TOPS Curriculum Development Summit

Meeting Objectives1. Provide a forum for knowledge sharing among NGOs

working in food security in order to improve their curricula design and behavior promotion materials.

2. Identify essential elements and key guidelines for design of curricula and behavior promotion materials that can be communicated and used by food security implementers.

3. Decide on next steps for improving food security design and behavior promotion materials.

Survey of Practitioners• 22 people responded

• 50/50 primary design person vs. selecting topics and supporting field staff

• 42% food security, 37% child survival, 26% both

• Average rating by respondents: 7.5 for their organization’s skills; 7.8 for their own skills

Organizations Responding

• ADRA International• Concern Worldwide• CORE Group• Curamericas Global• Food for the Hungry• Handicap International• International Medical

Corps

• JSI• Mercy Corps• Partners in Health• Unisa Center for

Sustainable Agriculture and Environmental Sciences

• Individual consultants

Processes used:• For development:

– Multiple lists of steps provided• For pretesting, adapting and evaluating:

– Focus groups or pretesting with target audience– Trainings adjusted with experience / cascade

• For adoption and use:– Training of trainers– Involving all stakeholders from the beginning– Observations

Graphic Images• Existing images• Local artists• Graphic designers on staff or US-based consultants• On line sources• Challenges:

– “Mostly related to the development of new visual aids”– “Identifying affordable artists who can work according

to a time schedule”

How did you learn?• Self taught; on-the-job• Mentoring by colleagues• Observation• Professional background• Jane Vella’s workshops (2 respondents)• Books and short seminars (1 respondent)

What skills do you use?• Adult learning and participatory methodologies• Communication and behavior change; social marketing• Needs assessment; evidence-based research; analysis• Collaborative approach• Good understanding of the audience; deep

understanding of local culture• Developing objectives• Identifying and chunking relevant content;

Prioritization

What skills do you use? (cont)• Choosing appropriate methodologies for content• Ability to take complex ideas and simplify them for the

low-literate learner• Ability to tell stories and give analogies to simplify

complex ideas• Facilitation• Good writing skills – clear, thorough training sessions

with clear steps• Design skills

Advice to others:• Less (content) is more – Practice, Practice, Practice• Vary learning activities• Simplify and repeat often • Training should be very detailed• Pretest as much as possible• Importance of contextualization• Start with well written, agreed upon learning

objectives

Advice to others (cont):• Content knowledge is not as important as knowledge of

learner needs and adult learning principles• Be clear on what you want the trainees to DO with the

information• Make sure the resources are there (time and money)• Don’t reinvent the wheel

This presentation was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of Food for the Hungry and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.