Action Against Hunger South Caucasus hosts its Bi-annual Programmatic Workshop

From the 31^st July to the 3^rd August, the Action Against Hunger South Caucasus team hosted its bi-annual programmatic workshop in the Coordination office in Tbilisi. The workshop was held after several weeks of preparatory work to establish the Technical Programming Framework, Modalities and Priorities for the mission over the next 2 years. The workshop was facilitated by Teresa Caterino and Ana Maria Muedra Sánchez from the Action Against Hunger headquarters in Spain. Representatives from the offices throughout the South Caucasus journeyed to Tbilisi to participate and provide their input.

This is an essential process for all non-governmental organizations Teresa explains, saying that “even in organizations with longstanding experience and understanding of the context as Action Against Hunger has in the South Caucasus, it is good sometimes to stop and reflect on how we are doing our job and where we want to go. In the end, we ideally contribute to a change – and it is best to have clear ideas on how we are helping. Therefore, this exercise was great to sit and reflect: what are we doing, for whom and how can we be better?”

The first day focused primarily on summarising the work conducted in previous on-line meetings and to review the workshop schedule. This ensured that all participants understood both the background to the workshop and had a mutual understanding of the agenda for the next 3 days.

The second day proved both interactive and informative. Participants attended a detailed presentation on Action Against Hunger’s “Pertinence and Feasibility Analysis” tool, designed to identify, classify and prioritise the abilities and activities of the organisation. Participants were then divided into teams to collaborate and directly apply this tool to the activities of Action Against Hunger and those of our partners.

This strengthened the bonds in the team as each group comprised of participants from different offices across the region. Following this, the workshop participants reunited to discuss, question and learn from the efforts of the other groups. The results of this collaboration were then used to improve and refine the core modalities of the organisation’s work in the region.

On the third day the team was again divided into groups to  discuss and categorize each of the modalities under Action Against Hunger’s key focus areas, such as WASH, Food Security and Livelihoods in both emergency and development contexts.

“It was an interesting exercise, because it is one of the oldest missions that Action Against Hunger has, and we are in a certain way piloting approaches and methodologies. It was great to see all the commitment and the creativity in steering the next steps of our implementation”, said Teresa.

Finally, participants spent the last day reviewing, discussing and finalising the modalities and priorities, resulting in a more refined theory of change document which will guide the programmes and activities of AAH South Caucasus over the next period.

Reflecting on her experience of the workshop, our facilitator, Teresa said “Even if every context has its specificities, Action Against Hunger is a network, and we learn from what works or not in certain contexts – what  we are good at and what we could gain further knowledge on. This workshop was the opportunity to analyse what we can capitalize on and give back to other country offices, and what type of activities we need further training and support on.