Study Visit Journal

Aims of the tool

· To learn about reality of organisations in a certain context or area.
· To study different working methods from different countries and organisations.
· To analyse and compare different practices.
· To share experiences and knowledge.
· To identify the main challenges for organisations.

Description of the tool

I. Introduction:
a. Give a brief description of organisations (aims, objectives, activities, projects).
b. Explain how groups will be formed and the sign-up process and groups (max. number, sign-up, material, practicalities).

II. SV Journal:
a. Distribute SV Sheets and explain that they will be used as a journal to collect information and impressions about the different SV.
b. Explain that it is their responsibility as it is self-administered. The information (not the personal SV Journal) will be shared in the debriefing and summary session

III.Debriefing and Summary Sessions:
There are two ways to run the summary session:
Activities:

A) Expert Groups Review
The group is divided in the same number of visits/NGOs, each being in charge of the one they had visited for review. They will be asked: What did we do today/yesterday? What have we leant? What are the overall impressions about the projects? (add more questions). Allow 20 min. for discussion and then a group speaker presents a summary of what was discussed (5 min. each) You may need more than one round, in case study visits were conducted in parallel.

2) Mixed Groups Summary
Form groups with people that visited different organisations. Distribute people in different tables with a flipchart sheet to jot down the information they collected (based on the SV Journals). The activity consists of a sharing exercise through group work to analyse, summarise and present the good practices and lessons learned in the study visits conducted.

In both activities conclusions are presented by each group’s speaker in plenary.