logic and Responsibility
 MDF Indochina copyright 2011
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4. APMAS CDD Report
See-Do-Get – Self-fulfilling management attitudes
Traditional Modern
See Lazy employee Self-motivated employee
Wish to control Wish to stimulate
Focus on activities Focus on results
Do Forcing Listen and suggest
Setting deadlines Help think through
Keep-in-the-box Encourage out-of-the-box
Check time &money Delegate and empower
Get Just meet standards Innovation
Sight Smile
Changes in Doing (Skills), yields small gains. Changes in Seeing (Paradigm) allows for
quantum leaps. Project managers and community facilitators have to able and motivated
to get the best out of the projects. Managers moreovver need genuine convincing and
excellent lsitening skills if they are to lead their staff to different convictions and behavior.
Why and Challenges of Community Meetings
Why have Community Meetings?
• Get agreement with communities
• Democracy
• Community Consultation
• Seeking experiences and ideas from communities
• Planning with communities, need assessment, fund using
• Voting for the households, who can be beneficiries of project. Priority
• Conflict settelement
• Problem Analysis
• Information Dissemination
• Implementing activities
• Raising awareness
Challenges of Community Meetings
• Not fully participatory, not all communities give inputs
• It is difficult to gather all people, levels of knowledge are different
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• Participatory is not as the same levels
• Women are often shy and quiet
• Incline to be a small group discussions
• Diffirent in languages, diffirent interlecture and cultures
• Illustration tools are poor and out of date
• Old people are often dominated
• Not understanding local languages and customs
• Difficult to get agreement of every people.
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5. APMAS CDD Report
Adult Learning Cycle
Kolb’s Adult Learning Cycle (ALC) is a simple yet powerful concept a faclitator or trainer
can always keep in mind in structuring efffective workshoops, meetings and trainings.
1.EXPERIENCING
Doing / Seeing something
Double people’s
awareness and
engagement
4.APPLYING 2.PROCESSING
Using the insights Reflecting / Analysing
Double the Double the depth of
impact by analysis: From
ensuring use symptoms to causes
3.GENERALISING
Abstracting from
experience to life
Stakeholder Analysis
This tool is to prevent that participation in participatory events is random, unbalanced and
unrepresentative.
1. Establish the objective of your stakeholder workshop/meeting
2. Identify ‘stakeholders’: All who have an interest (think broadly)
3. Categorise the stakeholders and decide whom to involve how (and how many
representatives to invite), considering the below matrix
Importance High Protect Work together
Empower
Involve
Importance Low Ignore Advocate and
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• Collaborate and/or
• Oppose
Influence Low Influence High
In which importance is judged from the point of view of the programme or project: Whether
this group is the target group (poor, disadvantaged, women), while influence stands for
power from the stakeholder to the others.
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Note that in the last box, stakeholders of low importance but high influence (often
commercial companies), development thinking has evolved. Whether in the past such
stakeholders were often looked at as a threat to be excommunicated, nowadays they are
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6. APMAS CDD Report
equally seen as an opportunity, specially if they are sensitive or can be convinced to
benefit from adopting Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Key issues and lessons concerning PRA tools
• Does this tool and your attitude encourage or undermine community leadership?
