To achieve the desired ends, some initial ideas had to be turned upside down. For instance, creating a Linking and Learning infrastructure bottom-up with Linking and Learning Facilitator grantee partners being contracted in each country. In retrospect, meeting the rightsholders and grantee partners where they are at, which enabled us to co-create the Linking and Learning actions with them, can only be described as a brilliant move. The infrastructure allowed for ongoing and simultaneous engagement in all countries rather than sporadic global events. This decentralisation allowed for interactions to be led by the context rather than through a centrally guided learning processes. Ultimately, we invited grantee partners to join an experiential journey of discovery that built on their on their own learning experiences thus far, rather than Voice trying to spell out what Linking and Learning is about for everyone.
Linking and Learning activities integrate seamlessly. Examples are the regular (monthly) linking and sharing at the initiative of the first batch of grantee partners in Mali and Niger, both strongly oral cultures. Or the use of visual art, the organising of fairs and film or music festivals in other countries. In some other cases, it was an uphill task to create new relationships because getting people involved posed a challenge. Some reasons expressed by grantee partners were the level of competition for limited funding (not limited to the funding available from Voice), the emphasis of most funders on fulfilling target outputs and outcomes as the basis for success, fear that Voice could reduce or stop funding when aware of challenges, power issues or a culture of comparison. All cases underlined the need for clarity and a way to weave project planning and reporting nd vice versa.
Unanticipated questions and challenges emerged from the chosen infrastructure and bottom-up setup. How do we coordinate eleven different linking and learning processes (including global)? How do we encourage connections between the countries? How do we deal with the wide variety of languages and still amplify those voices beyond one’s own country? But most importantly, translating the guiding principles into action was clearly asking for inclusion, participation and for learning to start within the Voice programme itself, within us! It asked for openness, curiosity, reflection, and willingness to question our practices and to un-learn what did not work. It required conscious use of language, and maybe more than anything else, it invited us to listen. Being ready to look at our own biases and transform our mindset. Being ready to learn how to use a palette of approaches and tools to facilitate an inclusive way, and to invite the
participant rightsholders to take the lead in sharing and learning.
This was followed by a learning trajectory for the Voice teams and selected grantee partners. Some participants shared their learning in this piece titled ‘taking inclusion home’. Pitra Ayi Listani, from EngageMedia, then Linking and Learning Facilitator in Indonesia, shared that she appreciated how the barriers to inclusion are much more concrete, enabling her to identify them as they arise. It comes from the realisation that some barriers to inclusion are dependent on your own attitudes as an individual. She is undergoing self-reflection on what this means to my work in EngageMedia and my work as Voice Indonesia’s linking and learning organisation.
In some countries, sharing experiences and creating new ideas is second nature, so the
“I knew I wanted to share this experience with colleagues in Voice. But I also wanted to take it broader, talking about the inclusion of all people and groups. Adapting the materials to include a focus on all the groups and rightsholders supported by Voice... It was an amazing experience. To unravel together what it means to be inclusive. And what that asks from us. To discover that an important key to inclusion is opening up to whatever is there. To listen and observe and be open and flexible. Seeing people for who they are, with all their talents and possibilities.”
Inez Hackenberg, Linking & Learning Coordinator, Voice
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