Outcome of the first Focus Group meeting in Burkina Faso

The monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system of IICD is based on two key elements: the collection of questionnaires for a quantitative data analysis and the so-called ‘focus group meetings’ to validate and discuss results and look for solutions with partners. It is a self-evaluation system based on the participation of all parties.

At the time of the focus group meeting in April 2004, seven projects in were going through the phase of formulating a project. The local monitoring and evaluation partner, Daniel Thiéba of GREFCO, collected the questionnaires and made an analysis of the data. He looked at the data from the questionnaires completed following the Roundtable workshop. In addition, he analysed the data from the questionnaires filled in by the project teams in formulation. Based on the results, the first focus group meeting was held in April 2004. The next will be organised in November 2004.

Data analyses results
Looking at the quantitative data, several remarks can be made:
• Most of the participants of the Roundtable workshop reside in the capital or in other cities in the country. Most participants are male. At the end of the Roundtable, 80% of participants intended to initiate a project, or even already had an idea of a project.
• The most striking fact is probably the difference between the number of organisations that intended to formulate a project and those that did in fact implemented it (that is those who went further and submitted project proposals for discussion). Why is that?
• Forms for the projects in the formulation phase were almost all completed by the persons responsible for the writing projects themselves, in stead of by the whole project team. Also, the persons implicated in the writing process are mostly male, reside outside of the capital and are between 31 and 50 years of age. Furthermore, the organisations are quite diversified (balanced representation of public institutions, professional organisations of farmers and supporting NGO).
• IICD’s role in helping projects in the formulation process is highly appreciated by projects that have already drafted a project proposal. In fact, these results should not be a surprise since it is precisely those who went that far in the process that completed the formulation questionnaire. The roles of the local consultant, including the IICD consultant, are well appreciated.
• The project leaders all recognise the importance of an active participation from end-users in the formulation process. However, if we look at the ratings concerning end-users’ participation in the formulation, the scores are less positive. Data indicate a visible contradiction or at least a variance.

Results of the Focus Group discussion
Three topics were selected to be discussed with the focus group participants. The group consisted of all project leaders and IICD’s training partners in Burkina Faso.

1) Looking at the results from the Roundtable workshop
The discussions relating to the first subject showed the participants’ level of interest for the Roundtable approach: a good meeting and exchange forum, better knowledge of IICD and ICTs and the possibilities they offer.

2) Involvement of the team members and/or end-users in the formulation process
The interpretation of the formulation questionnaire could be confusing, in particular the term ‘‘formulation’’. It was interpreted as the time of writing, while it is referring to the complete process of designing a 5-year project. For the subgroup members that discussed this issue, the end-users’ needs are always considered in the projects’ development, because team members are all ready aware of the complaints and expectations and provide this knowledge during the formulation process. Consequently, there is no need for a new needs analysis. However, the needs of the end-users should always carefully be considered.

3) Integration of project goals and  organisation’s goals in the ICT project
For the subgroup that considered this subject, this is important:
• to insure the project sustainability;
• for the project to meet the organisation’s objectives;
• to insure the project success;
• to foster ownership of the project.

The difficulties that could be encountered are:
- lack of skills;
- lack of expertise, with a risk of deviation;
- evaluation of activities not matching reality and therefore biased;
- inefficiency in raising funds and therefore difficulties and risk of jeopardise the start of the project;
- danger of giving more weight to the project management than to a search of the solutions found by the potential partners.