When (not) in Rome…

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

Since its formation in 2018, the Multi Donor Learning Partnership has met in person twice-yearly, hosted by one or more of the member organisations.  These face-to-face events gave the group an opportunity to meet local staff, providing them with the opportunity to showcase their work and provide us with an in-depth understanding of each agency’s priorities.  They also social opportunities to cement the relationships between MDLP members, and welcome in new organisations.  

April 2020 was to be IFAD’s opportunity to host the MDLP in their head office in Rome - but with the rising impact of the Covid-19 pandemic  a decision was taken to postpone the IFAD-based meeting.

Piers and Chris reshaped the agenda around two half-day virtual events, using a combination of Zoom, Mural, regular breaks and an optional virtual happy hour.

The two days were laid out as a roadmap navigated by  the MDLP VW (virtual working!) campervan.

Outcomes and Outputs.

The group focused their activities on a series of organisational updates, which naturally included Covid-19 responses.  Each organisation shared their priorities and needs, enabling other members to make offers, and to surface shared needs for future collaboration.

One such collaboration is the creation of a  publicly available ‘Case Compendium’ – a curated collection of examples stories and cases which celebrate the impact of KM and OL in each organisation.  The group discussed potential content in smaller groups  and started the work to consolidate these examples around themes.  A Task Team has been initiated to take this work forward.  Watch this space!

During the second half-day, the group discussed priorities for continuing the series of ‘Peer Assists’ and webinars and discussed how the MDLP would measure the impact of its work as the 2-year anniversary approaches..

Finally, a plan was developed, and group members committed themselves to put this into action through further task teams over the Summer months.

Reflection.

Whilst there is no substitute for true face-to-face events, the  feedback from the MDLP members was overwhelmingly positive:

“This group is so important to all of us, as a place where we can talk with peers about issues we're all grappling with: knowledge retention, the role of KM in responding to Covid-19, cultivating leadership support for KM, and demonstrating KM's contribution to positive changes are just some of the issues we discussed in this meeting. And those issues lie at the center of our day-to-day work.

In our context of now working virtually, we got to try out some virtual facilitation techniques throughout the meeting that we can apply in our own workplaces, thanks to our expert facilitators.”
Stacey Young, USAID.

We look forward to the next event – whether virtual or face-to-face, with heightened expectations….