Systematization and Reinforcement Guidelines Sudan Training WS

Inclusivemanagementoflocalknowledge
throughsystematizationofbestpractices
Methodological and
Practical Learning
Workshop
Khartoum, Sudan 18 – 20 September2016

POURUNEGESTIONINCLUSIVEDESSAVOIRS LOCAUXGRÂCE ÀLASYSTÉMATISATIONDEBONNESPRATIQUES
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01
What is systematization?
A critical process of experience reconstruction
geared towards generation of knowledge, starting
with local knowledge and experience of the
protagonists
The systematization is an orderly process of:
i. Reconstruction of
experiences;
ii. Knowledge creation through critical
thinking of the participating players; and,
iii. Communication of the resulting
knowledge both within and outside the
programme.
This definition of systematization of experiences seeks to
permanently articulate and share accumulated knowledge
(theory and practice, local, general and specialized
knowledge) with strategies and approaches used to
produce new knowledge that can be applied to other
contexts.
Finally, systematization is - and should be - a
participatory process undertaken from the beginning
mainly by the protagonists of the experience being
systematized. This means that the concerned persons are
directly involved in the process of development of the
methodology, the fieldwork, the analysis and the
communication of the systematization results.
Accordingly, this is a process that seeks to enhance
experience by offering new raw material - knowledge,
learning - both for the managers of the experience itself as
well as for other actors outside of it who can have access
to this organized knowledge and learn it, not from scratch,
or through repeating mistakes but rather duplicate / adapt
ideas or models that have proven very effective elsewhere.

02
"Capitalizing"experience means transforming it into
knowledge that can be shared (Pierre deZutter,
1994)."Capitalization of experience"systematization
is a knowledge creation process that can be widely
shared and which is useful for improving your project or
organization‟s practice or that of peers in similar
contexts. As a strategy, systematization should be an
integral part of the knowledge implementation and
management processes of projects and rural
development initiatives such as a systematic continuous
learning and improvement processes(FAO,2012).
Systematization is conducted with local protagonists of
the experience. This self-analysis process enables the
actors of a process to organize, position and analyze the
paths travelled in "acquiring knowledge" from their
experiences and passing on this knowledge to other
groups or actors, thus strengthening their capacity for
effective decision making when faced with problems
and opportunities in their environment. This means that
the people concerned are directly involved in the
development of the methodology, the fieldwork,
analysis and communication of results of the
systematization process.

POURUNEGESTIONINCLUSIVEDESSAVOIRS LOCAUXGRÂCE ÀLASYSTÉMATISATIONDEBONNESPRATIQUES
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03
3. Systematization of learning experiences
Local knowledge reflect the know-how spanning several
generations of experience and continuous adaptation of
external knowledge in order to solve problems; this local
knowledge makes up an essential element of the social
capital of rural communities which enables them to take
control of their own development (Bruckmeier and
Toivey, 2008).
The "local knowledge" is "valuable knowledge"
concerning practices and know-how specific to
individuals and communities; they can be used and
applied to generate economic value or, otherwise
generate individual or collective benefits (Mendoça
Ferreira, 2012).
A bigger part of this knowledge appears in an "implicit"
manner in the practices and know-how of local actors.
Thus, the process of systematization should support
managers to ensure that this knowledge becomes explicit,
conscious and transmissible.
Moreover, innovative social practices operate in specific
contexts. Therefore, the systematization process requires
addressing and understanding the political, economic and
social context in which such social practices fit, as well as
the concepts, approaches and methods used by local
champions to create knowledge.
LOCAL KNOWLEDGE AS ASOURCE FORSYSTEMATIZATION
 Knowledge is based on experience; this means that it is primarily implicit / tacit knowledge
Knowledge is shaped by traditional knowledge as well as new knowledge (external), synthesized in a
new practice and application (complementarity of implicit and explicit knowledge).
 Knowledge is adapted to the environment and culture of the community (created in the physical environment).
 It is immersed in community practices, know-how and expertise of institutions, in community relationships and
rituals, (it is essentially collective in nature).
 Since they are a shared resource in the community, they are divided, that is to say, it is fragmented knowledge.
 It is dynamic and constantly changing; for this reason, it is important to preserve and re-construct the experience.

