9.Chapter 8: Focus Area 7: Communication, Advocacy and building the Western Cape Knowledge Economy
Focus Area 7: The need to share lessons with audiences within and outside South Africa: optimise the dividends from the investment in the Western Cape by exploring research opportunities to build the knowledge economy, collaborate with role players in the province, and where relevant with stakeholders within Africa and the Netherlands.
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It is our belief that progress on the goals of Focus Area 6 is essential, indeed formative, for the achievement of the goals of Focus Area 7.
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Sharing with audiences within and outside South Africa by SEEDS partners occurs as an activity, explicit or otherwise, of each consortium member as an individual organisation or institution: there is no lack of organisations ‘sharing’, but there is a lack of collective impact in sharing which as we understand is one of the primary goals of this Focus Area.
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Likewise, exploring research opportunities to build the knowledge economy through SEEDS – an activity actively being pursued by the project manager – would be much enhanced, and given greater credibility if packaged more coherently within the emerging priorities and outlines of a distinctive ‘SEEDS model’ as we discussed in the previous chapter.
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The same observation above applies with respect to a more effective SEEDS collaboration with provincial and national role players, stakeholders in other African countries and internationally.
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The consortium’s aims and outcomes, according to the M&E Framework, are greater than the sum of the projects: the vision is for the projects to have a joint impact on the education and learning landscape of the Western Cape beyond individual efforts. Positive programme impacts beyond those anticipated (and specified) in the individual project documents include supporting government education and human resource policies and programmes, specifically the national curriculum, schooling and related (e.g. HIV/AIDS) polices and legislation, and stimulating and enabling lifelong learning in disadvantaged and marginalised contexts.
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These constitute pressing and dynamics issues which necessitate a much higher level of engagement at the level of policy and practice from the consortium partners through SEEDS than is now evident.
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The budget makes provision for further staff in the SEEDS office as a first step towards opening this space for greater collaboration along the lines proposed– consideration should be given to the options available for incentivising the consortium partners themselves to devote high-level management time and resources to addressing the framework requirements, strategy and practical inputs that will be needed to transform this nine project cooperative initiative into a truly collaborative and dynamic joint venture.
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Attention to opportunities for initiating sharing of project findings in respect of their impact on and challenges faced in implementing new and innovative approaches and programmes within the primary domain or areas of practice in which the projects are located is a critical area. The primary purpose should not be seen necessarily as enhanced accountability or transparency (though these elements are obviously extremely important) but rather as necessary critical engagement with a wider body of practice, with stakeholders, experts, communities, parents, the private sector, NGOs and other interests. It is anticipated that, following agreement on a series of activities including roundtables, conferences, workshops, seminars etc, opportunities will arise to develop publications based on inputs and research arising from the projects, ongoing programme research, and inputs from non-SEEDS practitioners should arise which in addition to populating a revamped interactive SEEDS website, will drive and shape the contribution of the SEEDS’s programme in key domains and new areas of practice, perhaps resulting in publication of a final programme report.
10.Appendices Appendix A – MTR TOR
Appendix B – Outsourced Insight - Proposal Document and Budget
CONDUCT MID-TERM REVIEW (MTR) OF A FOUR YEAR COLLABORATIVE EDUCATION INITIATIVE (SEEDS CONSORTIUM) IN THE WESTERN CAPE PROVINCE OF SOUTH AFRICA
PURPOSE
The purpose of the MTR is to measure and report on performance to date and to indicate adjustments that may need to be made to ensure the success of the SEEDS projects, including consideration of inter-agency collaboration and sustainability.
DELIVERABLES
The MRT addresses the following major themes/issues: consortium accountability for results, programme delivery and beneficiaries, collaborative and interactive strategies, programme management structure, organisational learning, and sustainability/finance.
The MTR report will derive findings and recommendations on major themes/issues in each of the four SEEDS focus areas, namely maths and science, rural education, life-long learning, and HIV and AIDS.
The review will conclude with a provisional assessment of the SEEDS initiative/method as an innovative model for collaborative programming in the development and education sector
QUANTITATIVE SURVEYS
The intention is to undertake two distinct surveys providing complementary top-down and bottom-up data pertaining to the management and impact of the SEEDS initiative to date:
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Management Survey of SEEDS consortium organisations and programming; based on:
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targeted, semi-structured, issue-based interviews with senior management/board and
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desk-top analyses of management reports, annual reviews, M&E reporting, finance, and other relevant programme documentation;
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Beneficiary Survey; self-administered questionnaire delivered to 1500 programme beneficiaries (educators, learners, CBOs) of interventions across the four focus areas, selected randomly from databases supplied by SEEDS consortium to determine levels of satisfaction with, and suggestions pertaining to, the role and activities of SEEDS supported programme activities.
Data from the Management Survey Interviews will analysed to develop an organisational profile of Consortium member, perspective on the SEEDS initiative and programme successes and challenges. Inter-agency/collaborative issues will be addressed in some depth. The semi-structured interview format provides an opportunity for directed probing of issues.
The Beneficiary Survey is designed to capture data from the full range of initiatives and beneficiaries of the combined SEEDS initiative arising from the activities of the nine mentioned organisations in the TOR across the four focus areas. Our proposal is based on the following assumptions:
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a total of 9 SEEDS organisations, each with a unique programme benefiting educators, and a further five programmes benefiting more than one beneficiary, i.e. in addition to educators, benefitting learners or CBOs – requiring a total of 13 questionnaires customised to the specific programme objectives of the consortium;
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SEEDS initiatives delivered through at least 50 institutions, with each with an average of 30 potential respondents in each (total of 1500). For cost effectiveness, this sample will be selected in 50 clusters of thirty respondents each, and will be self-administered, taking no longer than 30 minutes to complete. There will be a few open-ended questions, to allow for diversity in response that is not constrained by predetermined categorisation.
The questions will be arranged in logical sequence, for example moving from basic awareness of the aims of the initiative, motivation to participate and assumptions at the outset, account of key elements of the programme, extent of current knowledge of programme, personal narrative of exposure to the programme, and account of key learning and empowerment. Biographical data and questions that are deemed to be sensitive, pertaining for example to income levels, will be included near the end of the questionnaire.
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