By: Ricardo Ramírez A definition that resonates with our experience According to Wikipedia… A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who "share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly". Wenger-Trayner, 2015. The concept was first proposed by cognitive anthropologist Jean Lave and educational theorist Etienne [...]
By: Ricardo Ramírez & Wendy Quarry. The origin of the ‘communication’ comes from the Latin, ‘to do together’ – simple enough. However nowadays communication means many things to different people, with varying assumptions about channels, media, audiences, the actual reasons to communicate, and the desired outcomes. In our December 2020 blog, we explored the notion [...]
By: Ricardo Ramírez, DECI-AM. For practitioners working towards systems change, tracking impact is a never-ending concern. They face an overwhelming list of systems-oriented evaluation tools (e.g. UNDP Sandbox); sifting through this pile can lead to what Gladwell (2005) calls ‘analysis paralysis’. If time and resources allow, practitioners can sign up to courses on evaluating systems [...]
By: Charles Dhewa; with Wendy Quarry, Dal Brodhead & Ricardo Ramírez, DECI-AM. What is meant by adaptive management? Designing Evaluation and Communication for Impact & Adaptive Management (DECI-AM) is an action research project that mentors IDRC-funded projects in evaluation and communication. As project needs evolve so have the DECI-AM support service which are increasingly supporting [...]
By Sawsan Al Zatari, Ricardo Ramírez and Dal Brodhead, DECI-4. Selecting the right Primary Intended Users (PIUs) can be a challenge (Ramírez, 2021). How can we be sure that we are selecting the right users who will commit to both the journey and the learning process? “The selection of PIUs is part art, part strategy, [...]