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3.a Systematize experiences? What For?
Systematization of experiences enables us to identify,
validate and share knowledge assets, which are valuable
and relevant for learning purposes, social innovation and
for development capabilities. Consequently,
systematization has two main objectives:
1. With focus on the experiments or programs
themselves, systematization enables local champions to
conduct a retrospective and collective analysis on
experiences throughout the process (successes, mistakes,
strategies, achievements, key to success, lessons learned,
limitations, challenges) in order to improve on their own
practices or to create new knowledge. Systematization is
thus a tool for learning and improvement for the
protagonists of the experience.
It aims to showcase this local knowledge accumulated in
practice and to help its owners (local champions) in the
distribution and transmission of the same.
2. When systematizing identifies, develops and shares
accumulated knowledge through experiences, it enables to
disseminate, exchange and promote this learning and
innovations in other contexts that share similar problems
and challenges.
In this sense, the systematization creates raw materials for
the processes of learning and social innovation by putting
in order and documenting local knowledge and practical
experience. This allows dissemination and
communication of the same with other actors and
contexts, with a utilization value which increases the
usefulness of this knowledge.

FOR AN INCLUSIVE MANAGEMENT OF LOCAL KNOWLEDGE THROUGH SYSTEMATIZATION OF GOODPRACTICES
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KEY ELEMENTS FORSYSTEMATIZATION OFLEARNINGEXPERIENCES
1. INCLUDING THE VIEW OF VARIOUS ACTORS
Direct and indirect protagonists of each experiment: It is
a matter of including the views of project leaders, local
operators and community facilitators as well as
beneficiaries of natural resource management projects
and fair trade.
2. NOTING THE ROLE OF MEN AND WOMEN AND
FOSTERING YOUTH PARTICIPATION:
In order to analyze the experiences, it is important: to
interview male, female actors, as well as the youth;
interviewing actors with "traditional"positions and more
"progressive" positions so as to get a full perspective of
the study process; to include in the interview topics
references to conflicts or tensions that may have occurred
in the context of the experiment.
3. ADDRESS THE DIFFERENT MOMENTS OF THE
EXPERIMENT (JOURNEY):
This involves considering an initial situation, a response
process and a final or current situation, in order to show
the advancements, lessons and unresolved challenges.
4. INTEGRATING CONTEXTUAL FACTORS IN THE ANALYSIS:
It is a matter of identifying the elementsof the social,
political, cultural, econo mic contexts, etc.,
related to the experience, their path and results. In
this case, the initial description of contextual
factors must consider mapping of the general
conditions of territories where every experience
was carried out.
5. IDENTIFYLESSONS AND SKILLS LEARNT:
Drawing lessons learned from the systematization
supposes i) a process of reflection on experience; ii) in
order to make a general assertion on the likely impact of
specific processes or practices; iii) applicable to a large
number of experiences that have common characteristics.
6. INVOLVING ALL PROTAGONISTS OF THE EXPERIENCES IN
THE SYSTEMATIZATION ACTIVITIES ANDCOLLECTION OF
INFORMATION DURING THE FIELD WORK:
This means not only the "participants", but “the team”
involved in the systematization process.
7. FOSTERINGANDENCOURAGINGINSTANCES O F GROUPS OF
ANALYSIS AND DEBATE:
They help bring out different ideas and experiences of the
process and build consensus or debate on the successes
and challenges of the experiences.

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1
4.Steps involved in the
experience systematization
process
The systematization process is carried out in four major steps:
Identificationa n d selectionof good
practices and development of the
systematization plan;
1
2 Systematizationin the field;
3 Drafting systematization report or
developing other communication
products;
4 Sharing of the experience, its knowledge,
good practices and innovation
.
Step1.a:Identificationand
selectionofgoodpractices
1
The first step towards experience systematization is to clearly
identify the experiences that we would like to systematize and the
reasons why, based on what strengths or success.
During experience mapping and selection process, the offer
of knowledge must constantly be linked to actual or
potential demand of the learning or exchange programme
by identifying the beneficiaries of the systematization and
the expected results.
The identification andselection of successful or outstanding
experiences shall be guided by a basic principle: their
potential practical usefulness for the daily organizational and
community actions, in order to guide the institutional actions
and / or to inspire formulation and implementation of public
policies for development. Once the successful experiences
have been identified, priority shall be given to those that can
be shared, those bearing value of use to the learning
programme users and those that can be replicated at minimal
cost in contexts with similar conditions.

