Mercy Corps Uzbekistan Pause and Reflect: Learnings from a First-Time Experience
By: Izzat Kurmangaliyev, MEL Manager, Mercy Corps Kyrgyzstan
In a recent blog post (and two webinars), IDEAL discussed the concept of Pause and Reflect (P&R) as it launched one of IDEAL’s small grant products: Food for Thought (FFT) — A Pause and Reflect Toolkit for Emergency Food Security Programs, designed by Mercy Corps. This toolkit provides tools and resources for implementers to design and hold their own P&R sessions. In this second installment of IDEAL’s deep dive into Pause & Reflect, we will highlight how Mercy Corps Uzbekistan used the FFT Toolkit to integrate P&R into their McGovern-Dole International Food for Education (FFE) Program as one way to foster a culture of learning and enable effective adaptive management through intentional reflection.
FFE Uzbekistan Looks Back and Charts a Path Forward
In Uzbekistan, the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition program, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), supports the Preschool Education System Development Concept of the Republic of Uzbekistan, which aims to promote reading readiness; improve student attendance; engage children, parents, and community in the preschool education system; increase knowledge of nutrition, health, and hygiene practices; and improve preschool infrastructure and the learning environment. The FFE Uzbekistan program was due to start implementation in 2019, but because of COVID-19 and commodities challenges, the start-up was delayed with full implementation beginning in 2023.
Considering the delays in implementation, the FFE program needed to stop and reflect critically on the program’s original work plan, chart progress, and delays, and consider the most appropriate path forward with an adapted work plan. However, for Mercy Corps Uzbekistan, this was unfamiliar territory. They decided to use the FFT Toolkit to help them plan a four-day P&R session in August 2023 that would bring together staff from three offices across the country.
Mercy Corps Uzbekistan’s first step was to select a facilitation team that would help plan and implement the P&R session. The facilitation team included Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) staff from both Mercy Corps’ Uzbekistan and Headquarters (HQ) offices. They identified a tool, the Learning Question Matrix from the FFT Toolkit, to help focus their conversations and used it to select four program performance components — Budget, Time, Quality, and Results — to reflect on during the P&R session. The team felt that these components were the most relevant as they reflected on the implications of timing issues and program delays for moving forward with quality implementation and achieving improved results for preschool education in Uzbekistan.
Technical and operational staff, including drivers and cleaners, were invited to be a part of the P&R. No staff members were left out. Participants were divided into groups by topic. Initially, to help people feel more comfortable and open when sharing strengths and weaknesses of different components, the Senior Management Team (SMT) was separated into a different group. Then later, once participants felt more confident with the process, the SMT members were dispersed among the other groups for the aspirations and results activities.
Each of the four days of the P&R session had a theme: Day 1 — strengths by component; Day 2 — areas of improvement by component; Day 3 — aspirations and timeline for action; Day 4 — session summaries and reflections on the P&R process. Of note, on the third day, the team organized a particularly innovative and successful activity to represent what they aspired to be as a team. Using images from magazines, staff made collages that represented their aspirations. The exercise led to a lively discussion, and according to staff, “it was fun to see how people interpreted different images as success.”
Challenges in Preparation and Facilitation
As the facilitation team prepared for the P&R session, they hit two big hurdles: data and language. The team’s monitoring data, which they wanted participants to reflect on during group reflection sessions, was not clean and required extra effort to organize in a way that participants could easily understand as they worked to synthesize learnings. Moreover, the team in Uzbekistan speaks three languages. All information for the P&R needed to be translated, and some terms used in the P&R Toolkit did not translate well. For example, the words aspiration, ownership, and accountability required some creative adjustment to help participants understand their meaning.
The inclusive nature of the P&R also presented challenges as the facilitation team needed to be mindful to create a safe space for all participants to speak and be heard. For most staff, this was their first time participating in a P&R session, and for some others, the first time they were being included in programmatic learning and decision-making. In addition to putting the SMT into their own small group, the facilitation team separated colleagues who worked together regularly to soften dominant personalities and encourage sharing of different perspectives. The facilitation team felt that staff would benefit from reflecting on program components that are not part of their day-to-day activities.
Building Teams, Improving Coordination, and Scaling Success
Team building was one of the most salient benefits of the P&R session. Uzbekistan is a new office for Mercy Corps, and the P&R format was a great way for colleagues to break down silos and get to know each other better. In fact, this was the first time everyone was able to meet each other in person! People participated in enlightening conversations and built relationships to facilitate future communication and cross-learning among offices.
Additionally, staff identified similarities across activities that were being implemented by separate teams. The staff’s previous work planning experience consisted of each team writing up their plans without coordinating across teams or looking at other activities. The P&R session laid the foundation for better coordination in the future and helped the teams identify some operational areas of change, such as budget transparency beyond the SMT and increased cross-office travel for all team members which would improve trust and collaboration for better results.
Lastly, the P&R exercise helped the team identify one big success in the FFE program: a mentorship program for preschool teachers who lack opportunity for continuous professional development. The mentorship model provides teachers with a Mercy Corps-trained mentor who provides skills training and knowledge development as well as observes the teacher to suggest areas for improvement. During the P&R discussion, the team identified that teachers particularly appreciated this program; as a result, not only did the team continue this activity, but they expanded it to parents to promote reading habits at home. Parents were provided with different reading materials to help their children develop their skills and love for reading. The FFE program also decided to ensure all preschools were provided with at least two mentors, an increase from the targeted one to two mentors at the beginning of implementation.
Concluding Thoughts
The FFT Toolkit was a great resource for the Mercy Corps Uzbekistan team and helped them reflect on and improve FFE programming. The team resolved to continue to hold Pause and Reflect sessions periodically. Beyond the activity itself, Mercy Corps has incorporated P&R into the MEL Manager’s job description and the onboarding training for new MEL staff. This toolkit was a huge benefit, and the team feels it is “applicable for any organization or setting.”
Stay tuned for the next installment of IDEAL’s deep dive into Pause and Reflect, where the Mercy Corps Indonesia team will continue their journey into the utilization of the FFT Toolkit and begin to adapt the process in the toolkit to fit their own unique needs and circumstances.
Check out additional blogs about Pause & Reflect:
