Experience capitalisation: Learning by doing

One of the major benefits of an experience capitalisation process is that it involves all those who are -or were- part of the experience. As in a systematisation process, this approach is believed to help identify specific innovations and practices, and -above all- to understand the reasons behind their successes or failures.

Wageningen University made efforts to extract the experience capitalisation process: how to prepare it; how to help others interested in the approach to become involved; what to pay attention to during the face-to-face and online capacity-development sessions; how to boost the adoption of the key ideas of the process; and how to support the institutionalisation of the approach.

Each process will be different and facilitators should adapt their work to the context and participants in question. This requires in-depth prior preparation, but also the ability to continually improvise and adapt plans. Only in this way will it be possible to ensure the involvement of all participants, develop their capacity, and provide support and motivation -all aspects that are crucial if the work is to produce helpful results. Jorge Chavez-Tafur reports: https://evalparticipativa.net/en/2023/03/06/experience-capitalisation-learning-by-doing/

 “Experience capitalization: Working towards its institutionalization”, which features 25 case studies and describes what was done.

Publication: “From theory to practice: trying out a new approach”. All of this was recorded in a guide that was published in English and French