FOR AN INCLUSIVE LOCAL KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT THROUGH SYSTEMITIZATION OF GOOD PRACTICES
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WHAT IS AN EXEMPLARY OR OUTSTANDING EXPERIENCE?
•This is an experience that showcases use of good
practices and / or innovations to face challenges
within a given territory and positive impact in
improving people‟s living conditions.
•Improving the living conditions could be:a)
material: more income, more physical assets, access
to natural resources, etc. b)immaterial:
Every experience stemsfrom various components (social,
economic, environmental, etc.) that are integrated and
complementary to each other. At the same time, a wide
range of interdependent key topics and thematic areas can
be identified in each experience. However, considering the
key innovations and good practices developed, we should
be in a position to identify the thematic areas with a greater
potential of knowledge compared to the rest in order to
enable us to focus on such areas when carrying out the
systemization process.
Equity and social inclusion, political participation,
leadership –empowerment of actors, etc.
•Good practices, innovations, lessons or knowledge
can be drawn from an exemplary experience, which
could be applied in other contexts that share similar
conditions or needs.

08
In order to identify the good practices, the following criteria should be considered:
CRITERIA QUESTIONS RELATED
1.Thematic importance and
relevance
2.Innovation (novelty)
3.Impact/SUCCESS
4.Applicability/
REPLICABILITY
5.Sustainability/VIABILITY
6.Organizational
strengthening/
OWNERSHIP
7.Equity/PARTICIPATION
Is there any significance for the defined / requested thematic?
Why? Forwho(profiles)?
In which context does the thematic appear?
Is it an alternative bringing new responses or solutions to development issues?
Does it change previous practices?
Does it broaden local knowledge or technics?
Who are the beneficiaries of such experience?
To what extent or with which macro, meso and micro impact?
Does such experienceimprove the preceding practices / technology and knowledge?
Does it enable optimization of the working time?Doesitgeneratenewworkingsources? Does it
contribute towards income increase?
Is it possible to obtain results in similar conditions? Is it replicable?
Atwhat cost?
What are the internal and external factors affecting the success of this experience?
Did the changes or improvements last long? Do they involve
dependence vis-à-vis third parties?
Do they favour better economic empowerment? Are they
socially and environmentally sustainable?
Have the local actors or institutions integrated the practices / technology or methodologies?
Have they been shared or transmitted to other people?
Does the experienceincludewomenand youth participation?
What is their role within the experience?

09
Once a wide range of experiences have been mapped out, a second assessment should be carried out while trying to give priority
to the important experiences geared towards meeting the strategic objectives set for each systematization and learning
programme.
In this second phase, selection is based on a set of more specific criteria that include:
CRITERIA DESCRIPTION
Role of knowledge and
ownership by local champions
The Learning Roots and other educational tools aim at systemizing and disseminating
knowledge accumulated by those referred to as development „„practicing people‟‟, i.e. those
who implement the strategies and policies on the ground facing real challenges with real
solutions within a given territorial context. Consequently, while selecting experiences, one
should first of all aim at capturing development of experiences at the micro level and later
channel them in to meso and macro levels while ensuring the lead role of „„talented‟‟
protagonists who implement the development initiatives in that environment.
Value of usage To start with, the Routes generally require a wide or general knowledge which must be
gradually reduced to in order to define what type of knowledge is going to be the most
useful and functional taking in to account the users involved.The profile (real or
imaginary) of the participants of each Route should be established by stating clearly who
is targeted by the learning experience and also by ensuring that those participating will be
the very people in charge of applying the learned knowledge.
Specific learning
objectives
Each experience contributes some knowledge and specific good practices that should be
identified in order to be linked with the specific learning objectives set for each learning
initiative under the overarching thematic. At the same time, following the systematization,
the learning objectives must have answers to the following questions: ‘‘what do we learn
from this experience? Whatlessons,goodpracticesandinnovationsdoesitoffer?’’

10
CRITERIA DESCRIPTION
Complementarity and
topicality of the experiences
A content programme for each learning initiative has to be developed in line with the
learning objectives of each experience, complemented by technical and thematic
induction activities. Thus, there is need to look for experiences that complement each
other bearing various analytical dimensions of a topic or process / strategy phase.
Similarly, since systematization aims at creating dialogue to enable the actors of an
experience to pass on and share the experience, it is necessary that such experiences be
on-going or just happened so as to render the context and their actors active.
Ability to share
experiences
(At various levels)
Systematization in the learning initiatives, just like the Routes and other methodologies, is a
step that comes before the development of the learning and exchange programme. Hence, it
is essential that skilled main actors at various levels of the experience (beneficiaries, local
leaders / governments, technical operators, government agencies and others) be capable not
only of developing systematization for the process but also becoming ‘‘hosts’’during visits
whereby they should pass on such knowledge to other people.
Logistic criteria During assessment of the experiences, it is worth taking in to account, together with the
technical and educational criteria, the operative variables in order to organize the Learning
Route trip later or the needs for other educational initiatives: resources available, time,
distance between the cases, etc.

