Programme Quality Conference, Tanzania

This week all the Restless Development Programme Managers and Monitoring & Evaluation Managers in the nine countries that we work in met in Dar Es Salaam for our annual International Programme Quality Conference. It was great to see a lot of familiar faces and meet some new ones. It's always good to put a face to the name of someone you've been emailing for months!

The main aim of the conference was to bring the whole Programme Quality Unit together and bridge the gaps between the programme design/implementation stages of our work (traditionally carried out by Programme Managers) and the monitoring/evaluation stages (usually led by our M&E Managers) - the idea being that it's all a cycle of Programme Quality and all stages of the process are dependent on each other. 

It was a jam-packed schedule, with some sessions focusing on capacity building for specific stages of the Programme Quality cycle and other sessions providing an opportunity for practice sharing where various countries did presentations on different aspects of their work. I co-facilitated some of the sessions on programme design and led the practice sharing workshops. It was really interesting to hear in detail about some of the work we're doing as well as have the opportunity to see how similar models could work in different countries.

Goals and Approaches session for Programme Design

Brainstorming with Jalloh

Programme Design group work

On Tuesday we all had the opportunity to go on a range of field visits to see first-hand some of the work that our Tanzania team is doing. One group went to see a Youth Resource Centre, another met with some of our partner organisations, and another visited some Youth Camps where we are supporting young women to start their own businesses, making and selling jewellery and accessories. I was in the group that met with some of our alumni (ex-volunteers) to talk to them about their continuing role with Restless Development and their plans to be involved in the review of the National Constitution. Exciting stuff!

Meeting with Restless Development Tanzania alumni

Feedback session on Field Visits

On Wednesday we managed to escape the hotel in the evening and head out to the beach for drinks, dinner and some dancing. According to the "Entertainment Director" (aka James from Sierra Leone) we were all meant to teach the rest of the group a traditional dance from our country. There were some very impressive numbers from India, Uganda and Zambia but I'm not sure the UK office's rendition of the Hokey Cokey really matched up. It's the effort that counts, right?!

International dance class from Zambia

Teaching the Hokey Cokey

Kilimanjaro beer with Laura and Robyn

On the last night of the conference we headed out again for more dancing (no Hokey Cokey included) and said our goodbyes as the first departures were early Sunday morning. It's good to know I'll see James and Jalloh back in Freetown and will be seeing the South Africa and Zambia teams when I do my support visits in April and May. 

Ready to head out on last night

PQ ladies!

Last night dancing

It's been a great week, but I'm exhausted, and really looking forward to a whole week off. I'm going to be staying with friends on the Msasani Peninsula in Dar and recharging my batteries before I head back to Freetown. Kate (Programme Manager in Nepal, who has also tagged on some leave) and I have already made plans to go to Bongoyo island for the day on Monday and booked ourselves in for body scrubs and massages on Tuesday. Can't wait!