Category: Reflections

 

What do you get when you put 14 of your best trainers, old and new, together in a room? A lot of energy and a truckload of ideas on making the training more fun and participatory!

That’s what we got when we got together for a Training of Trainers in Hyderabad earlier this month.

 

 

 

At Digital Green, we have been striving very hard to make the trainings that we give to our partner organizations and grassroots workers even more effective. For this purpose, 14 trainers from across our state teams in India came together to improve their participatory facilitation skills and methods. Some of those trainers have experience of several years, while others were fairly new to the world of training. However, the training program ensured that it challenged each one of them and encouraged their creative selves to emerge.

 

 

 

 

The training focused primarily on refining our conceptual understanding of participation deconstructing power relations within training groups, especially in the context that we work in. We are often so involved in our day-to-day work that we forget the bigger picture the larger change in the world that we are aiming to bring. These discussions helped us place our work and ourselves in the overall development work.

 

 

 

 

This was followed by focusing on the core skills that a good facilitator should have. We also did a little bit of soul-baring as trainers. We reflected and thought about instances where we haven’t been able to do our best. Some talked about getting impatient with participants, others talked about showing bias towards a particular participant, or reaching the training unprepared. It helped us realize that all of us make mistakes and that there is always scope to improve, and that it is important to inculcate self-awareness than remaining complacent about one’s ability as a good trainer.

 

The next day challenged the trainers even more – when they did a Participatory Rural Appraisal in a village that none of them had worked in before. Facilitating a group in an uncontrolled environment, where several power dynamics became very obvious, including caste and gender, proved to be a really helpful exercise.

 

 

 

 

Learning from this field experience also helped trainers to challenge themselves even further. Each participant designed an existing training session in a creative manner and demonstrated to the rest of the group.

 

Several of the sessions gave a completely new direction to how we approach training and learning of our participants. Most of the trainers left inspired to make our trainings more participatory, more engaging and more inspiring for the people they work with. We might never become the perfect trainer that we want to become, but we can surely become super-trainers!

 

As we celebrate three years of some very challenging and fulfilling work in Bihar, we thought it was time to start exploring ways to strengthen our partnership with our partner, Bihar Rural Livelihood Promotion Society (BRLPS) locally known as JEEViKA by increasing the involvement of JEEViKA’s staff in implementation of our model of behavioral change communication.

 

For this purpose on the 13^th of July 2015, we organized an orientation programme for the District Communication Managers of 26 districts that we work in, on our approach, current status of project and goals ahead. This was in line with the project goals envisaged by Digital Green and JEEViKA, which seeks to ensure greater involvement of JEEViKA staff and to have an in-house team to improve the quality of videos, make them more interesting and attract more viewers, creating better possibilities for adoptions.

 

 

At present, Livelihood Managers of JEEViKA support DG’s intervention as anchors for their respective districts. They play a crucial role – approving the storyboards and videos after looking into content and processes since most of the videos in Bihar have been about agricultural practices. However, Livelihood Managers have limited knowledge about the quality of videos.

 

We started the day-long orientation by explaining the DG approach and the evolution of our partnership with JEEViKA in Bihar. We then shared the current status of videos produced, dissemination among community members and adoptions along with the goals to be achieved by end of 2015.

 

The Communication Managers of JEEViKA also shared their current roles and responsibilities with our team, which followed an interesting dialogue about the possibilities they saw of contributing towards the DG and JEEViKA partnership model.

 

During the course of the orientation, we screened four videos on different aspects such as Digital Green’s story and approach, equipment handling (Pico Seekho) and agricultural practices during the meeting. The participants appreciated the videos and were very surprised to learn that the videos on agricultural practices were shot by a video production team comprising of Village Resource Persons (members of the community trained by DG as additional resources for an agricultural extension using our model). Most of the participants had earlier had the impression that the DG team shoots all the videos. This meeting provided us with an opportunity to dispel myths like this and reinforce the principle of community participation which is central to our model.

 

Towards the close of day, the participants were quite involved in the discussions and shared their observations and feedback to improve the videos. The communication team of JEEViKA assured their support to DG’s community-led video production process on various aspects such as quality improvement during storyboard preparation, selecting a better sequence of shots, angles and frames. They have also suggested possibilities to include voice over and annotation and text slides and selection of good actors to dramatize and make the videos more interesting. The participants also expressed their eagerness to visit the field to observe live dissemination so that they can help mediators improve their communication and facilitation skills. By the end of the orientation programme, JEEViKA’s communication staff were also keen to record and showcase the progress made by the use of the DG approach in their work.

