Knowledge Bank

The ADELANTE Programme has been structured around 8 Triangular Cooperation projects in various thematic areas, in several countries, with all types of actors (more than 50 organisations from 18 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, in addition to several European institutions), with diverse forms of collaboration between them and with different intervention strategies. These projects have contributed significantly to the Region´s sustainable development and have generated interesting and useful sectoral and cross-cutting learning.

This section makes available to all interested parties the main learning resulting from the ADELANTE Programme, identified and systematised thanks to an interesting knowledge management collaborative exercise, and organised in three sections: success stories (´ways of doing´ that have generated positive results and whose replication in other projects can certainly bring the same results), best practices (reports on achievements highlighting the key success factors that influenced to achieve them) and lessons learned (experiences about events occurred during the development of a project and that have left useful learning for its dissemination and reuse).

See the knowledge that has been generated thanks to the ADELANTE programme

Success Stories

AUTHOR:
COUNTRY WHERE THE ACTION THAT ORIGINATED THIS KNOWLEDGE TOOK PLACE:
Argentina
Colombia
Paraguay
Uruguay
ACTORS INVOLVED IN THE GENERATION OF THIS KNOWLEDGE:

Agencia Chilena de Cooperación para el Desarrollo (AGCID) - Chile

Banco de Desarrollo de América Latina (CAF)

ChileValora - Chile

Comitato Internazionale per lo Sviluppo dei Popoli (CISP) - Italia

Departamento Nacional de Planeación (DNP) - Colombia

Fundación para la Educación Integral Salvadoreña (FEDISAL) - El Salvador

Fundación SES - Argentina

Instituto Nacional de Evaluación Educativa (INEED) - Uruguay

Ministerio de Educación - Paraguay

Prosperidad Social - Colombia

Secretaría de Acción Social (SAS) - Paraguay

Unidad de Evaluación Integral de la Calidad y Equidad Educativa (UEICEE) del Ministerio de Educación del Gobierno de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires (GCABA) - Argentina

CONTRIBUTION TO THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Creation of a unique tool for the assessment of Transversal and Socio-emotional Competences (TSEC)

Summary of the case:

Thanks to the project, the first unique tool for the assessment at the regional level of transversal and socio-emotional competences has been created, which will allow the collection of data from different countries in order to compare them and get a comprehensive view of the subject.

Within the framework of the DIALOGAS project, 5 regional workshops were held to analyse the tools and share experiences for peer learning. The first of these workshops, held in Colombia (in which representatives from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, France, Italy, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela participated), dealt with the subject of Evaluation, data and information systems.

During this workshop, participants were given a comprehensive overview of the tools aimed at measuring and evaluating transversal and socio-emotional competences, based on case studies from some member countries of the Regional Table for Technical Cooperation on Transversal and Socio-Emotional Competences (MESACTS) that have made progress in the definition, development and implementation of some type of assessment.

As a result of this reflection, it was agreed that a unique assessment tool would be created to collect data from different countries in order to compare them and get a regional overview on TSEC. The process of creating this tool included:

  • The selection of the countries subject to the pilot study (Argentina, Colombia, Paraguay and Uruguay)
  • The definition of the scope (it was decided to analyse the emotional regulation competence in young people).
  • The design of a psychometric scale for the assessment of emotional regulation in young people.
  • The implementation of the tool in the 4 selected countries and the analysis of the results.

This work involved the dedication of thirty experts in the field for one year to validate the tool and its implementation in the pilot study at the beginning of 2019, which allowed the creation of a valid and reliable tool that fosters dialogue based on concrete results in different countries.

Main learning and recommendations:
The importance of creating working bodies at a technical level with institutions which are involved in the issue, know the subject and can generate far-reaching products.

Achieved impacts and objectives:

  • A strong contribution to SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) has been made by fostering "multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources" (Target 17.16).
  • A scale of assessment of emotional regulation applicable in several countries has been achieved. This scale can be considered as valid in its factorial structure, reliable in terms of its internal consistency and consistent in its application with different samples and for different countries. The tool was implemented through a pilot version in Argentina, Colombia, Paraguay and Uruguay. This allowed to obtain results in secondary schools in four countries, making up a universe of 1,014 young people involved.
  • Since the results generated interest in other countries, a second phase of implementation of this tool is being developed, with resources from the institutions involved and including new countries in the measurement, such as Chile and Guatemala.
  • The pilot for the assessment of a competence validated by four countries was a positive unexpected result and one that added value to the project, since it was not part of the initial design; given its success, it was decided to include it in the logical framework matrix.

