ULLN Consolidation Workshops

23 October 2022
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Credit: World Vision Nicaragua

After two years of virtual meetings, the Unlock Literacy Learning Network (ULLN) consortium partners conducted three in-person consolidation workshops focusing on “scaling for impact” activities and community visits to deepen partner understanding of community network support for Unlock Literacy reading camps. These workshops provided partners with sustained engagement to strengthen their work on the project Improving Literacy for Children through the Support of Community Networks.

All consortium partners (World Vision Canada, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Ghana School of Education, World Visions Ghana, Foro Social para la Deuda Externa y Desarrollo de Honduras (FOSDEH), World Vision Honduras, and World Vision Nicaragua) participated in the first workshop in Ghana (August 29 to September 2), when OISE conducted “scaling for impact” activities to consolidate partners’ thinking on reading camps and to enrich ULLN’s scaling and Knowledge Mobilization, Exchange and Translation (KMET) plans and final reports. These activities were informed by IDRC’s and Brookings Institution’s scaling materials, with each country team:

            A) mapping the scaling system

            B) identifying factors that enable and limit the effectiveness of
            reading camps

            C) developing a Scaling Action Plan

Consortium partners also observed reading camps and spoke to community members (including girls and boys) involved in reading camp activities in two diverse communities.

The second workshop (held in Honduras September 19-23) and third workshop (held in Nicaragua September 26-30) were conducted to share and deepen learnings from Ghana with the ULLN country teams as well as conduct field visits to two communities in each country.

Since consolidation is “the action or process of making something stronger or more solid”, the rich discussions and field visits that consortium partners experienced during these workshops has truly enabled them to deepen their shared understandings related to “scaling for impact” and has strengthened the ULLN work.