EcoWEB Rejuvinates for 2011

Over the last three months, with the end of the financial year and the beginning of another year of our work toward a better Mindanao, we at EcoWEB have taken the organization through a thorough review to ensure we are at our most productive in 2011. To do so, we strategized a three-stage process. Part One was a Lessons Learned Workshop with our partners. Secondly, we held a Review and Assessment involving all of our Project Officers, the feedback from their respective teams of both staff and volunteers, as well as the results of our collated feedback from partners, beneficiaries, and other stakeholders over the past year. Finally, we carried out a grueling planning session incorporating all of that information to ensure we stay on track.

Lessons Learned Workshop

Held in December, in Naawan, this took place over three days. By no means perfect, it was our first attempt at such an event, and the outcomes were substantially beneficial to our efforts, and our understanding of our impact! The highlight of the Workshop was an innovative information-gathering technology called Open Space, whereby several facilitated discussions took place at different tables simultaneously, and participants were not restricted as to at which table they had to sit. The idea behind the technology is that people are able to open up and share their thoughts and ideas in the most unbridled and creative way, and our results showed that we were able to gather excellent ideas and feedback across the board, including which parts of our work are less understood by the greater community, and what we need to do to address that.

Review and Assessment

For the second stage of this process, the Management Team travelled to Bohol, the intent being to enable team building and cohesiveness, and to allow thinking to take place outside of the normal environment, such that creative juices could flow freely! Over the space of four days – working from morning till night – the team went over every element of every program and activity carried out over the past year. At the same time last year, EcoWEB had developed a plan that set target outputs for two and five years. We identified our progress on each of these targets, and while behind on a small minority of our goals, we are indeed on schedule or soaring ahead on the vast majority. There is truly much to be done to meet the goals we set, but we were able to positively ascertain that we had much to celebrate from last year’s work.

Planning

The first stages of our planning took place in Camiguin, and involved the Management Team, as well as the staff team, a couple of members of the Board, and a few of our volunteer outreach workers. Again, the team was hard at work, arriving at the meeting room right after breakfast and not finishing until well past dinner time, but much was accomplished in that space of time. Perhaps the most important feat was that we were able to merge our 2- and 5-year goals into more concise and succinct three-year goals. A new plan incorporating all of our programs was begun, and this was carried over into meetings held back at our headquarters in Iligan City over the next couple of weeks. We’re very happy with the end result, which doesn’t stop at the plan itself, but includes:

· Planning, monitoring and evaluation (PME) that continues to lead in its creativity and innovation;

· A more administratively robust PME system in the upcoming year;

· Strengthening of our Social Enterprise, EcoHerbs, which includes a line of Body and Massage Oil, turmeric and ginger Health Drinks, and delicious palapa – each product of which is comprised of ingredients from several communities with whom we work, as part of our Sustainable Livelihoods program.

· A continued commitment to promoting good governance, safer environments, more peaceful communities, and stronger livelihoods and the realization of rights for the people with whom we work.

We’re excited about 2011, and we invite you to continue checking in to learn about our accomplishments as the year progresses!