[EVALTALK] Stakeholder Participation Workshop in Mexico - February 2012

 Dear Colleague,

Mosaic and Sarar Transformacion have teamed up to offer a one week workshop in Mexico on Participatory Planning, Needs Assessment and Monitoring and Evaluation. This is a great way to snap out of the upcoming winter blues and build you capacity in participatory methods! Please feel free to share this announcement with your colleagues.

  <http://www.33ff.com/flags/S_flags/flags_of_Mexico.gif>

February 6-11, 2012: Stakeholder Participation Workshop in Planning, Needs Assessment, and Monitoring and Evaluation held in Tepoztlan, Mexico

**This workshop is being offered in collaboration with  <http://www.sarar-t.org/portal/indexFrames.php> Sarar Transformacion in Mexico!

Stakeholder Participation Workshop

This year’s Stakeholder Participation Workshop will be held in Tepoztolan, Mexico in collaboration with Sarar Transformacion.

 This six-day workshop will show you how to:

·         MASTER participatory tools in the workplace;

·         APPLY participatory approaches to the project cycle;

·         DESIGN solutions for your own situation;

·         ANALYZE community needs and priorities from the community perspective;

·         INTEGRATE participatory methods into project design, monitoring and evaluations.

Here's what past participants have said about the workshop:

“The workshop was packed with information and experiences and very well thought out. I found it quite easy to learn and internalize new tools".

"The PRA workshop achieves its goals by being fully participatory, experiential, highly informative and fun. I will be using the tools in my courses to raise student awareness of community education issues and in my international development work".

"I can now connect the theory with the practice."

"There were many participants from many different organizations which meant that there were many different perspectives represented. This led to a richness of discussion..."

"The workshop was more than tools. It was an experience."

Why You Should Attend:

Experience has shown that participation improves the quality, effectiveness and sustainability of our actions (i.e. engagement, organizational change, leadership, building a common vision). By placing people at the centre, our actions have a much greater potential to empower and to lead to the ownership of initiatives.   Giving the poor, local communities, and local government a central voice in development efforts that affect them is at the heart of participation.

What Results to Expect:

The workshop is based on a hands-on approach to participatory development that can be applied in the South, in both urban and rural community settings. You will be introduced to the concepts and tools behind participatory development, also referred to as "Participatory, Learning and Action" (PLA) and "Participatory Rural/Rapid Appraisal" (PRA).  Practice assignments in the community will enable you to master and improve the tools and approaches to participation, to help you and/or your organization interact more effectively with groups and/or the community.

You can expect to enhance your awareness, knowledge or skills in any of the following areas:

·         Using participation in project design, management, monitoring and evaluation;

·         Increasing participation of different interest groups or stakeholders;

·         Learning and applying participation tools and community-based research methods such as semi-structured interviewing, community mapping, gender division of labour,

·         institutional mapping, force-field analysis, seasonal calendars, historical timelines, and more;

·         Organizational development and capacity-building for your organization;

·         Community development methods.

Who Will be There?
This workshop is designed for:

·         Professionals & managers who work with different stakeholder groups at government, intermediary or community levels;

·         NGOs who are interested in learning the latest techniques in participatory development;

·         Participatory-action researchers and educators who use and teach qualitative methods;

·        Policy, program and project officers who make critical decisions on organizational policy, resource allocations, project design, monitoring and evaluation;

·        First Nations facilitators and leaders who work directly with aboriginal groups; and,

·         Community activists who want to learn dynamic community methods and tools.

·         Consultants who want to broaden their repertoire of tools & methods.

All participants should have a basic knowledge of English and Spanish and be able to express themselves in both languages.

Workshop Structure

This workshop is an intensive six day workshop set in the community to maximize learning, group interaction and networking. Sessions begin at 8:30 in the morning and run all day including some evenings, particularly Monday night. Please note that community work in communities is extensive and requires the full commitment of all workshop participants.

Day 1: Introduction to Stakeholder Participation

·         Setting the Context: The Origins of Participatory Methods and Approaches

·         Key Concepts Related to Stakeholder Participation

·         Attitudes and Behaviors Conducive to Participation

Day 2: Practicing the Tools

·         Participatory Project Design and Planning

·         Undertaking Participatory Evaluations

·         Practicing PRA/PLA tools

Day 3: Learning the Tools

·         Community Mapping

·         Semi-Structured Interviewing

·         Institutional Mapping

·         Facilitating Groups

·         Dealing with Saboteurs

·         Seasonal Calendars

·         Timelines

·         Venn Diagrams

·         Applying a gender approach to the application of PRA tools

·         Appreciative Inquiry, and more......

Days 4 & 5: Practice Assignments in the Community

Mosaic will organize three-day community assignments based on the needs and priorities of community-based organizations in the Tepoztlan, Mexico area. Project teams will work together intensively, practising tools learned in the workshop and adapting them to real life situations. Past participants of workshops have worked on the following topics:

·         Survey of community health needs and services

·         Exploring community needs and how to increase volunteerism

·         Assessing youth priorities

·         Resident needs and concerns for a new recreational facility

·         Community input to a Wellness Program

Day 6: Group Reports, Building Your Action Plan and Evaluation

·         Presentation of Team Reports

·         Preparing an Action Plan

·         Certificates, Evaluation and Wrap-Up for 1:30 pm.

