Hybrid training model strengthens skills of more than 1600 employees working in Uganda’s civil society space

Although the presence of civil society organisations (CSOs) in Uganda has grown significantly in recent decades, their influence and participation in political processes has not kept pace. Their potential impact has been further hampered by a lack of sufficient operational skills.

In an effort to address this, GIZ launched the Civil Society in Uganda Support Programme (CUSP) in 2018. The programme is jointly funded by the European Union and the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) in Uganda. In 2019, NIRAS was contracted to implement the training component of CUSP with the goal to increase CSO staff capacity in eight pre-defined topics, namely, resource mobilisation, internal governance, lobbying & advocacy, leadership, mainstreaming, results-based management, financial management, and computer skills.

The project was kicked off in March 2019 with the support of a local partner. Some months later, the contracted trainers had delivered the first versions of participants’ and trainers’ manuals for a number of modules and were ready to start the first sessions when the COVID pandemic threw a wrench into the plan.

Developing a hybrid learning model

The following months were spent brainstorming how the project goals could be reached when in-person trainings and regular work in an office was not possible due to strict governmental COVID restrictions.

After five months, the team’s planning and experimenting with online platforms and tools bore its first fruits: the first eight-week resource mobilisation online course – which was completed at the learners’ own pace with no real-time interaction – was conducted on the GIZ e-learning platform atingi. The course consisted of ten learning sessions and included interesting Q&A videos where the trainer would answer questions that were relevant for the learning session, followed by extensive input sessions and multiple choice questions at the end. This course was quickly followed by many others in changing modalities – first, shortened courses of five weeks and then the so-called “power courses” which only lasted five days.

The team developed a mascot for the training material called Ginnie

In 2021, the team – which grew to over 20 members – was able to offer both in person-trainings with small groups, according to GIZ COVID restrictions, and online-trainings as per the need of the client and the CSO participants. This was also needed in order to ensure adaptability to the continuously evolving situation and the national regulations that emerged.

Minsi Monja, a Ugandan public health and development practitioner with solid experience in training, was the first trainer to join the team and led the resource mobilisation training. “I have personally trained more than 300 representatives of CSOs through the programme – although the target was 250. We definitely overachieved due to the hybrid approach,” he says.

The team’s collaboration was also essential in order to ensure success. “As trainers, we would meet and discuss each Friday to reflect and refresh our perspectives. We would discuss new practices that we could borrow and replicate as well as the way forward, and how to address challenges. We supported each other a lot in improving the quality of trainings,” says Monja.

It was the first time Monja worked with NIRAS and he describes it as a great experience: “NIRAS is a very good company to work with! Katrin Buchner, the project manager was instrumental in terms of leading the project, and Ulrich Stephan was a very good team leader. Meghan Stuppert, our deputy team leader, was very practical in designing our activity task planners, office shift schedules, and participants progress tracker and building our skills in IT – a skill all of us gained from her and which we will use going forward!” he remarks, adding: “The programme was very innovative, and personally, I learned so many things. I know this was the case for my fellow trainers too. For instance, we all became experts in the GIZ atingi platform! I greatly appreciate the quality of the activities we did, including development of material, communications, and collaboration. NIRAS brought us together to the build capacity of people.”

[The training] was very well designed, practical and valuable for anyone who wants to enhance their understanding about leadership. It really motivated me to change my approach to leadership and management. I can honestly say that putting your tips and tools into practice has made me feel more confident about my dream of being a good and inspirational leader. This training has also helped me to figure out my areas of weakness and also how to polish them and be better.

Participant

The last in-person training in the module “Internal Governance” took place in Mbarara

1654

representatives completed the trainings. 1200 was the initial target

44 %

(721) of the total number of participants were female

41

of the 66 trainings were conducted online, and 25 in-person

Tireless efforts in the search for solutions

Over the three years the project ran, the environment was steadily changing – not least because of COVID and the turbulent times before and during the presidential election. “The team never got tired of searching for solutions and new approaches to reach CSOs countrywide,” says Katrin Buchner. “We encountered quite a number of challenges, but in my view, we managed to overcome them all and even turn them into opportunities.” For instance, many participants had very low IT skills and most had never participated in any kind of online training. In order to accommodate this, the team’s communications experts spent hours on the phone with struggling participants and would explain step by step where to find atingi and how to register and navigate the platform. Video tutorials and supporting documents were also created, uploaded to the atingi library, and sent to participants in the onboarding week via email. Over the course of the year, participants IT skills were strongly improved simply by participating in the online trainings.

Eight self-learning manuals, one for each course, are finalized and being distributed to all participants

Another challenge concerned many participants’ lack of access to stable internet. This was solved by adapting the learning sessions on atingi so participants could choose video or audio for input, and webinars were recorded and saved on the platform so they could be watched at any time. In addition, some participants had to go to the field during the training and could only follow via mobile phone. This led the team to adapt the courses to mobile format.

During the lockdown the team of trainers were provided with a router and data from a telecom company, so they were well equipped for their home office and remote work, namely training. “It was important that they felt prioritised even though they worked from home as we relied on their performance and willingness to work,” Ulrich Stephan says. They were also coached in in-person trainings. “After a short period of time, some of the trainers developed incredible performances – they became real entertainers and discovered their own training style. It was eye opening. I think these positive developments were driven by a proactive work environment and daily online feedback rounds.”

The participants had very different backgrounds, circumstances and work environments. So teaching them how to use e-learning modules was important. That’s why we employed three communications experts who used a lot of time guiding participants and troubleshooting on the phone. It was important that the team was nice and trustworthy – I see it as a success factor that we created a trustful environment, as some of the participants were initially hesitant about the e-learning approach.

Ulrich Stephan, team leader

Although the project is finalised, the material developed by the team stays accessible on atingi meaning that interested people can still continue learning.

Monja is still in contact with some of the participants from his trainings. “I know that some organisations have already applied the skills they achieved from the resource mobilisation training that I provided. They are looking for partners to form consortiums and are applying the skills in terms of writing better proposals. I have also been told that based on other courses like internal governance, people are reviewing their systems internally, while putting in place policies and systems that ensure that the organisations are functional and can sustain themselves.”

The team had an event when they reached the goal of 1200 trained CSO representatives

Learnings for the future

“Digitalisation is here to stay,” says Ulrich Stephan, “and this project proved that you can actually confront people with e-learning as long as you assess their circumstances properly and apply a tailored approach. It obviously also depends on what you want to achieve with your training. In-person training enables discussion and network creation, whereas e-learning is more suitable if the objective of the training is transfer of knowledge. You cannot replace in person training with the digital format. But you can mix the two and achieve great results!”