• On a very practical level: Consider alternatives to the situation in which the facilitator
stands and the community sits, looking up
• Is this tool really provide information needed by the community, or is it aimed to
extract data for the government/donor/NGO? What is the exact purpoose of using this
tool. Tailor the tool to that purpose, and skip it if not essential (e.g. Some projects
make 7-year plans. It is questionable whether communities need this)
• Go with ladies, if you want to meet with ladies (whether to meet separately or jointly
depends on the culture)
• Initial stage: Realise that you need several meetings to build rappport and trust
• Be patient and accept people as they are, also realising that you can learn from them
and their perspective
• Be aware of outsiders in the meeting, who may usefully or unduely influence
• Be prepared (with charts etc), so you can run ‘the show’ smoothly
• Check for balanced representation
• Attend to community conccerns (e.g. to get a loan), but do not commit what you (and
your project) cannot or do not want to commit
• Facilitate so that all speak – espacially the high importance, low influence groups
• Explain at the start why you are there, and why you propose to discuss what. Explain
what the project can and cannot offer
• Consider stickering (lettting people express their view through anonymous votes),
because this quickly gives all participants a voice, while in discussions often some
dominate
• Match your explanations to the vocabulary and way of thinking and communication of
the participants
• Do not blindly assume everything should be decided democratically, and that that willl
be better (G.B. Shaw: Democracy is a system that ensures that government is not
better than the people deserve)
• Always reflect on who can best and permanently perform a function. The project can
temporarily provide e.g. a market-price information service, but this fucntion should at
least at the project end (if not from the start) be performed by other actors
• If community priorities and proposals need project/government approval: Establish
 MDF Indochina copyright 2011
and communicate crystal clearly the criteria, so that no surprises take place
• Balance problem-oriented and opportunity-oriented thinking. Asking communities for
what they see as their most pressing problems, may lead to less innovative and
viable plans then identifying opportunities with them, because the former sticks to an
old mindset (which brough the community where they are)
• A concrete action plan has at least the dimensions What, Who (responsible) and
When. But one may also add: Who helps, What rerources, Who monitors (and when)
and Who evaluates (and when)
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7. APMAS CDD Report
Methods used in WB Watsan film Nepal
The following tools were recognised to be used in the Watsan project in Nepal (DVD):
• Filming (which can have a powerful self-reflection effect)
• Contract signing (community representative body, donor, support organisation in
social mobalisation – contracts with contractors are to be signed between community
representative body and contractors. Likewise the project does not interact with
individual households, once it endorses that there is a true representative body)
• Physical mapping
• Social mappping (question: Is this really needed, from the community perspective?)
• 4 Phase approach (which informs the community of the sequence of steps of the
project)
• Planning cards, helping communities visualise and agree the sequence and timing of
steps
• Estimating and discussing time extenditure on water collection and hygiene gains, as
a realistic motivator how much laboour may be saved through the project and other
benefits (this is a tool where objective expert assessment is useful, rather than
subjective community views only)
• Management game (board game, inspired by ‘Snakes and ladders’), to prepare for
management issues and possible frictions
• Money contribution (this can be a key tool, requiring them to get their act together
rather than ‘training’ them in it, which tends to make them pasive recipients)
• Public displays of accounts to all
• Informed design choices (and service levels, notably public or in-house conections),
with price tags, made by the community
• Pocket chart, to depict and reflect on current sanitation practices
Comparison of some tools
In general: Use tools for prioritising and decision-making; not just for describing the
situation. And take into account:
• Communitty majority insights and priority
• Objective situation and opportunities (as you know and assess them)
‘Lead the contents through the process’: Whenever you believe the view expressed by the
community is not yet balanced, facilitate until they consider the issues you felt lacking (you
can bring in the knowledge, but have to await their accceptance, or accept their rejection).
 MDF Indochina copyright 2011
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8. APMAS CDD Report
Comparison of some tools (continued)
Mapping Ven-diagram Pro-poor prioritising Paire-wise prioritising
What can it Express the develoment of See areas of common Transparent and Transparent and
do? community and project interest of upto three actors participatory prioritisation participatory prioritisation
between different options – between different options –
while doing justice to requiring agreement among
differing views participants
Before you It is useless to make maps Works best with three cicles First establish your focal Be clear whether the options
meet: (out of habit) if it is unrelated only group, then focus on their are all realistic. Else
Objective to decision-making needs/opportunities participants priopritise thin air
Before you Be aware of interest if you Decide on which sub-groups Consider giving votes per This assumes there is one
meet: Who to use it to plan and keep them unless group rather than individual community opinion (or you
involve genuienly convinced (so that women have more have to make people vote
otherwise vote, even if in minority) rather than agree)
Success factor Include (and agree) purpose Can use cards to assess the
at the start: of the exercise needs of each area
Overall
objective
Success factor Tell the purposes before
at the start: drawing – else it seems only
Specific entertainment
objective
Process pitfall Guidance should be short Cannot define exactly the Takes long time and may Community must to get
and crisp needs in areas in general therefore be hard to keep agreement on voting majority
(heterogeneous) groups participants meaningfully
awake and aware
Pitfall in the What is the mapping activity Some people think that the Theoretically high validity, Quicker but less meaningful
conclusion for? area of shared activity is by but if math are ill understood than pro-poor prioritising
default the most important transparency is lost
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9. APMAS CDD Report
Working with Cards
The comments on what are ‘Bad’and ‘Good’cards could be slightly different if this where in
a different context (e.g. solutions, brainstorming, or naming cluster, which are allowed to
be vague). The below notes apply to cards in a problem brainstorm.
