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I visited WWF-Australia’s floating rice project in the Mekong Delta. There, they used agricultural drones to plant floating rice over a hundred hectares of flooded wetlands, working with farmers to adapt the innovative practice and learn from the process. I was amazed at the level of innovation and the insightful use of data to inform…
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Some four weeks ago, I was invited to facilitate a day’s discussion on learning and impact to roughly 80 people, representatives of around 40 civil society organisations from Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria. The rule of thumb? No slides. No use of online tools as Menti or Miro. I found the task daunting at first.…
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This year marks the 10th year since I started researching on open data. Some 10 years ago, I wrote, in the context of the Philippines, that On the supply side, incentivising openness is a critical aspect in ensuring that local governments have the interest to disclose financial data.…….On the demand side, there is limited awareness…
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I once thought that establishing collaboration is straightforward, not until I had an opportunity to facilitate a conversation between two mission-driven organisations whose work has been significantly influential in helping women realise their roles as agents of change. I was in Taipei for a Christmas holiday with my wife and kids when, out of the…
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I have been a member of several communities of practice (CoP) in the past but have not had the opportunity to moderate one. My current role as advisor of the Mekong Australia Partnership – Water Energy Climate (MAP-WEC) program, however, provided me with a window of organising one for monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) practitioners across…
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One of the things that make trainings difficult in work contexts is its potential to disrupt workflows and regular operations. The usual solution is to send people to a location away from work, for a few days or so, and pack a program with all things people need to learn, hoping that such investment of time…
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For several years, I have tried to find ways on how to make workshops where more than 30 people converge become a safe space for difficult conversations. Then, an opportunity came to test the things I have experimented on but only with a few people in an event in Kuala Lumpur, funded by a donor…
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I was fortunate to work with a team from Luminate to explore how to design good learning conversations, where the objective is to pluck insights from project implementation rather than exact accountability from partners. I run three sessions across the Luminate team – a face-to-face workshop for the Asia Team and two online workshops –…
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Michael "Miko" Cañares 