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1 Step1.b:Designingofthesystematizationplan
Once the experiences to be systematized have been
defined, upon consent from the protagonists regarding their
availability to participate in the systematization and
dissemination of their knowledge, a systematization plan
for each experience has to be developed. The following
considerations should be taken while developing this
systematization plan:
• Define the systematization axe (why do we want to
systematize this experience? What aspects of the given
experience do we want to systematize?)
• Know the context in which the experience is taking place
and identify the key actors in the experience (mapping out
the key actors);
• Suggest learning objectives for the case (preliminary);
•Develop systematization guidelines and instructions for
collecting information for the field work with local actors;
and
•Fieldwork plan, contact with local actors.
2 Step 2: Systematization onthefield
In this step, systematization is done with real experience.
The fieldwork must take in to account the experience path,
the knowledge and teachings from the local actors. In order
to do this, the research and reflection activities must clearly
address four fundamental1
aspects:
 Initialsituation (before the experience);
 Development process or experience path;
 Finalor current situation;
 Knowledge and lessons learned.
FIELD SYSTEMATIZATION PERIOD
Generally, the experience systematization fieldwork takes 3
to 4 days maximum, with the following being the general
structure of the work:
•DAY1:General systematizationworkshop.
•DAY 2 and 3: Collecting raw materials for gathering
testimonies and contextualizing the experience.
•DAY3:Classification and analysis of general outcomes.
•DAY 4: Validation of systematizationconclusions and
registration of local champions.
1
See Annex 1: General guiding questions for experience systematization

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Several activities may be conducted in the course of the
fieldwork; which should at least include the following:
ACTIVITY1: Systematization workshop:
Collective reconstruction of the
experience
ACTIVITY 2: Contextualization and
reconstruction of testimonies related to the
experience
ACTIVITY 3: Analysis of the experience and
workshop to validate the systematization outcomes
ACTIVITY4:Identificationand registration of local
champions and their skills
4 Step4:Dissemination of the
experience, its lessons, good
practices and innovations
The finalstageof the systematization process brings
together the communication activities and dissemination
of the documented experiences through the products
developed on the field (reports, notes, maps, videos, etc.)
and also through creation of exchange and learning
forums (Learning Routes, internships, field visits, etc.)
where the local champions can share, in practice, the
systematization outcomes, in the real context where the
experiences took place.
3 Step3:Draftingthesystematization
reportordevelopingother
communicationproducts
At theend of the reconstruction, analysis and experience
interpretation step, it is important to prepare a document or a
communication product that shall serve as the
systematization product or outcome.

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ANNEX1:Guiding questionsonsystematization
GUIDING QUESTIONS FOR RECONSTRUCTION OF EXPERIENCES
QUESTION DESCRIPTION
In what context is the experience
taking place?
How is the experience appearing
and what is its purpose?
What good practices and
innovation aspects can we draw
from the experience?
In which manner is the experience
taking place?
Who are the main actors involved
and what is their role /
contribution?
What success and / or impact have
resulted from the innovations?
Geographic, demographic, socio-economic, political and productive characteristics of the context
including data of interest regarding the specific topic that fits the particular experience.
Characterization of the challenges being faced or of the opportunity for capture.
Identificationof strategiesorinnovationsto meet the challenges or take advantage of the
opportunities such as organizational improvement, new products and / or services.
Experience path and steps starting from the timelines developed by its protagonists.
Characterization of the organization, the working area and the organization chart; mapping of the
main actors and their roles.
Identification of tangible success resulting from the experience at different levels i.e. economic
(change in production, sales and revenue, etc.), political etc.
What were their major
problems?
Identification of difficulties related to the experience, internal problems, obstacles due to the
context and actors involved.
What are the challenges
faced?
Challenges of the experience, key factors to enabling upscaling of the positive impact resulting
from the experience on its main actors and their territory.
Information sources: Municipal Development Plans.
Municipals‟ official websites.
Previous research or diagnosis.Collective reflections.
Testimonies from main actors and photography

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Systematization and Reinforcement Guidelines Sudan Training WS

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