Bad Card Good Card Reason (for Good and Bad)
ICIMOD has not been able to RMC’s not convinced of KISS (Keep It Short and Simple)
show that its work is relevant to
the poverty reduction agendas of ICIMOD’s relevance to and KILL (Keep It Large and
the RMCs, and that its work adds poverty reduction Legible)
value and impact to these
Political instability and Political instability One problem per card
increase in infectious Increase in infectious
diseases diseases
Communication Staff does not know the No balloons (be specific)
problems company strategy
Not enough trucks Most vegetables not Fight ‘absent solutions’
timely transported to
market
Bad politicians Rural poor mistrust Accept views as views
politicians
Politicians accepted . or find facts
1,000,000 $ in bribes
Not enough money Leaking roof destroys Fight ‘absent solutions’ (again,
stored produce because this happens so often)
Sme dev. org. sld lrn to Some development Those abbreviations! For info:
bcome PDQ organizations not quick PDQ = Pretty Damn Quick
enough
Steps in Conducting Wealth Ranking
1. Explain why and how you want to do this activity with the community
2. Set the critteria with the community (or beforehand). Preferably use objective criteria
such as:
a. Land size
b. Household status (...)
 MDF Indochina copyright 2011
c. Other property
d. Animals
e. Education
f. Health: E.g. underweight infants
3. Review the status of each household. For objectivve criteria: Establish the fact. For
subjective: Vote
4. Announce the outcomes and start your pro-poor targeting
Notes: Distinguish between nice to know and need to know information. Wonder who
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needs to know. If it is you rrather than the community, take care not to unddermine CDD.
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10. APMAS CDD Report
Options Prioritisation Matrix (OPM)
All too often decisions on what to do, and how to do it (e.g. whether to build a school or a
health unit, and on where to locate it) are determined by who speaks most, and who
pushes his/her view best from the start. Best decisions, that moreover unite and mobilise
maximum community support, however, separate the stages of identifying options, listing
criteria (why to prioritise which option), and then matching them.
• Brainstorm on options, not allowing ‘Yes, but’ and ‘No, because’ discussions at this
stage: Just list
• Brainstorm on criteria or reasons, again ensuring only listing
• Let all participants individually (or by group) ‘vote’ on the importance of the criteria
(giving important groups a higher weight than minor groups, even if they are
represented by an equal number of persons)
• Make a matrix and jointly assess (as this is more an objective fact than a subjective
value) to what degree the criterion is satisfied by the option (giving 3 for maximum
and 0 for not at all)
• Multiply importance of each criterion by the degree to which each option fulfills it
• Use the sum outcomes as input for final informed discussions and decision making –
Do not allow “mechanical decision making” (that is: Do not just look at the highest
outcome and ignore the rest. Take the outcome of the voting as the input for a good
final debate, which hopefully unites the people).
