From 4th to 6th February, the bustling city of Harare hosted delegates from Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe as they were led by ISAAA AfriCenter through a series of discussions and exercises to develop a Theory of Change framework for their One Health initiatives.
Representatives from the above-mentioned countries had already undergone a pitching session in a sandpit event that selected appropriate One Health initiatives to be funded by the COHESA project for implementation within a year. “This workshop is an important opportunity for us scientists to start our projects with the end in mind, so that we can have a sustainable solution beyond the funding cycle,” Prof. Gift Matope from the University of Zimbabwe stated in his opening remarks.
The “Theory of Change” training aimed to guide the supported projects through a series of practical steps to achieve their targeted goal. Despite being used commonly for long term projects with complex visions, the tool was contextualized for the selected research intervention to offer unique guidance for scientists to have the practical impact on community in mind when developing scientific solutions.
A common goal for the projects in Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe was to restore rangeland health in light of cross-border health hazards due to mismanaged rangelands that offer a major source of livelihood for the inhabiting communities. The funded initiatives from Mozambique address rabies at the community health and vector animal health intervention points.
Participants drawn from government ministries, academia and research institutions discussed through the stepwise activities that they plan for their projects, the expected outcome leading to an overarching goal. Several assumptions were laid out for each expected outcome and plans laid to overcome some of the unwanted consequences. Key to the change pathway is the measurable outcomes that were listed which form part of the internal monitoring and evaluation tool for the projects. “I am glad that we are doing this exercise because it makes us focus our thoughts on the situation at the ground and how practical what we propose as a solution is for the community to adopt even as we strive to check our boxes with the project outputs,” Abel Ndungu, an animal health scientist from Zambia’s Ministry responsible for livestock and fisheries opined.
At the end of the workshop, the country teams had developed a template Theory of Change with an accompanying monitoring, evaluation and learning framework with filled content that would be validated by the rest of their project members before being used to guide their projects to success. Bibiana Iraki, the facilitator from ISAAA AfriCenter insisted that the TOC should be used to effectively achieve project goals with a succinct quote “do not try to boil the ocean.”
By Christian Odinga, Programs Officer at ISAAA AfriCenter.