Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Methodology of the Learning Plan
- Learning Management: Ethics and Safeguarding
- Knowledge Dissemination and Application
Introduction
The Learning Plan you are holding in your “virtual hands” describes a journey that Fenomenal Funds is taking to identify the main learnings and deepen the understanding of the work that has been done since the collaborative’s inception in 2019. This journey is framed by an overarching question:
What will it take to strengthen the individual infrastructure and collective ecosystem of women’s funds members of Prospera International Network of Women’s Funds (INWF)?
To support this process, Fenomenal Funds has partnered with the KIT Royal Tropical Institute to be their Learning Partner. Our team comprises Rebecca Hallin, Ana Victoria Portocarrero, Camilo Antillón, and Anne Karam.
This Learning Plan is the result of a five-month co-creation process where we facilitated reflections with members of the Advisory Committee, the Steering Committee, the Learning and Evaluation Working Group, and the Prospera INWF Secretariat, while guided by Fenomenal Funds.
As a result, these interactions produced reflections on several learning areas, including advocacy for the crucial role women’s funds have and can play in resourcing and supporting gender justice movements; the participatory grantmaking process and its potential effects on the resilience of individual women’s funds and the ecosystem at large; and the collaborative’s governance structure (which will be addressed, but in another work stream). It also guided us to which stakeholders to engage and the methodologies that would ensure an ethical and inclusive process, firmly rooted in feminist participatory methods.
We invite you to embark on this journey with us and take a look at the plan that has come as a result of the co-creation process. It contains a methodology, a learning management approach, and a brief knowledge dissemination section.
Methodology of the Learning Plan
Key Learning Questions—Fenomenal Funds’s Cabinet of Curiosities
Based on the insights gained during the co-creation process, we will structure the Learning Plan in two phases: Phase 1 looks back and reflects on past experiences as part of the Fenomenal Funds initiative, and Phase 2 looks forward and thinks of how to apply those learnings to future endeavors. Each phase is guided by two broad learning questions with different themes or curiosities for a total of four questions. Figure 1 presents them.
Figure 1. The Fenomenal Funds’s Key Learning Questions
Methods
We will approach this learning process in two phases, following the structure of the learning questions. In the first phase, we will look back to learn from the experiences of the women’s funds with the Fenomenal Funds initiative. In the second phase, we will use those learnings for advocacy and improving practices to look forward to.
Phase 1: Looking Back
In this phase, we will develop five case studies with women’s funds focused on their experience with the resilience grants and three case studies with collaboration groups in order to gain an in-depth understanding of their experiences with Fenomenal Funds and the changes these encounters may have generated. Since several funds have had the opportunity to engage with both grants we will also look into the potential synergies between them. The selection of women’s funds and collaboration groups for the case studies has been done in agreement with the Fenomenal Funds governance structures, using the following criteria in Figure 2:
Figure 2. Case Study Criteria
The case studies will use a participatory and narrative approach, with the women’s funds and collaboration groups as the protagonists. The aim of this approach is to create a space in which the members of women’s funds and collaboration groups can reflect on their journey with Fenomenal Funds and on how they would like to tell the story of this journey.
Each case study will start with a series of in-depth interviews with individual members of the women’s funds and collaboration groups. In each interview, the participants will tell the story of their journey with Fenomenal Funds based on their own experiences. We will analyze the interviews and consolidate them into a narrative that highlights the common trends, as well as the singularities, of each story. This narrative will then be presented during a focus group discussion with a wide representation of the five women’s funds and, separately, three collaboration groups. The participants will be invited to share their reflections, nuances, additions, or criticisms, so that the narrative better represents their collective experiences. The focus group discussion will also include an exercise in which participants will decide together on the format through which they would like to present their story in a knowledge product.
In addition to the case studies, we will conduct eight key informant interviews, two with each representative of the various stakeholders of Fenomenal Funds in the Steering and Advisory Committees (i.e., women’s funds, funding partners, Prospera INWF Secretariat, and Fenomenal Funds Secretariat). These interviews will focus on their experiences with Fenomenal Funds as part of these instances, their views on what these experiences have meant for women’s funds, and the extent to which they have influenced their own practices.
Throughout this phase we will validate our findings and upcoming steps with the Learning and Evaluation Working Group.
Phase 2: Looking Forward
In the second phase of the learning process, we will reflect on how to apply the knowledge that emerged from Phase 1. As a starting point, based on the insights from the co-creation process, we will focus the application on two areas: advocacy and improvement of practices.
