Towards sector learning – finding the right scale of systemic change

Published on: 09/09/2011

The WASH sector in Burkina Faso is going through exciting change! And a collective blog such as Fas’Eau Nouvelles is a testimony of the vibrant buzz happening across the country. Yet change should always be assessed against its baseline, against the previous milestone or generally on a scale that is understood by all. The baseline and the scale is precisely the crux of a study that the WASH Resource Centre Network of Burkina Faso and IRC have undertaken from March to May 2011. The study relates to sector learning in Burkina Faso and takes stock of actual practices around information management and knowledge sharing in the WASH sector in Burkina Faso.

This study has led to a report that will come out in the coming weeks. It will also be published in an abridged version as an article in the Knowledge Management for Development Journal (for its first ever Francophone issue). This study is extremely interesting for various reasons:

• It is the first time that an actual study is carried out in the WASH sector in Burkina about the information and knowledge practices, as opposed to e.g. information needs, existing supply of information etc.
• It combines the cross perspectives of leading, influential actors in the top agencies of the sector and those of communication and documentation experts in those organisations.
• It is likely to form the basis of the strategy for both the resource centre network in Burkina Faso and for IRC’s learning and sharing operations in the country.

But perhaps most interesting of all is what it reveals about the scale of learning in the sector and the kind of activities that seem to best suit that scale. Without unravelling the study too much, it clearly indicates that information management and knowledge sharing are not strongly rooted in the Burkina WASH sector – let alone sector learning. So what is the relevant scale of learning and focus when there are significant challenges at individual, organisational and inter-institutional level?

• What can be done to make people get over their fear of sharing what they write (when they write) for not complying with quality standards?
• Is there a quicker way for organisations to set up effective meetings and to systematically document what work they are carrying out – and HOW?
• How do organisations wish to go beyond talk-shops to real workshops and sustained coordination of thinking and action?
• And how do all the above relate to one another and lead to systemic change?

These are but a few of the questions that the study report is tackling. Interestingly, while some basic structures are not in place yet in the WASH sector in Burkina Faso, complex coordination processes such as the annual joint sector review and its related working groups are in full swing and endorsed by most actors. Is this a doomed illusion that will break against the inertia of ill motivation, limited capacity and competency? Or on the contrary, is this a viable enterprise that might shake sector actors and push them to shed their natural habit of doing ‘business as usual’ and to radiate on their personal and organisational behaviour? Again, what is the correct systemic scale? At any rate, the thrust is there and the study report validation workshop – which will invite all interviewees to reflect about possible ways forward – will tell whether WASH sector learning in Burkina Faso is indeed a castle of sand or a little wooden hut that keeps growing high and strong.

(By Ewen LeBorgne)