The term “experience capitalization” refers to a process by which a specific project or programme (or “an experience” in general) is described and analysed, and from which lessons are identified, shared and used to improve development interventions. Experience capitalization is an approach that allows team members to systematically analyse and document real-life experiences, in a participatory way. This is an iterative process that helps identify specific innovations and practices, and understand the reasons behind success or failure. This creates knowledge, which can be shared and used to generate change, both internally and in other initiatives. The whole approach can help provide concrete evidence and in this way support advocacy efforts.
WHEN TO USE IT AND WHY
It is frequently mentioned that if development interventions are to have a tangible impact and effectively challenge world poverty and hunger, the positive results seen in the field must lead to new and better initiatives. Experience capitalization can help individuals and organizations draw concrete lessons from past experiences, and use them to improve the work they do now and will do in the future.
Experience capitalization can help an organisation respond more quickly and more effectively to a crisis or to the changes that might arise. Increased efficacy may reduce costs, save time, and strengthen an organisation. Experience capitalization can also help improve the analytical capacities of all those involved, helping them adopt a more reflective attitude in their reporting while easily and confidently sharing the results of their work. An additional benefit is that, through the involvement of different participants in the process, both the capacities of and the collaborative relationships between these participants are strengthened.
Experience capitalization is strongly linked to other processes with different names and similar objectives. It fits within an organization’s knowledge management strategy and agenda, and is complementary to monitoring and evaluation, programme planning and project management, research, capacity development and communication.
Experience capitalization can help an organisation respond more quickly and more effectively to a crisis or to the changes that might arise. Increased efficacy may reduce costs, save time, and strengthen an organisation. Experience capitalization can also help improve the analytical capacities of all those involved, helping them adopt a more reflective attitude in their reporting while easily and confidently sharing the results of their work. An additional benefit is that, through the involvement of different participants in the process, both the capacities of and the collaborative relationships between these participants are strengthened.
Experience capitalization is strongly linked to other processes with different names and similar objectives. It fits within an organization’s knowledge management strategy and agenda, and is complementary to monitoring and evaluation, programme planning and project management, research, capacity development and communication.
What do project officers think of this approach? Read an example:
"Information we might otherwise have missed",
by Emmanuel Gbakie, KM Officer for NPCU, Sierra Leone
"Information we might otherwise have missed",
by Emmanuel Gbakie, KM Officer for NPCU, Sierra Leone
HOW TO?
The experience capitalization process follows of a number of steps:
- Planning: As a participatory exercise, a capitalization processes must be flexible, and it must adapt to the context or to the changing interests of all participants. But it must be prepared in detail so that it reaches the objectives it wants to reach. This starts by identifying the conditions which are needed for every case: institutional support, access to information, and motivated participants. An organisation interested in getting a process started will also need to ensure that the resources which are needed will be available;
- Selection and framing. The first steps of an experience capitalization process include the selection of the case (or experience) to describe and analyse, a discussion about the purpose and the identification of those who were or part of it. This is often known as "setting the boundaries";
- Gathering information and description. A next step is to tell the story of what actually happened in the field. In order to do this, it is first necessary to collect enough information from a wide diversity of sources. This information needs to be organised in one way (e.g. with templates or tables), and it is then used to describe the context, the activities that were carried out, and the results that were seen. An important element here is the description of the difficulties found;
- Analysis. Instead of only looking at what activities have been implemented, this part of a capitalisation process aims to discover why did the team decide to implement these activities. And instead of measuring results, or of comparing them to what was expected, an analysis aims to discover the reasons behind these results. This helps draw specific conclusions, and also recommendations;
- Writing / Documentation. These lessons that are drawn can be presented in different formats (written, oral, audiovisual and/or electronic, etc.) according to the target audience and to the specific objectives. Yet, whatever the final choice, it will be necessary to first capture the results of a capitalisation process in writing. A written document can help you store your ideas and also reach out to many people. It may take different shapes, but in all cases, it needs to be concise, attractive or rigorous if it to be effective;
- Sharing. In addition to those who have been part of the process, many other persons can also benefit from the lessons that have been drawn. The team in charge of the capitalisation process needs to find a way to reach these other persons, for which it needs to develop a communications plan. This describes the audience you want to reach, and defines the channels you can use to reach this audience in the most effective way;
- Adoption. An experience capitalization process does not finish with the identification of specific lessons: its main objective is that these are put into practice. This is not an easy or straightforward process: adoption is never a sudden event, but one which requires an individual or organization to learn about alternatives to a current practice (new knowledge), to form a favourable opinion about these alternatives (being persuaded and being convinced), and then to make the decision to try them out.
