Gender-based Analysis Plus do-it-yourself training toolkit

GBA Plus DIY Training Toolkit

A guide to designing and delivering successful GBA Plus training

Purpose

The purpose of this guide is to provide:

• A primer on designing and delivering successful training
• Guidance on how to adapt GBA Plus training to meet your organizational needs

Before you begin…

If you haven’t already done so, take the Introduction to GBA Plus online course

• Designed to ensure a common understanding and vocabulary
• It’s free
• It can be completed in less than 2 hours

A primer on designing & delivering effective training

• Apply ADDIE
• Complete your training needs analysis
  • Know your audience
  • Start with the end in mind
  • Set SMART objectives
  • Apply GBA Plus to your design
  • Determine delivery methods
  • Determine length of training
  • Set timelines

Apply ADDIE

Using the well-respected ADDIE method for instructional design, this guide will help you to:

• Analyze
• Design
• Develop
• Implement
• Evaluate

Note: The use of ADDIE in this guide is meant to help ensure that a solid and objective-focused approach is taken to designing and delivering departmental GBA Plus training.

Analyze
Know your adult learner audience

• Adults tend to view learning as an opportunity to solve problems
• Adults learn best:
  • If they know why they are learning
  • Through experience (i.e. application of concepts)
  • When the topic is relevant to them and their work
• So, make your GBA Plus training:
  • Reflective of the actual working environment, using relevant case studies
  • Activity-centred (for at least 70% of session)

Analyze
Know your audience

• What kind of organization do your work in?
  • Social policy, science-based, public security, economic, operational, other
• Will you target a specific function?
  • Policy analysts, program officers, evaluators, researchers, front-line service delivery, regulatory analysts, management, other
• Do potential participants have any existing knowledge of GBA Plus?

Analyze
Start with the end in mind

• At the end of the session, what do participants need to be able to do?
  • Apply GBA Plus to their work (e.g. policy analyst)
  • Use a specific GBA Plus tool (e.g. checklist)
  • Empower others to apply GBA Plus in their work
• Align your training as closely as possible to what participants will need to do in their job

Analyze
Start with the end in mind (continued)

• Make the most of in-class time
  • Consider sending a pre-course questionnaire to help establish training needs
  • Ensure that all training content directly supports your key performance objective
  • Require completion of the SWC GBA Plus online course as a pre-requisite, freeing class time for hands-on application

Analyze
Set SMART objectives

In order to be effective, objectives should be:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-bound

Analyze
Apply GBA Plus to your design

• Effective training is inclusive, and not simply neutral
  • Common assumption that training is “gender neutral,” because it applies to all employees
• SWC has developed a job aid, Integration of Gender-based Analysis Plus into Instructional Design
  • Ensure that all training (i.e. not just GBA Plus training) mitigates the different impacts that training can have on diverse groups of people
  • Ensure that training does not reinforce biases

Analyze
Determine delivery methods

Illustrative example

• Take participants through an example following the steps of the GBA Plus process
• Highlight the kinds of GBA Plus questions that can be asked at each stage

Case study

• Provide the participants with a real-life scenario (e.g. briefing note, policy proposal, regulatory amendment) and ask them to apply GBA Plus to the initiative
• Participants begin to develop “GBA-reflex”: the ability to ask gender and diversity related questions in their day-to-day work

Analyze
Determine length of training

Now that you know your audience, have set your objectives and determined your delivery method, how long will your training be?

• 1 hour general awareness
  • Context
  • GBA Plus concepts
  • General examples
• Half-day
  • Start to build skills in applying GBA Plus
  • Illustrative example and/or case study
• Full-day
  • Focus on building skills in applying GBA Plus
  • Illustrative example and one or more detailed case study

GBA Plus Training Elements

• What kind of organization?
  • Social policy
  • Science-based
  • Public security
  • Economic
  • Operational environment
  • Justice
  • Other?
• Who’s your audience?
  • Policy analysts
  • Program officers
  • Evaluators
  • Researchers
  • Front-line service delivery
  • Regulatory analysts
  • Comms
• What do they need to do?
  • Empower others in GBA Plus
  • Apply GBA Plus
• How long will the course be?
  • 1 hour general awareness
  • Half-day
  • Full day
• What methods will you use?
  • Illustrative examples
  • Case studies
• Do you have any GBA tools?
  • Yes
  • No

Use this tool to guide the development of your training. Remember that the majority of your time will be spent in the “A-D-D” of ADDIE. Sample selections in are in yellow.

Analyze
Set timelines

• 3-4 months before training
  • Analyze and Design (determine audience, set objectives, determine length & methods)
• 2-3 months before training
  • Develop training materials and tools
  • Advertise training, include course objectives and any required pre-requisite training
• 1-2 months before training
  • Register participants
  • Confirm registration and send calendar invitation

Analyze
Set timelines

• 6 weeks to 1 month before training
  • Send out information on pre-requisite, with link to GBA Plus online course, and pre-course questionnaire
• 3 weeks before training
  • Review pre-course questionnaires and make any necessary adjustments to the training
  • Deliver or implement training
• 1-2 weeks after training
  • Review Evaluation feedback and make any modifications to the training
• 1-2 months after training
  • Do any post-training follow-up