Key success factors:

A key success factor is that this initiative came about within the framework of a peer-to-peer workshop, during which not only was an instrument created and validated, but the production of knowledge as a whole was encouraged. In this way, it went beyond technical transfer and achieved concrete application in the countries.

The added value of Triangular Cooperation: (more information here)

1. Building ownership and trust.
2. Promoting complementarity and increasing coordination in development cooperation.

3. Sharing knowledge and learning jointly.
4. Co-creating solutions and flexibility.
5. Enhancing the volume, scope and sustainability of Triangular Cooperation
6. Achieving global and regional development goals through strengthened partnerships for sustainable development.

Useful links to deepen or support this knowledge:

http://scioteca.caf.com/handle/123456789/1419
http://www.mesacts.com/sdgd/

RELATED FILES

Author: Proyecto SEDA

The National Institute of Industrial Technology (INTI), which coordinated the project, had an extensive experience of good cooperation with the European Union (and other international donors) and had its own procedures in place. However, preparing to undertake a project under the Triangular Cooperation modality for the first time revealed the need to adapt these procedures and posed a challenge for the institution, which wanted to prepare itself in the best possible way by creating a methodology adapted to this modality, which was agreed upon with all project partners.

One of the main components of the Mirada Ciudadana project are the Political Dialogue Meetings, which consist of meetings between the authorities of the partner local governments to exchange ideas about the reality of their municipalities and their main challenges, promoting open dialogue and encouraging the joint creation of solutions. After the experience of the first meeting at the beginning of the project, the management team realized that, while it was important to promote exchanges between municipal authorities, it was also necessary to accompany them with thematic working-enabling environments to involve a greater number of stakeholders, including the final beneficiaries.

Author: Red Calle

At the beginning of the project, there was a theoretical framework for "Peer-to-Peer technical visits": one of the pillars of the project which consists of visits to each of the partner countries, including political and technical representatives from other countries involved, in order to collect best practices and make recommendations. This theoretical framework has, gradually and thanks to the lessons learned from each visit and the experience and global vision of the project team, become a consolidated methodology whose main characteristic is to bring  those involved into the limelight.

Author: Red Calle

Thanks to the project, a consolidated methodology has been developed and implemented for the joint creation of work agendas for peer-to-peer visits aimed at compiling best practices and issuing recommendations. Different visits have been successfully carried out using this methodology, showing a real appropriation of the tool by the recipient country and a high level of commitment, knowledge exchange and technical trust from all participants. One of the most prominent was the visit to Paraguay, during which the project raised the possibility of providing technical assistance to the Ministry of Childhood and Adolescents, focusing on the design of a census of homeless children and adolescents. This generated new lines of work beyond what had been planned with a clear triangular cooperation approach.

Applying principles and mechanisms of collective or group building throughout the cycle of training and technical assistance, in order to guarantee the active and balanced contribution of all participants, thus improving the learning and its application.

Thanks to the project, Thematic Meetings have been designed and carried out to address the subjects prioritised in the Political Dialogue meetings with the political representatives of each partner municipality, considered as a lesson learned that can be found in this Knowledge Bank of the ADELANTE Programme. Thanks to the correct identification of the subjects prioritised in the Political Dialogue Meetings by the project's coordination team, several Thematic Meetings were successfully organised, including two of great impact on SDG 5, especially aimed at women entrepreneurs.

Author: EVALÚA

Initially the project established a number of priority subjects for the evaluation work throughout its implementation. However, policy priorities are highly variable and it is difficult to align ministries, agencies and sectoral actors that are working on a given policy.

Author: DIALOGAS

Thanks to the peer-to-peer dialogue promoted by DIALOGAS, the National Technical Tables for Institutional Coordination in Transversal and Socio-Emotional Competences were created in Argentina, Paraguay and Guatemala and the conditions for the creation of the Tables in Chile, Panama and Uruguay were settled.