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Published on: 22/07/2011

Building capacity for process documentation

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:

  1. One group documented the experience of the construction of the water supply plant El Naranjal
  2. Another group documented the experience of the construction of a sewage system in El Manantial, a neighbourhood in Tegucigalpa.

The documenting exercise resulted in the production of videos, photo stories, articles and information notes. Examples of these outputs can found below.

Process Documentation
 

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:

  • A healthy home and school (Escuela y Casa Saludable), which is a project carried out in the municipality of San Pedro Sula, and
  • The integrated project on water and sanitation (Proyecto Integral de Agua y Saneamiento) in the San Juan neighbourhood of San Antonio, Cortés; implemented by Water for People (WFP) Honduras.

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

  • Currently RAS-HON is working on different products that capture and describe the story of the development of its resource centre CHRECIAS and the dynamics of working in thematic groups. These products will help to reflect on issues that occurred throughout the process and will serve as guidance for future direction and activities. The products are also intended to serve as inspiration to others who are interested in resource centre development in the WASH sector.
  • Both RAS-HON’s transparency thematic group and the water quality thematic group have gone through processes of action research. The transparency group did research on good practices with transparency and accountability between the Water Committees and water users in the departments of Olancho, El Paraiso and Francisco Morazan and on the basis of this developed information products and a methodology. The water quality thematic group developed a guide on water safety planning, an important element in the process was the validation of the guide by the 'TOMs', technicians in operation and maintenance in Honduras and the training of staff from various organisations in the use of this guide. Currently both groups are working on documents describing the processes they have gone through, distilling lessons learned which can be of inspiration to the other thematic groups of the resource centre, but can also help those who want to start up similar processes in other countries. The process documentation products of both groups are likely to be published in the second half of 2011.

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.

 

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