[Oe List ...] Facilitation challenge

[Otto, Ken]

Jim,
This may or may not be useful to you.  But when I was in Zambia I was
quite impressed with how they held elections in a partially illiterate
society.
I can not remember how many seats were represented in Parliament, ( this
is like the house of Commons).  There is also the House of Chiefs, you
can imagine that this is all the tribes and these are not elected.  I
think there were around 50 members in the House of Commons.  About 4 or
5 candidates ran for each seat, remember everyone belongs to the same
party OK.  At campaingn time each candidate was assigned an animal, yes
an animal, like a frog or cow or whatever.  When one made a speech the
picutre of the animal was beside you.  And guess what was on the ballot?
yes the animal.  People made the connection to the animal at political
speeches etc.
I conclude that the facilitator would need to make some connection with
some symbol like the animal,  that is familiar to the participates and
then connect that to what the discussion issue is. Let me know if this
was useful OK.  You probably already know all this though.
Ken
 

________________________________

From: oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On
Behalf Of James Wiegel
Sent: Monday, February 15, 2010 1:46 PM
To: ToP Trainers ListServe
Cc: OE list serve; Colleague Dialogue
Subject: [Oe List ...] Facilitation challenge


 I have an event coming up next week with some unique challenges and I
would be 
> grateful for your thoughts and experience.
I got this request from another list, looking for wisdom on how to
engage participants who don't read or write.  Wondering if some on the
list might have experience to share


Jim Wiegel
> 
> The event will be held in Addis Ababa for Oxfam and it concerns
designing 
> baseline research for an 11-year program to develop water rights in 
> moisture-stressed regions. It is based on an innovative approach to
measuring 
> impact using so-called Theories of Change.
> 
> 
> The facilitator challenge (apart from the difficulty in getting my
head around 
> all this) is that among the participants there will be several
illiterate 
> farmers. Looking at most of the design ideas I am working on, there is
always 
> the assumption that our participants can read and write. Furthermore,
they 
> (and a few of the other participants) don't speak English and
simultaneous 
> whispered interpretation will be provided.
> 
> 
> Have you had events with illiterate participants? How did you manage?
I think 
> the challenge is both inclusion and ensuring that we are not
patronizing.
> 
> 
> Any thoughts or ideas would be most welcome.
> 
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> Dan
> 
 
Jim


"If you really want to succeed, then you have to have the big heart,
heroic will, tenacity, courage, and commitment to fearlessly engage with
the evolutionary process until something profound, mysterious, and
extraordinary happens that cannot be undone." Andrew Cohen


Jim Wiegel
401 North Beverly Way, Tolleson, Arizona 85353-2401
+1 623-936-8671 +1 623-363-3277
jfwiegel at yahoo.com www.partnersinparticipation.com 


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