"I'll take one GEG without the ECB, please."

The little yellow books are taking over. As the first one was lifted from its packing box in all its newly-published splendor, there were collective “oohs” from participants at the standing team workshop in Jordan, many of whom had labored for months over its development.

Our yellow Good Enough Guide (for accountability and impact measurement in emergencies) rightfully has pride of place at this workshop as participants are here to learn how to become trainers on a four and a half hour course based on it. So far the Guide has ushered another entry into the acronym universe – GEG (and one of the focus groups at the workshop has chosen the name The GEGanators). But it has done more than that – the Guide and its derivative training module, have provided, in my view, a convergence point around which 17 very enthusiastic people from six agencies have clustered at this workshop.

It’s day 3 of the workshop and the going is still good. The participants seem to be enjoying tips, tricks and theories of good training from the pros and from one another as well as many games and facilitation methods that make learning fun. The team dynamics are positive and there is inter-agency mingling at breaks and after hours. “I was not bored for a single minute,” said one participant at the end of day one. Of course to some extent, the success of the week hangs on day 4, which is when the trainees become trainers of 23 staff from the six agencies that are coming in for the day.

As an observer of the experience, I have admired how the whole process has been largely “ECB free.” I don’t say this to devalue the truly remarkable joint labor of love that led to the creation of the Good Enough Guide, the standing team and all they’ve accomplished, and the forum through which these things continue to work. It’s just that it’s refreshing to be at an event that is relatively free from the trappings of ECB language, historical accounts, deliberations on process and collaboration, etc. It is a training, not a meeting, and the standing team is here on one mission—to learn how to become better trainers on accountability and impact measurement. ECB is merely a backdrop that just happens to have made this all possible.

And therein lies the beauty, that the ardent dialogues that happened around so many conference tables at so many places around the world, the numerous field tests to fulfill work plans that we had no guarantees would work, and the sheer effort of trying to swim in the sticky pudding that is inter-agency collaboration, have led to products (the Guide) and entities (the standing team) that can have (and are having!) real impact on the way our agencies work.

Next time I hope members of the standing team themselves will tell you some of their fascinating stories of what they are doing to make us all more accountable and impact-focused (please blog, ST members!) –and what difference this all has made.

Malaika Wright