 

Observing the interest and enthusiasm among the participants we may assume safely that the coming years are going to see a new facet of our partnership that will give a huge boost to community participation and engagement within our projects in Bihar.

Contributed by Tanmay Goel, Assistant Software Engineer, Digital Green

—

Village resource persons (VRPs) are the key actors in Digital Green’s video-enabled learning approach that focuses on providing farmers the right information at the right time. At Digital Green, we constantly strive to provide these frontline workers effective, timely and supportive supervision.

A big opportunity that we could recently tap in to involved the reach of mobile phones in rural India. We observed that most VRPs had at least one mobile phone in the family, if not a personal one. Also, given the geographical expanse that each of our Program Managers have to increasingly manage, we felt that an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system could be used to pass messages between the Program Managers of Digital Green and VRPs. The advantage of the system was that extension workers could receive important messages directly from the Managers, like schedule of block meetings etc., rather than through the organisational hierarchy. The system also made it possible for VRPs to share crucial information or any issues back with the Managers at no extra cost.

We collaborated with Awaaz.De to conduct a pilot in Samastipur and Nalanda districts of Bihar from November 2014 – February 2015 and 69 VRPs were registered on the system. Messages about upcoming meetings and currently-relevant seasonal videos were broadcasted to all VRPs in a block. We also ran a contest to encourage listeners to interact more with the system.

A few statistics from the pilot:

• 58 VRPs listened to at least one of the messages.
• On 89% of calls, listeners heard the entire message.
• A total of 87 messages were recorded on the system by VRPs and responded to by our Program Managers.
• 50 of these were valid.
• 26 out of 58 listeners attempted to leave a message.
• 34% listeners left at least one message that was not blank and contained a message other than hello.

One of the most fascinating outcomes of the pilot was the sheer number and variety of messages left by VRPs on the system. When VRPs became familiar with the system, they started using it to get their messages across to the program managers. Their messages included requests for relevant videos, invitations to shoot good adoptions and reports on adoption and screening progress in their villages. Some messages were really amusing; One VRP said, I want to see Satyamev Jayate episode on pico projector and another said, Happy new year to all! In this new year, when will have our first meeting. In fact, managers felt that a wider variety of issues were voiced via IVRS than in other public fora where CRPs were reluctant to stand out.

We observed that the IVR system was not very easy for VRPs to use. Some IVR prompts referred to Beep sound and Hash key that VRPs encountered for the very first time, and due to this recording messages was difficult and unintuitive. Yet, we were surprised by VRPs effort to learn the systems usage and, with a little bit of training, they used it avidly and actively.

Ultimately, the project was a great learning experience. We enjoyed listening to VRPs voices sitting in our office, and our Program Managers felt that IVR system reduced delay in resolution of issues and facilitated communication (group and one-on-one). In future, we will be designing structure research projects to measure the impact of such a system.

Contributed by Ajinkya Deshmukh, Program Manager

As I sat at my desk in the Delhi office after 21 days, submitting my trip reports and filing my monthly timesheet, I noticed I hadn’t taken a single leave in the month of March, and yet, I was barely in office. I looked at my travel calendar and realised I’d criss-crossed the country for work. From a district in the central Indian Vidharbha region to a small seaside town along the Konkan coast in western India, finally ending with an organisational retreat in the eastern state of Bihar. These were places that dont feature in the everyday imagination of urban India and travelling to them is its own reward.

Kelwa is one such place. Barely three hours north of Mumbai, the sleepy town is at once charming and forgotten. A fortnight ago, I was there with two other colleagues to kick off Digital Greens work with the Maharashtra State Rural Livelihoods Mission (aka Umed). We were to begin working in the districts of Thane, Palghar and Nandurbar. The project would focus on video documenting and disseminating best practices around cotton, soyabean, goatery, and non-farm livelihoods activities in 114 villages in the target districts.

We arrived in the dead of the night, trying to locate our beachside hotel by listening for the sea. As dawn broke, we saw the breathtaking beach only a 100 metres from our hotel.

Over the next week, between long meetings and video production training sessions, we made time to swim in the sea, ride horse-drawn tongas, eat delicately cooked Bombay Duck, and meet some great people (like this brother-sister duo collecting crabs for dinner from under rocks at low tide)!

