Three Learning Events across three continents . in three weeks

At first the thought of getting on planes and traveling from Guatemala…to Indonesia and then onwards to Ethiopia in a period of three weeks to attend ECB’s three Field-based Project Leaning events was ….well …how to say this nicely…not very appealing? Nothing against the learning events of course …those I wanted to go to … it was the flights ….some of these starting at 3am in the morning and transiting through busy airports only to spend another 10 or 12 hours on a second or three flight.

But the more I thought about what I would see, learn and who I could meet up with, the more excited I became about going and ... so I booked my ticket and off I went.

The good news to report is that all three events were great fun and well done. Here below is a brief synopsis of each of the three learning events from my perspective.

Guatemala ECB Learning Event (April 12 – 14^th)

Guatemala was the largest and most elaborate of the three events with some 120 attendees, and taking place over a three day period. The Event included a large number of project participants who came all the way from the pilot project village areas to attend. Also attending were representatives from the national government … from the national body responsible for disaster response, mitigation and preparedness – CONRAD, staff from international and local NGOs, IWG members and a few folk from HQ’s and ECB staff; besides myself, Warner Passanisi, Julia Devin and Paul Currion were all there and all got to give presentations.

The event began with welcoming speeches and a cocktail on the afternoon of the first day, and then we had a very packed second and third days… with a series of presentations from each of the pilot projects, a knowledge fair out in the sunny courtyard and then mini-workshops to get at best practices in disaster risk reduction, the future directions of DRR in Guatemala, a presentation of the staff capacity metrics pilot and an interactive session on information and communications needs in humanitarian situations.

All in all it was great; lots of chances for people meet and talk some great presentations and mini-workshops. The highlight for me was when we had the chance to hear local people, who had participated in the project, speak about how the project assisted them to better manage and prepare for disasters. A huge thanks to Dana and Juan for making this all happen and to Mercy Corps for playing host.

Indonesia ECB Learning Event (April 20 and 21^st)

The learning event in Indonesia was very different but equally interesting as the Guatemala event. This event took place in a smaller setting … in a hotel …and had a nicely mixed audience of about 35 people coming from IWG agencies, local government, the UN, local NGOs and district and community representatives from the communities in which the 9 pilot projects were implemented. Also joining us were Pat Johns and Charlie Ehle from CRS headquarters. And we had a key note speaker and project champion come… the Mayor from Padang District.

The learning event had a mix of presentations from various actors working on the project, an overview of government policy on DRR and as well as several very useful open plenary discussions on next steps and ways forward. Focus throughout was very much on Disaster Risk Reduction and moving us to share what we have learned and then to be a part of Indonesia’s future work in DRR …both in terms of implementation and policy formation.

Thanks go to Yenni, Gunawan, and Frank and overall to CRS for hosting this great event ….and of course to our facilitator Dr Puji who relentlessly challenged the group and advanced forward thinking and planning.

Ethiopia ECB Learning Event (April 27^th)

Again … as no one shoe fits all…we had a very different focus during this event then either of the previous two. In Ethiopia the team decided that they needed a one-day event with a morning session very focused internally to the participating agencies and an open session in the afternoon for Government and local and international NGOs. The morning session offered us all a great chance to look at what worked and what did not and look at potential avenues forward. With about 20 or so people in the room…mostly Country Directors and senior program staff from the agencies …and several visitors from Save HQ (Heidi Chase and David Bourns). The highlight was hearing a presentation from WVI Ethiopian Director Tenagne Lemma about how they were incorporating DRR as a broad programming fundamental across all their development programs. A unit has been formed and staffed (see ECB Winter Newsletter 2007 for more information on WV Ethiopia’s programming). The Afternoon session was open to the public and we had a good turnout of some 40 – 50 folk from UN agencies, government, and local and international NGOs. Presentations were from some of the work done with some great titles such as “Thinking Out of the Silos and Mapping the Future”, a Save the Children Canada presentation.

The whole day was capably facilitated by Mandy Woodhouse, Oxfam’s Country Director. Mandy along with Million Shibeshi and Save the Children, our hosts, desire lots of credit for crafting this very well organized and focused day of learning.

Arriving back from such a long journey I found myself in a bewildered state of being. On one hand I was physically exhausted from the journey. On the other, I felt mentally and emotionally refreshed, having seen with my own eyes what the IWG collaboration and ECB Project has and can accomplish. Thanks to all of those who hosted us.

Gregory Brady

ECB Project Director

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