How Will This be Achieved?

This is a practical, iterative and hands-on workshop. The format will vary between small group work and discussion, plenary, and practical community assignments to encourage the sharing of knowledge and application of participatory concepts and tools to real life situations. Participants will go out into the community on a daily basis to apply tools and to learn by doing.

The community practice assignments will be in one of five different communities in and around Tepoztlan, Mexico. Teams of participants will carry out a simulated participatory development exercise, using the tools learned in the workshop. Where appropriate, links will be made to existing community groups and their issues. Evening meetings and on-going team-building exercises will be part of this process.

The Workshop Site and Accommodations:

The course will take place in a retreat house in Tepoztlan, Morelos State, Mexico. The facilities are elegantly and solemnly built out of volcanic stone and wood, and it has 2 gardens.

Quinta Tonantzin also has a great kitchen, large dining room and a common living area with TV, phone and internet access. All of the 2-single shared bedrooms (each with a traditional toilet and shower) are located around a central courtyard.

How to arrive:

Mexico City Benito Juarez International Airport is located at the northeast of the city. After leaving the international arrivals gate, you can find Currency Exchange Houses and stores where you can buy 30 peso Ladatel public telephone cards. Please use your card to call the Sarar Transformacion host to inform them of your arrival. For further airport information, go to: <http://www.aicm.com.mx/home_en.php> www.aicm.com.mx/home_en.php

Once in the airport, go to the Information Booth to ask about the "Pullman de Morelos" bus company. Once you find the bus departure, buy the next single ticket to Cuernavaca (About $12 in the daytime or $ 25 at night time or 200-300 pesos); the trip lasts around 2 hours.  Upon your arrival to Casino de la Selva Bus Terminal in Cuernavaca, take a taxi ($ 12 USD or 140 pesos) there to Tepoztlan. Make sure you have a printed version of how to get to Quinta Tonantzin to hand out to the taxi driver. The trip should last no more than 50 minutes.

Quinta Tonantzin is located in Tenochtitlan Street, 56, Barrio de Santo Domingo. Once in the lower part of central Tepoztlan, go to Barrio de Santo Domingo, which can be reached turning left through Albino Ortega Street, and right on Tenochtitlan. As a reference is Casa Toledo, and Quinta Tonantzin is the following construction on the corner; the entrance is on the right, with a large black door.

If you choose to stay in a hotel in Mexico City prior to your arrival to the retreat, we have the following suggestions:

Hotel Casa Gonzalez, located in a central tourist section of the city with accessible prices ( $ 35-$ 70 USD), not so far away from the airport. For further information and reservations, go to:  <http://www.hotelcasagonzalez.com/> http://www.hotelcasagonzalez.com/or  <http://www.travelpod.com/hotel/Casa_Gonzalez-Mexico_City.html> http://www.travelpod.com/hotel/Casa_Gonzalez-Mexico_City.html.

Useful telephone numbers upon your arrival & map:
Sarar Office: 01 (739) 395 7505 / 04 and Laura Perez Cell Phone 045 (777) 201 2877

Registration Fees:

·         UN, international institutions and Government: $ 1700 USD

·         International NGOs, academics, private sector: $1380 USD

·         Local NGOs and private sector, full time students from the North: $ 1100 USD (must provide proof of full-time student status)

·         Full time Students from the South: USD $ 795.00. (must provide proof of full time student status)

**The workshop fee includes: Accommodations for 6 days and meals from Sunday night-Saturday lunch except lunch during Thursday and Friday during the community assignment; Workshop fees, a binder of tools and resource materials, snacks and coffee.

Please note that all participants should have a basic knowledge of Spanish and be able to express themselves in the Spanish language.

 Full details are available at  <http://www.mosaic-net-intl.ca/> www.mosaic-net-intl.ca.  We look forward to your participation.

 Francoise Coupal, Director of Mosaic.net International, Inc.

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Come, participate and celebrate in our 16th Year of organizing dynamic International Workshops:

Our workshop in Mexico:

Stakeholder Participation Workshop in Project/Programme Design, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Mexico:  February 6-11, 2012.

Our workshops in Canada:

1.   Gender Training  ♀♂   A joint collaboration involving Gender Equality Incorporated and Mosaic, July 16-20, 2012 held at the University of Ottawa, Canada.

**As part of the five day workshop, one day will feature Michael Kaufman on Engaging Men in Gender Equality.

2.  Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation with 2 day Community Practicum:  July 23-28, 2012 held at the University of Ottawa, Canada.

.* Registration includes 3 months of post-workshop online mentoring and coaching to facilitate the application of tools in the workplace.

Full details are available at our website at:  <http://www.mosaic-net-intl.ca/> http://www.mosaic-net-intl.ca . We look forward to your participation!

___________________________________________

Françoise Coupal
Founder

Mosaic.net International, Inc.

705 Roosevelt Ave.
Ottawa, Canada K2A 2A8
Tel:  (613) 728-1439; Fax:  (613) 728-1154.
Skype:  francoise.coupal