IRC’s Latin America Regional Programme and RAS-HON have been collaborating in building capacity for documentation of experiences and making these available in different information products, targeted at different audiences and shared through different channels and at different events.
Published on: 22/07/2011
Process Documentation is the systematic way to capture what happens in a process of change and how it happens, to reflect and analyse why it happens, using a theory of change, and to organise and disseminate the findings (Ton Schouten, 2007). In 2007, four members of the RAS-HON participated in the workshop on ‘Process documentation for learning alliances and action research’, which took place in Lodz, Poland, from 1 to 5 July 2007. With this experience in mind, RAS-HON was able to replicate such a process documentation workshop for the Honduran WASH sector in May 2008. With the objective to generate capacities within the WASH sector to document processes, participants learned about the theory and concepts of process documentation, and gained practical experience by documenting two WASH experiences:
The documenting exercise resulted in the production of videos, photo stories, articles and information notes. Examples of these outputs can found below.
Another process documentation workshop was organized in San Pedro Sula in August 2010. New in this workshop was the use of radio as a tool for documenting processes. This workshop was attended by members of the water and sanitation networks of El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala (RAS-ES, RAS-NIC, RAS-GUA). Again theory was put into practice by working on two cases, both located in the Department of Cortés:
The results of the workshop in San Pedro Sula have been documented in a blog, which can be accessed through: http://documentaciondeprocesos.wordpress.com/. This blog is in Spanish.
How RAS-HON makes process documentation and documentation practical
Outputs of the Process Documentation workshop in 2008
In May 2008, RAS-HON organized the first process documentation workshop for the Honduran WASH sector. Objective of the workshop was to generate capacities within the WASH sector to document processes. On the basis of two practical cases participants produced field notes, articles, videos and photo stories.
El Manantial: the living example of community participation and organisation in simplified sewage projects.
This field note describes how the community from El Manantial participated in the implementation of a sanitation project using the technology of simplified sewage system. It also describes how the water committee is involved in the operation and maintenance of the system and also presents the lessons learned. The field note is in Spanish and can be downloaded by following this link.
Improving water quality throughout community participation: the experience of the construction and operation of the water supply plan El Naranjal
This field note describes how the community of El Naranjal was involved in the construction and is involved in the operation and maintenance of its water system which is based on the multiple stage filtration technology. It describes how the project was implemented and what were the lessons learned. The field note is in Spanish and can be downloaded by following this link.