This phase will consist of four workshops with representatives of all the women’s funds and collaboration groups that have participated in Fenomenal Funds. The women’s funds will be organized in four groups according to regions, time zones, and shared languages, in consultation with the Fenomenal Funds governance structures. We will also ensure that within each group there is diversity in terms of the size of the women’s funds and their national, regional, or multi-regional scope.
During the workshop, the women’s funds and collaboration groups will present the narratives co-created through their case studies, and based on these, we will generate a space for exchange among the participants on (1) the extent to which the case studies presented resonate with their own experiences or not; and (2) the use of these learnings for advocacy and for the improvement of their practices.
In addition to the workshops with the women’s funds and collaboration groups, we will conduct three collective interviews with representatives of the different stakeholders in the Advisory and Steering Committees: one with the representatives of the funding partners, one with the representatives of the women’s funds, and one with the representatives of the Secretariats of Prospera and Fenomenal Funds. In these collective interviews, we will present the reflections that emerged from Phase 1, and we will invite participants to engage in the looking forward exercise.
Phase 3: Knowledge Products and Validation
Based on the insights generated during the process, we will enrich the narratives from the case studies and identify common themes that cut across them. The narratives and the cross-cutting issues identified will then be used to prepare a series of knowledge products, each one addressing a specific area of learning, which will be publicly disseminated by KIT. Figure 3 represents a summary of the methodology. (Start in the center of the spiral.)
Figure 3. The Methodological Journey
Learning Management: Ethics and Safeguarding
In line with a feminist approach to co-creating knowledge, the Learning Plan should actively contribute to fostering feminist-oriented transformations and must encompass the perspectives of individuals situated at various points along the power spectrum. The process itself should be empowering to those who are actively participating and should open space for a horizontal and reciprocal learning experience. This means concretely that the Learning Plan needs to be the following:
Useful
A key challenge is to co-create learnings that are useful for the different stakeholders that are part of the initiative. To ensure this, the Learning Plan includes the learning questions proposed by representatives of all stakeholders involved and will capture new questions throughout the process.
Iterative
The process should not be lineal nor finite. We propose a spiral-like process that facilitates the emergence of learning, in which the different stakeholders have the chance to address certain questions, analyze collectively the reflections generated, and identify insights and new questions that lead to a new stage of analysis.
Ethical, reciprocal, caring, and horizontal
Feminist ethics inform this process in various ways. First, the methodology aims to ensure that participants actively engage in the analysis of the ideas shared by the collective, so that the learnings and conclusions represent their own views. Second, the work plan includes sessions centered exclusively on reciprocal learning. Both of these approaches aim to ensure a horizontal approach, countering top down or external gaze and analysis of the learnings retained in this learning journey. Third, we will make sure to create safe and brave spaces. A safe space means that individuals, particularly those whose voices are traditionally less heard, can express themselves, share their experiences, and engage in discussions without fear of discrimination, harassment, or judgment. A brave space, on the other hand, allows for us to jointly establish the ground rules for the space. And last but not least, another ethical aspect is that of care for the well-being of participants, respecting their time and energy so that the learning process does not overburden them.
Inclusive
Some key barriers for meaningful participation identified during the co-creation process will be addressed in the following ways:
- Make resources available when needed, such as compensation for mobilization, bandwidth, time to “digest” information, etc.
- Accommodate different time zones, languages, communication styles, and special needs.
- Address power dynamics by preventing stronger groups or individuals from monopolizing the narrative, organizing separated activities with diverse stakeholders, and organizing activities by geographies.
- To ensure data safety and trust, all the information co-produced during the process will be confidential until it is decided what information is shared externally and what remains internal; direct sources of information will not be revealed; information will be securely stored and encrypted; and participants will have the right to ask to go off-record.
Knowledge Dissemination and Application
We aim to generate multiple practical products as we advance in the process, addressing the key questions and curiosities of the Learning Plan. Included in these practical products are the case studies prepared by the women funds and collaboration groups. Besides the knowledge products that will respond to the Learning Plan’s guiding questions, the Learning Partner will be sharing reflections and updates of the process through a blog entitled: “Along the Road: Where are we in Fenomenal Funds’s Learning Journey?”. The blog will contain updates of the process so that participants understand the Learning Plan’s level of advancement and next steps. These entries aim at a more horizontal and reciprocal learning process, as well as at producing methodological reflections of the process itself.