Learning to learn

Societies place a high value on addressing two of the world's most pressing problems - alleviating poverty and protecting the world's biological diversity. A lot of money has been spent on these two objectives, international treaties have been signed and countless organisations have devoted time to implementing funds in projects.

However, many of those engaged in funding and implementing conservation and poverty alleviation initiatives are not taking the necessary steps to ensure learning as to which approaches work and which do not. Analysis is often short term and focused on a single site, or is so ideologically based it only gives predetermined conclusions. None of this makes learning easy. Several factors restrict effective and open evaluation of the successes and failures of conservation and poverty alleviation efforts:

• Learning often requires an unbiased written record but many are not an accurate account of where projects have succeeded and failed.
• Where evaluations are undertaken, they are rarely published; if they are usually only the positive lessons are promoted.
• Few studies include a careful, long-term analysis of single projects, or cross project comparisons.
• Donors and implementers want to prove that funding leads to success and may only disseminate successful projects to governments and other organisations.
• Local community organisations are often not part of the official learning process.
• Studies seldom adequately link analysis of conservation outcomes with poverty alleviation outcomes.
• Some academic-based critiques of poverty and conservation efforts bring ideological perspectives that dissuade practitioners from sharing experiences.

Funders, academics and implementers in the conservation and development community are failing in their responsibility to address these factors. Conservation and development communities have little time to learn from past failures. Until there is better analysis of best practice, biodiversity will continue to decline and poverty will remain in rural communities. We need to work together to create a learning environment in which the culture of fear has been changed to one in which failure is a valued component of success. Several things would be necessary to achieve this 'safe-fail' culture:

• Donors must accept project failures as a key part of the learning process.
• Project implementers must be honest about successes and failures and share their experiences.
• All parties should be required to show how learning from implementation has been used to improve subsequent action.
• Governments and academic institutions need to help create an environment in which learning from implementers is valued and rewarded.
• Learning must involve all parties, not just NGOs and funders, but local communities and government organisations too.
• Research scientists must work across sectors and measure results and their implications and not just confirm current ideological models.
• Rather than an evaluation being undertaken as a short-term project 'snapshot', there should be efforts to strengthen participatory monitoring and evaluation systems and reflective learning throughout a project.

The first step in correcting a learning 'disability' is to recognise its existence. Let's start learning from our failures and successes.

Kent H. Redford
WCS Institute
Wildlife Conservation Society
2300 Southern Boulevard
Bronx NY 10460
USA
T +1 718 220 5889
kredford@wcs.org
www.wcs.org

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