WHAT DO YOU NEED?
- Participants: The “owners” of the experience or “experience holders” (a category that can equally include project beneficiaries or extension agents) will provide information and bring in their personal opinions. Subject matter specialists may be invited to advise or validate results. The team leaders will co-ordinate all activities, assign specific responsibilities or tasks to other participants, and ensure that activities take place within the given period of time.
- Support team: If you want to end up with nicely written stories, include a communications person or other people who have some experience writing. If you need to collect information form the field, invite somebody who can help you run interviews and focus groups. If you want to institutionalize the methodology in your organization, include people who have some influence in its project cycles.
- A facilitator may be invited to design and lead the process, or to ensure that all participants both contribute to the process and benefit from it. Consider the size and skills of the group, the skills necessary to lead to the envisioned outputs, and the language and cultural background of the facilitation team members.
- Time. A key step here is to consider how long each activity should ideally take, how much time you will need for preparation and publishing, and how much time participants can make available while dealing with their daily work.
- Funds / resources. Consider the costs of organizing face-to-face meetings, publication and dissemination costs, whether there are funds to go and collect more data, etc. Often we are not able to cover all costs ourselves, so the challenge is to find out how much it will all cost and to secure the necessary funds.
- Logistics. Consider the venue, lunch, accommodation, stationary, audio facilities, translators, laptops, projectors, printing, travel arrangements, etc. for a face-to-face event, or online platforms and connectivity for online interactions.
- An information management system, especially focusing on the need to monitor all activities and to evaluate it.
MORE INFORMATION
- CTA, Experience Capitalization project. Since April 2016, CTA implemented the “Capitalizing on Experiences for Greater Impact in Rural Development” project (with the financial support of IFAD), aiming at the adoption of an experience capitalization process in rural development initiatives. This site includes theory and case studies, facilitation tools and publications.
- Eggens, L. and J. Chavez-Tafur, 2019. Facilitating experience capitalization: A guidebook. Meant to help facilitators, this guidebook built on the available resources and also on the experience accumulated by the CTA project, and on the lessons and insights drawn by all those who were involved in it – both as facilitators and as participants.
- Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC), 2005. Guide to thematic experience capitalisation. This guide is presented as an instrument to support experience capitalization processes, especially their initiation, planning and structuring, as well as their implementation and/or support.
- Africa Adaptation Programme, 2012. Handbook on Capitalisation of Experiences. Focusing on climate change adaptation experiences, this handbook was developed within the framework of the UNDP-AAP's knowledge management work.
- CTA, 2019. Experience capitalization from theory to practice: Trying out a new approach. Experience Capitalization Series 11. Written by those who were actively and directly involved in the different steps of CTA's project, the narratives included in this publication show the main issues they faced during the training workshops and also in the field, and the main lessons they drew as participants, facilitators or as experience capitalization “champions”.
- FAO, 2016. Experience Capitalization for Continuous Learning. This e-course introduces the methodology of experience capitalization and offers practical tools. As a self-learn tool, it was designed for professionals involved in reflecting upon, learning from and sharing the lessons of their work: team leaders, managers, project and programme technical staff, monitoring and evaluation officers, communication professionals, knowledge management and knowledge sharing professionals.