Learning from Experience: HI Uganda Organised Lessons Learned Workshops

Category

Capacity Building Pilot Countries
One of the workshop participant makes a presentation during the Lessons Learned workshop at Kyaka Motel, Kyegegwa district.

On 27 March 2024 and 30 May 2024, HI Uganda organised lessons learned workshops for formerly trained protection partners at national (Kampala) and field (Kyaka II Settlement) levels. The lessons learned workshops were identified as a mechanism to provide a platform for protection partners to share their organisations’ experiences in mainstreaming disability in their programming.

The lessons learned session at national level was attended by eight organisations, including representatives from UN agencies (UNHCR), international non-governmental organizations and national organizations. At the field level, the participants were coming from 16 different organisations, including representatives from Kyegegwa District Local Government and Office of the Prime Minister.

As a precursor to the workshops, the project team conducted a 3 – 6 months post survey which results were analyzed and presented at the workshop. Participants were then asked to give presentations on what worked well, what did not and why, and to make recommendations.

The sessions were interactive as they provided an opportunity for participants to interact on a cordial basis on how their organisations are performing in disability inclusion. The best practices were identified and shared with the participants.

During the workshops, the following crosscutting challenges were identified:

  • Low level of commitment from senior management to embrace disability inclusion;
  • Limited resources to further disability inclusion in different programmatic areas within the organisation;
  • Continued existence of attitudinal barriers at organizational level;
  • Limited capacities of staff in disability inclusion;
  • Donor un flexibilities to support disability inclusion in different projects;

The participants also identified the following solutions to the identified challenges:

  • Continuous capacity development of staff from protection partners through refresher trainings;
  • Building the community of practices and/or technical support mechanism on disability inclusion among humanitarian actors to enhance learnings;
  • Disseminating Leave no one behind project information in different working groups to influence disability inclusion at national and field levels.
  • Documenting good and promising practices on disability inclusion for learning among humanitarian actors.
Participant sitting in an U-form during lessons learned workshop in Kampala.
Hilda (a participant from World Vision Uganda) makes a presentation during the Lessons Learned workshop at Kabira Country Club, Kampala district.

Text by Oscar WALUKHU WAKOOLI / HI Uganda
Photos by Michael Byamukama / HI Uganda