Summary
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Introduction of the guideline: During the F2F event a draft version of the DLG study tour guideline was presented to the participants. The guideline is a concrete product offer responding to a demand raised by the DLGN members. It provides guidance, tips and tricks to those who are in charge of organizing a study tour and it facilitates quick access to available practical experience and information. It is targeting mainly SDC and PDIV program officers and orienting on study tours to Switzerland but not only. The aim is to make study tours most useful and effective for the participants and to support careful and smooth preparation.
The guideline is prepared as a light document which provides following information:
- Part 1, providing information on core organizational steps
- Part 2, presenting key issues for content design, which are closely linked to DLG processes and reflecting on Swiss experience at hand
- Electronic linkages where further information can be found, e.g. shared experience, tips and tricks, checklists, list with competence centers and experts, SDC instructions, examples of TOR and contracts, thematic background information and handouts.
Draft Study Tour Guidelines [Please note that the links to further reading material do not yet work in this draft version. A fully functional version with all additional documents will be published when the document is finalized.]
Short brainstorming session in the plenary: DLG members quickly discussed experiences on how to manage follow up of a study tour. Main recommendations reconfirm the principle vision that study tours shall contribute to positive change as part of a comprehensive process rather than being just one-off event:
- The follow up will depend on the main purpose of a study tour which should be clearly articulated beforehand. E.g. sensitization of politicians will require different follow up than concrete learning on municipal governance for local government representatives.
- For effective follow up the content must be relevant for participants and the right participants (change agents) have to be selected. This requires thorough analysis of in country DLG situation/challenges and a needs assessment of possible delegation members.
- Follow up is easier if the study tour is closely linked to and relevant for specific SDC engagement and programs in a country. The closer the match, the easier the follow up within usual program progress monitoring.
- One way of pre-considering follow up measures is to preserve time for brainstorming sessions at the end of each study tour day and to pre-plan debriefing sessions in Switzerland and after return in the home country: identify key learning and key messages to convey with respective communication strategies; or jointly define follow up action plan or jointly brainstorm on elements for future program design. A method for understanding about the outcomes of a study tour could be a story telling workshop with study tour participants held one year after the study tour, focusing on “stories of change”.
- Expectations with regard to study tour follow up should be realistic and not too ambitious; immediate translation might not be obvious; this is just one aspect within a wide range of capacity development activities.
Next steps:
- COOF Mongolia, IC Kosovo and SKAT volunteered to provide a feedback to the draft study tour guidelines. With these comments and the results of the F2F brainstorming session the guidelines will be finalized.
- Simultaneously annexes, lists with respective resource persons (SDC HQ, COOFs, partners) and with respective competence centers/experts are being compiled.
- The final version of the guideline is expected for May.
Corinne Huser
Video Reporters: Rudi von Planta, Nara Weigel
