What are the most effective ways to ensure that outreach programs have long-term impact?

Definition of objectives is a microcosm of the programme planning process, which has been outlined below in my full contribution. The objectives must be SMART: S: specific M: measurable A: achievable R: relevant T: time-bound Specificity is necessary to ensure efficiency in utilisation of resources for realisation of set objectives. Otherwise, wastages, abuses and losses may hinder achievement of objectives. If objectives are easily measurable, results would be wooly. Objectives must be set within achievable limits, else resources would be wasted. If objectives are not relevant to the identified problems, goals cannot be achieved. Objectives must be set within a clear time frame; nothing lasts forever.

I agree that SMART goals is a great way methodology to follow when starting from nothing. However we cannot define the objectives without talking to the people that we are serving: What are their person needs? What are the community needs? What about our youngest stakeholders, what are their needs? It’s easy to say that we know what everyone’s needs are, but we really don’t truly know until we speak with all stakeholders.

Depending on the goals and target beneficiaries of the outreach programme, we should begin with identification of relevant stakeholders. This will include government agencies (the primary duty bearers), civil society organisations (CSOs), donor agencies, bilateral and multilateral International development organisations, faith-based organisations, community-based women, men, and youth organisations. Relationship building will focus on these and other identified partners.

Gender lenses required in identification of target population, participation and empowerment of rightholders. This involves gender assessment of baseline data across urban-rural divide, economic status (using actual or proxy indicators), age, ethnicity, race, sex, geographic and other factors that underpin gender equity and gender equality.

There are so many ways to involve diverse audiences. Holding workshops where the target audience is and working with them to figure out the needs of the community is so important. Facilitating collaborative workshops by integrating various interactive interventions/methods is a great way to create buy-in from the entire community. Some of these methods include World Cafe, 1-2-Crew-Review, and Open System.

Creating effective surveys that cover all of these needs to send out to the community at various points to monitor the progress is critical to ensuring that your program/agency is continuing to meet the needs of all the stakeholders and communities.

Monitoring of outreach programmes involves regular collection and analysis of data and information that enables the programmers gauge the progress and direction of the programme. By this means, deviations from plan are easily identified and urgent steps taken to address them to ensure that the process ultimately leads to realisation of planned goals. Indicators established from the outset of programme design and planning provide the basis for this exercise.

Training is so valuable for any organization. Being aware of the needs inside and outside of the organization to not only support and empower employees, but other community stakeholders as well. Trainings are meant to be informative, but also fun and engaging so members leave remembering what they learned, not just sitting in a room for 2-3 hours listening to someone talk. It’s also important to provide continuous resources to keep members engaged and informed.

Key to co-designing any impactful outreach program is making it context specific and culturallry apporpraite, rest are the detials.

The following steps are necessary: 1. Life-cycle, gender-sensitive, risk-responsive, equity-based planning. Define, goals, objectives, strategies, and results - process, output, outcome and impact. 2. Bottom-up approach to needs assessment. 3. Capacity analysis, identifying primary and other duty bearers, target beneficiaries or right holders, capacity of institutional structures and systems that will deliver the programme. This will aid development of the content for capacity development across board. 4. Identify and establish partnerships. 5. Gender-sensitive MERL framework. 6. Resource mobilisation 7. Documentation and evidence generation. 8. Knowledge management 9. Impact assessment