Options Between B&C In C Central+Bridge 3 Schools
Criteria or reasons
Importance
A B C=A*B D E=A*D F G=A*F H I=A*H
Harvest holiday 4 1 4 1 4 1 4 1 4
Girl safety 18 2 36 3 54 1 18 4 72
Conflict with village A 0 0 0 0
More kids in C 5 0 3 15 0 0
Not in village: kids would
leave 2 3 6 1 2 3 6 1 2
Free for girls 7 0 0 0 0
Construction cost 10 2 20 3 30 2 20 1 10
Other benefits 18 2 36 1 18 4 72 3 54
 MDF Indochina copyright 2011
102 123 120 142
Strength of OPM
• Can alllocate scarce resources optimally
• Enables to reach a wise and supported community decision, shaping the process
• Better way to come to concensus
• Facilitates to bring out in-depth issues, turning ‘Yes, but’ or ‘No, because’ fights into
‘OK, and’ mutual enrichment
• Completely participatory and transparent
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• Best example of ‘By the the people, of the people and for the people’
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11. APMAS CDD Report
Limitations and challlenges of OPM
• Complicated for villagers to completely understand (needs excellent facilitation lest
the majority will disengage mentally). If ill understood, ‘Garbage in, garbage out’
applies. If stickering is done, correct understanding should first be tested (e.g. ask a
participant to explain what a sticker in a certain field would signify)
• Requires facilitator skills to help identify the best options and criteria – not just what
surfaces immediately
• Time consuming and therefore difficult to apply in a llarger forum, where atttention will
drift
• If participants are not a balanced representation, the voting also is not (unless you
give corrective weights to different groups)
Suggestions on Visual Aids
• ‘Less is more’ – leave out distracting details. E.g. in LogFrame generallly do not
display OVI’s and MoV
• Be clear on your main message and target group bbefore design
• Pretest before publishing and accept the feedback without response and defense:
You can’t explain the poster, film or other means once it is ‘out there’
• Use local language and symbols
• Text should moostly just confirm what the picture already conveys
Monitoring (versus supervision)
• Project and process-oriented (as opposed to control and people oriented, pinpointing
individual mistakes)
• Mostly in-house; mostly self-monitoring (rather than by superior and higher level)
• Learning and improvement oriented (at it least it should be!)
• Is about imporving more than proving (although transparency to donors is also a
function)
Examples of indicators in community self-monitoring
• Construction can be seen
• Committee can discuss invisible aspects
• Keep record of labour and display publicly
 MDF Indochina copyright 2011
• Disaggregate men and women in construction and benefit projections
• Income indicator: Festival dress
• Preference for single (non composite) objective indicators: Possibly dirty, but
undisputable
• Decrease in money lenders coming to the village
• Child drop-out rate
• Infant underweight percentage
• Repliccation of demo’s
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12. APMAS CDD Report
Monitoring the effectiveness of your project community facilitators
• Increase IGA loans
• Impact in the village: Adaptation of technologies
• Record keeping and bank account management
• Friendly relationship wiith alll households
• High participation, even from non-ttarget groups
• Moore demand from village (for training and facilitation, rather than funding)
• Communities discuss social issues
• Communities question and discuss fund management and their banking
• Communities start social audit
• People are clear about the project objectives, possibilities and limitations
• How communities discuss priorotisation issues in groups – whether all voicces are
heard and respected
• Selling processed produce collectively
• Note: The above is all based on field visits, looking at impact. Office discussions with
your staff on bottlenecks and developments, can also give you information, and you
can contribute to learning on effectiveness of your staff
 MDF Indochina copyright 2011
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13. APMAS CDD Report
Annex A: Participants’ Evaluations
Title Managing Community-Driven Development Process
Date 30 Nov - 3 Dec 2010
Duration 4 days
Venue Fortuna Hotel, Ha Noi
Coverage Sub-Regional
Service MDF Indochina
Provider
Trainer(s) Diederik Prakke + Tran Thi Le Tho
Course Evaluation
Participants Total
No Aspects Average
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Score
1 Achievement of training course objectives 4 4 3 4 3 3 4 25 3.57
2 Effectiveness of course delivery methodology 4 4 4 4 3 4 4 27 3.86
3 Facilitation skills for adult group 4 4 4 4 4 3 4 27 3.86
4 Quality of training course materials 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 25 3.57
5 Trainer’s Knowledge of development project management 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 28 4.00
6 Relevance of case studies/examples used to development context 4 4 4 4 3 3 4 26 3.71
7 Applicability to my work 4 4 4 4 3 3 4 26 3.71
8 Overall outcome of the training course 4 4 4 4 4 3 4 27 3.86
9 Duration of the training course 4 4 4 4 4 3 4 27 3.86
10 Training facilities (classroom, equipments) 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 28 4.00
11 Administrative and Logistics Arrangement 4 4 4 4 4 3 4 27 3.86
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14. APMAS CDD Report
12 Trainer: Mr. Diederik Prakke 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 28 4.00
13 Trainer: Ms. Tran Thi Le Tho 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 26 3.71
Daily Evaluation (SMILEY)
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3
No Aspects
