A 'learning sector’ is one that engages in continuous learning and reflection and is thus able to adapt to changing circumstances and demands. Building a learning sector with the capacity to continuously innovate, evolve and adapt based on evidence is a must for delivering sustainable services and requires the capacity and willingness to address failure, do things together, better and differently.
Published on: 27/05/2013
Ideally, learning takes place at all levels and brings people together at each level. Multi stakeholder platforms can link different learning initiatives and encourage the flow of information, ideas and lesson learned. It is important that there are both horizontal linkages- that is, between different groups working at one administrative level) and vertical ones- information flow and interactions between districts and national level. This will help ensure that lessons from practice feed into policy and that guidelines and tools are shared with those responsible for service delivery.
Two key mechnisms IRC has been supporting in order to foster learning and adaptation are learning alliances and resource centres.
Learning alliances can help:
The main benefits of learning alliances:
Resource centres and learning alliances should address real problems that people want to solve and aim to make information available to help individuals and groups address specific needs.
In Gujarat, India, public sector resource centres at sub-district level support local panchayats’ in all aspects of system management and act as a focal point for knowledge and contacts.
In South Africa,WIN-SA is a network of organisations that focus on improving knowledge sharing in the water and sanitation sector, targeting decision makers in government and non-government water services sector.
In Andhra Pradesh (India) and Burkina Faso,WASHCost learning alliances bring the findings from research into life-cycle costing for sustainable water and sanitation services in rural and peri-urban areas.
Incentives: People need incentives to participate. ‘Talk shops’ will not keep people on board. Learning alliances should be formed around real problems that people want to solve.
Facilitating resource centres and alliances: A good facilitator encourages interaction between formal meetings. Facilitation comes at a cost; some supporting agency has to commit time, money and capacity to the learning processes and the actors in the initiative.
Adapting to local contexts: Resource centres and learning alliances take different forms in different contexts. Key elements include:
