By Revy Sjahrial and Rick James
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
Mahatma Gandhi
“Learn as if you were to live forever” is a lovely idea, but so hard to put into practice. Learning takes time and investment. It has to be prioritised over other, often more urgent demands. This seems particularly challenging for CSO consultants who are often fully focused on the current, or even the next, contract. Many tend to work on their own, so do not get much opportunity to learn from and collaborate with others.
To address this isolation and lack of continuous learning, C4Change.ID (a group of Indonesian consultants), with support from INTRAC and seed funding from the Packard Foundation, began to cultivate a community of national consultants in late 2023. It is still too soon to say whether it will take root and flourish, but early signs are encouraging.
Planting the idea – reaching out through networks
Initially the C4Change.ID team shared the idea through their own extensive networks of consultants in Indonesia as well as through Packard partners in the country. They organised an online webinar to describe and discuss the idea. More than 50 attended. From the very start, communication and interaction was conducted as much as possible in Bahasa Indonesia. Only where INTRAC’s interaction was key, C4Change.ID took turns to interpret from English.
Selecting members – rigorously
Becoming part of the community was not open to all. The C4Change.ID team set a rigorous selection process, with demanding criteria. They wanted to shape the community so that it had a good mix of gender, range of expertise and experience (from early- and mid-career to senior consultants) and geographical location. They placed particular significance on those based in more marginal areas. The criteria set were consistent with their personal and professional values related to equity, diversity and inclusion.
Potential members of the group had to submit a CV, letter of motivation and those short-listed went through online interviews. These interviews explored the distinct challenges and dilemmas facing consultants as well as their views on what makes for quality consulting with civil society; their preferred learning approaches; and networking ideas to contribute to less well-served regions. Four C4Change.ID members then analysed the interview responses together and selected 22 to attend a face-to-face learning event. There were 11 women and 11 men; 12 were independent and 10 organisation-based consultants.
Cultivating relationship and learning – a face-to-face event
Communities of practice depend on trust. It is hard to develop deep trust online. So C4Change.ID organised a two-day face-to-face workshop in Jakarta (the most cost-effective location) in July 2024. The process focused on developing trusting relationships between participants to begin to create a sense of community. The process also involved experimenting with a series of different peer-to-peer learning methodologies, such as action learning sets, masterclasses and describing coaching and buddying. This gave people a flavour of different ways they might learn from each other. This in-person event required considerable logistical support from the C4Change.ID team and also extra financial investment (even though it was done as frugally as possible). But without social connection, community does not really exist.
At the end of the event, consultants were keen to create a community of practice amongst themselves to:
- Share learning;
- Collaborate for consultancy work; and
- Influence the wider civil society ecosystem.
Growing the idea
The group is still near the start of this learning journey. But already we are seeing buds – encouraging initial signs of greater collaboration and learning. Since the event in July 2024, the community has already started:
- Facilitating monthly peer-to-peer learning sessions
- Sharing ideas and work opportunities through WhatsApp group
- Taking part in INTRAC webinars; Consultants for Change online training and mentoring training
- Translating MEL materials from INTRAC’s M&E Universe into Bahasa Indonesian
- Initiating consultant coaching sessions
The group is already working through difficult questions about how to finance this peer learning in future. Of course, everyone would love learning to be instantly financially sustainable – with members covering all the costs themselves. In resource-poor settings this may not be realistic, especially in the early stages of a community of practice. Like any young plant, it needs regular water to take root and grow strong. It takes on-going commitment from all stakeholders – from funders, of INTRAC, of C4Change.ID and of course from the members themselves. Cultivating a genuine community does not simply end at the planting stage.
What is the ecosystem of consultant support for civil society organisations like in your region? What opportunities exist for cultivating connection, collaboration and learning amongst civil society consultants?
At INTRAC we are committed to contributing what we can to develop the ecosystem of national consultants. We believe this is a vital part of shifting the power in the aid sector. Hopefully you will have found some ideas from this Indonesia example both inspiring and practically helpful. Do get in touch with us to find out more:
- Revy Sjahrial: revyreal [at] duck.com
- Rick James: rjames [at] intrac.org