☺ ☺ ☺
1 Facilitation 0 1 7 0 0 7 0 0 7
2 Training Material 0 1 7 0 1 6 0 2 5
3 Time Management 0 6 2 0 0 7 0 0 7
4 Group Dynamics 0 2 6 0 0 7 0 0 7
5 Logistics 0 0 8 0 5 2 0 0 7
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15. APMAS CDD Report
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16. APMAS CDD Report
Title Supporting Community-Driven Development Process
Date 7 - 10 December 2010
Duration 4 days
Venue Icon Towers, New Delhi, India
Coverage Sub Region India
Service MDF
Provider
Trainer(s) Diederik Prakke & Sathasivam Thilakan
Course Evaluation
Participants Total
No Aspects Average
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Score
1 Achievement of training course objectives 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 67 3.94
2 Effectiveness of course delivery methodology 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 4 4 66 3.88
3 Facilitation skills for adult group 4 4 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 62 3.88
4 Quality of training course materials 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 66 3.88
5 Trainer’s Knowledge of development project management 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 4 4 67 3.94
6 Relevance of case studies/examples used to development context 4 4 4 3 3 4 3 4 4 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 64 3.76
7 Applicability to my work 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 65 3.82
8 Overall outcome of the training course 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 67 3.94
9 Duration of the training course 3 3 4 3 3 4 4 3 4 3 3 4 4 4 3 3 3 58 3.41
10 Training facilities (classroom, equipments) 3 4 3 3 3 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 3 56 3.29
11 Administrative and Logistics Arrangement 2 4 3 3 4 4 3 3 3 4 3 3 3 4 3 3 52 3.25
12 Trainer: Mr. Diederik Prakke 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 68 4.00
13 Trainer: Mr. Sathasivam Thilakan 4 4 3 3 3 4 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 62 3.65
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Daily Evaluation (SMILEY)
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3
No Aspects
☺ ☺ ☺
1 Facilitation 0 0 17 0 0 17 0 2 15
2 Training Material 0 1 16 0 0 17 0 2 15
3 Time Management 0 0 17 0 0 17 0 9 8
4 Group Dynamics 0 7 10 0 0 17 0 2 15
5 Logistics 0 1 16 0 1 16 0 5 12
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18. APMAS CDD Report
Annex B: Participants’ Recommendations
Note: The brainstorm on further development needs was requested by APMAS/AIT. From
MDF side a note of caution is that this is more of a wish-list, and often more-of-the-same,
than a list of strategic and farsighted priorities. Nevertheless it may be useful for
inspiration and to be informed of the current interest – if APMAS/IFAD wish to set more
visionary priorities, they will have to ensure buy-in.
Vietnam
For Project Managers
Training
• Management skills
• Communications skills with community at the grassroot level, meeting organization
skills
• Work delegation for senior managers
• Leadership skills
• Llistening skills
• Result-based management
• Management skills for implementing activities in the field
For Community Facilitators/ Project Staff/Government and NGO counterparts
Training
• Community motivation
• Observation skills
• Skill development in working with the community
• Skill to use PRA tools
• Planning skills
• Organize meeting skills
• Training on M and E
• Community-driven development process training (as done in 2010)
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Workshop
• Experience sharing
• Availability of documents on M and E (local language)
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19. India
APMAS CDD Report
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20. APMAS CDD Report
Annex C: Trainers’ Recommendations
Background and Objectives
• APMAS aims to make an optimal Capacity Development (CD) contribution to IFAD
project staff and partners
• APMAS aims to balance working with CD providers on a case-to-case basis (best-
value-for-money) and a basis of long-term collaboration (trusted partners, who
understand the projects well)
• APMAS combines a vision-oriented (vision of IFAD) and demand-driven (of Project
Managers) approach to CD, which implies that CD is only implemented if there is
genuine buy-in from the projects. APMAS and IFAD may therefore take an
advocacy approach in promoting CD interventions that they assess as having the
best potential to boost development results, but which are not directly requested
Approach and Procedure
In order to match CD demand (by projects) and learning needs (as perceived by
APMAS/IFAD) MDF recommends the following procedure (Note that we have not received
the Professional Development Needs Assessment report at the time of drafting the below
ideas):
• APMAS develops a package of say 10 training modules of 2-days each, and each
described in a one-pagers (listing learning objectives and course contents) which
is distributed (in a brochure or web-page) to projects and partners. Besides these
standard modules, the brochure (web-page) also lists options of tailor made
training, mentoring and experience sharing
• The projects request any of the above services for themselves or their partners,
against a standard rate (e.g. 10$/pppd for national trainers/facilitators/mentors and
20$/pppd for international trainers/facilitators/mentors, besides travel and lodging)
• Projects submit their requests to APMAS, though APMAS/IFAD may try to
influence the demand through advocacy
• APMAS logiscally matches demands and decides about the order and location of
events (seeing which projects jointly have the critical mass for a certain event).