The programme launch meeting with representatives from all three districts and the video production training were a resounding success. At the end of the week, we were able to map the future course of action for our work in western Maharashtra, and also produce two videos in Marathi on seed selection and the preparation of beejamrut (an organic concoction used to treat seeds before sowing).

What had seemed like just another work trip had offered up so much more! The opportunity to travel had cast new light, literally and figuratively, on the everyday churn of events. I left Kelwa feeling refreshed and rewarded, despite a most hectic work schedule eagerly looking forward to the next time work brought me here.

Contributed by Rishiraj Shukla, Assistant Program Manager, Digital Green

—

Digital Green and JEEViKA or government-led Bihar Rural Livelihoods Project have been partners for the last three years, using an ICT-enabled collective learning approach to promote best practices among rural community groups . I recently joined the Digital Green team and have been witness to the scale and depth of the partnership, specifically in two districts,Gopalganj and West Champaran.

At times we often come across people who are willing to learn and adapt to new things without any training or knowhow. These videos on system of rice intensification have made my work easier, I learnt so much from them. Now I am confident that I can deliver the same on the field, says Mr. Abhishek K. Singh who happens to be the JEEViKA livelihood specialist of Narkatiyaganj block of West Champaran. Initially he had no clue about this method of rice farming and hence, was worried about how to implement the practice in the field. Watching the videos helped him in understanding the practice and appreciate its benefits. Abhishek then guided village resource persons on effectively screening the videos in their respective villages, educating the farmers about the practice and how it could increase their yield.

A review meeting at Kuchaikote, one of the blocks in Gopalganj district, could serve as an apt illustration of the relationship between Digital Green and JEEViKA. Things cannot be taken for granted; we will have to work hard, if we want results, said Rajnish Kumar, Livelihood Specialist, JEEViKA, taking the lead during the whole review meeting, motivating the village-level functionaries to go the extra mile in producing quality videos and screening them effectively.Rajnish also shared some great ideas about the videos that can be produced in the region. He was quite excited about the fact that the video production team would be based in the district, which meant that the community would get to see videos in the local language, Bhojpuri, helping them connect better and adopt the agriculture practices shown in those videos.

Contrary to stereotypical notions of tardy government systems, my observation of field-level JEEViKA operations have been largely inspiring. We had requested the district project manager of Gopalganj to procure a video camera for the district so that a video production team could be set up. Within the span of a month, a video camera was purchased and 10,000 copies of merged formats for dissemination and adoption were printed and delivered to the respective blocks. The district project manager at Gopalganj is extremely active and has also helped his counterpart in Nalanda district in procuring a video camera for his district. Our experience with the district project manager at West Champaran has been similar; he has been extremely helpful and responsive to process improvements.

Digital Green, through its ICT-enabled approach, not only strengthens its partners capacity to develop and deliver services in the field of agriculture, but also enables farmers to effectively engage with the government, setting in motion powerful mechanisms for their participation and their engagement. A partnership is based on a common consensus and each partner can work and function smoothly only if they get adequate support from each other. The Digital Green – JEEViKA is an example of a healthy partnership which continues to evolve.

I found the JEEViKA staff at the district level as well as at the block level very approachable. They acknowledge the role of Digital Green in helping them mobilize and build the capacity of village resource persons to deliver information effectively.

To the lay reader, some of these details might seem mundane and simple but these traits and aspects make a huge difference, while working in partnership to roll out community-centric interventions.There is no shortcut if we want our farmers especially small scale farmers to adopt the best practices in agriculture for improved and sustainable livelihoods and for better agricultural output. There is much scope for improvement of such partnership. There is a constant and consistent need for proper monitoring and evaluation and to realize the goals we have set for ourselves, we will have to be accountable to each other, and most importantly to the farmers and the rural communities for whom we work.

Our team in Karnataka surprised us all by screening this short video that captured the team retreats of the past through bits of videos and photos they had collected over the years from various colleagues.

 

The video helped put things in perspective as we were just starting our 6th Annual Team Retreat with over 70 staff.

 

The video starts with the first digitalGREEN (DG) video ever made in 2006 capturing our work on the ground to some snapshots of the first annual staff retreat in 2009 – then called “Bootcamp” which was held in Odisha.

 

Watch this video for a quick peek into our team retreats since the very beginning…