How to adapt GBA Plus training to meet your organizational needs

• Design and develop your training
• Implement
• Evaluate
• Access resources

Design & Develop
Adapt existing training to meet your needs

• No need to “re-invent the wheel”
• GBA Plus online course is the recommended pre-requisite to any GBA Plus training provided internally by a department
• Use case studies and other tools provided in the DIY Training Toolkit

Implement
Deliver your training

• Who should deliver training?
  • Facilitation experience & expertise
  • Knowledge of the organization’s priorities
  • Ability to adapt agenda, as needed, based on need of participants

Implement
Facilitation tips

• Facilitation of training – best practices
  • Apply adult learning principles to delivery
  • Create and sustain a participatory environment
  • Guide group to appropriate and useful outcomes
  • Model positive professional attitude
• Consider using a simple framework to guide facilitation
  • The “process framework” for enabling action includes 3 questions: What? So what? Now what?
  • The GBA Plus online course answers the question “What?”, so your training can focus on “So what?” and “Now what?” (see next slide for examples)

Implement
Use a simple process framework

• What?
  • Participants make observations e.g. What did you notice or observe? What jumped out at you while you were completing this activity / reading this case study? What did you relate to most? What potential problems or challenges jump out at you?
• So what?
  • Participants reflect e.g. Do you see any pattern here that relates to our work/situation? Does this approach remind you of anything in your past experiences/work? What central themes / guiding principles can we pull from this? What issues in your work are similar to those in the example/case study?
• Now what?
  • Participants take action e.g. As a result of today’s training, what is one thing you could start doing or do differently in your work? When you begin to implement GBA Plus, where do you expect trouble spots to be? Given the structure, processes and tools that exist in your organization, what things already in place can support the application of GBA Plus? What new tools do you require? How can you get them?

Evaluate
Assess the success of your training

Assessing whether or not your training achieved the desired results is an often-overlooked – but critical - step

• Ask participants to complete an evaluation form at the end of the training, asking specifically about learning objectives (e.g. Were they clear? Where they met?)
• Throughout the training session, ensure participants are learning and are going to meet the objectives of the training (e.g. reporting back in plenary, observing group work)
• Most challenging: How you will assess if training is being applied on the job. What kind of follow-up will you do? (e.g. community of practice or network)

Good luck!

GBA Plus DIY Training Toolkit

Developing Case Studies

Purpose

What are case studies?

Case studies are a form of problem-based learning, where a situation is presented that needs a resolution

Why use a case study?

Case studies are a great way to improve a learning experience, because they:

• get the learner involved, and
• encourage immediate use of newly acquired skills

When to use case studies

For developing skills in:

• identifying and recognizing problems
• understanding and interpreting data
• recognizing bias and assumptions
• thinking analytically and critically making judgments

In addition to developing skills, case studies can be an “on-the-job” reference to guide your GBA Plus.

Adult learning

Adults usually learn best:

• when they know why they're learning something
• when the topic is relevant to them and immediately applicable
• through experience

Adults also tend to view learning as an opportunity to solve problems

The learning process

[cycle]

• Active experimentation (planning / trying out what you have learned)
• Concrete experience (doing/having an experience)
• Reflective observation (reviewing/ reflecting on the experience)
• Abstract conceptualisation (concluding/learning from the experience)

The learning process (continued)

• A case study can be the concrete experience or active experimentation
• All 4 steps – concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation, active experimentation – are important to the learning process

Case study basics

• Case studies should be as realistic as possible
• Ideally they are based on actual situations, but may be fictionalized to protect confidentiality
• They are usually institutionally organized to provide the most appropriate learning experience
• Consider inter-agency case studies to maximize learning for all involved agencies

Types of case studies

For our purposes (GBA Plus training) we refer to:

• An illustrative example depicting the use of GBA Plus and its impact on a policy, program or other initiative
• A short case study to help participants begin to identify initial GBA Plus concerns associated with a particular initiative
• A detailed case study providing basic information related to a specific situation with a specific task to be completed

What makes a good case study?

• A valuable case study is current, interesting and challenging
• A good case study makes the reader:
  • think critically about the information presented
  • develop a thorough assessment of the situation
  • design a well-thought-out solution or recommendation

Case study content (GBA Plus)

The case study should:

• focus on a specific government initiatives (past, present or upcoming)
• include sufficient relevant background information for learners to analyze the gender and diversity considerations and make recommendations
• NOT necessarily include an obvious gender or diversity aspect

Fact or fiction

• Fictitious case studies are appropriate if the real example is not comprehensive enough, or if there is some reason for keeping organizations and individuals confidential
• It is also possible to write a single case study which incorporates examples of documentation and action from several different projects in various organisations

Format (GBA Plus)

• Includes
  • Issue
  • Task
  • Background
  • Annexes (e.g. demographics, stakeholder engagement and research summaries)
• See template provided with resource package

Things to remember

• Learners need to have enough theoretical knowledge to handle the questions and challenges in the case study (i.e. they have all taken the online course)
• Otherwise, it can be like trying to solve a puzzle with some of the pieces missing

Things to remember (continued)

• A case study may only be relevant for two or three years before being revised
• Because the case study is a subjective document, there is no one ‘correct’ answer to any problem posed
• A good facilitator guide (teaching notes) is a must

Now what?

Challenges:

• Picking the issue
• Getting agreement
• Getting input
• Doing the GBA Plus