The projects pay upfront, and the money may be used to pay the provider, or as a
revolving fund for further CD
Contents of the Packages
Based on discussions with APMAS, IFAD, participants and own observations, MDF
recommends the following standard training modules
• Value Chains and Public and Private Partnerships. Part of the challenge here is to
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connect farmers to markets, seeing the private sector as a powerful partner in
development, though negotiations are required to ensure fair trade. The other part
of the challenge is to engage state and non-state actors beyond the project, so
that the linkage and market information services will continue to flourish after
project intervention
• Effective Mindset and Behavior for Empowerment and Awareness-raising.
Inadvertedly assistance to community risks to undermine rather than strengthen
community management. Where people were self-reliant in the past, ill-designed
project support makes them dependent. In the area of awareness-raising, an
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ineffective mindset will try to make communities accept solutions, without
convincing them of the symptoms, problems and options first.
• Facilitating Community Driven Development. Facilitating CDD not only requires a
good command of some basic community facilitation techniques, but especially the
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21. APMAS CDD Report
skills and insight of how to offer them in ways that strengtehen community
understanding and decision-making, rather than information extrtaction for
decision-making in the offices of burocrats
• Knowledge sharing methodologies, as already taken up by the FAO/IFAD project
and the IFAD India office
• Leadership and management skills
• Result-based planning and monitoring, using MS Project
• Introductory course to IFAD and its interventions, for new staffs, obviously
including gender
• Procedures and financial management of IFAD projects. This module may best be
conducted by local service providers, but MDF wishes to flag that it has extensive
expertise in making fun and efffective training packages on such rather dry issues
Mentoring modules could be:
• Personal coaching (4 persons per day)
• Assistance to training module development and mentoring (through a reflection
day after joint training implementation) of local training providers
Recomendations concerning the CCD/Gender training module
• We agree with the APMAS recommendation to integrate gender more throughout,
rather than only in some exercises duriung the first two days
• We also agree with the APMAS recommendation to refer more to the extensive
training file given to the participants during the training, so that they know more
what they have and where to find it
• Translation of this training material into Lao. Khmer and Vietnamese may be
considered
• As in many trainings, some participants asked for more background information,
whereas experiences shows that the more material is provided, the smaller the
percentage that is being studied. In this context participants from India seemed
more genuinely eager to read more, whereas their English was also good.
Therefore, in future courses in India, more background materials may be provided,
whereas in the other countries this may not be advisable
• Repeat this module for Laos and/or Cambodia
• If the above iis done, invite Vietamese partners who missed out, but then require
good English language proficiency from the Vietnamese
• Through timely invitation and “massaging” that this information is communicated
through, future trainings may be more fully participated in. In this message, female
participation in the events may be specially encouraged
• The groups were fairly heterogeneous in level, which posed a challenge but also
 MDF Indochina copyright 2011
opportunities (in terms of facilitating communication between them – which is key
to management effectiveness). Even so, if in future more heterogeneous groups
can be constituted, this may be an advantage
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