Joint documentation and reflection, termed ’process documentation’, has become a vital part of IRC’s work with our partners. We have produced several publications and provided training and hands-on support on process documentation.
Published on: 22/04/2013
In IRC's experience, process documentation is a valuable activity, especially when used as part of a process for multi‐stakeholder learning and action research. Process documentation helps unravel the relationships between the many actors involved in development initiatives and their perceptions. It triggers systematic reflection and debate on how the 'real world' context has an impact on interventions (or inputs) and what they achieve (the outputs,
outcomes and eventual impacts).
IRC first published about it process documentation in a simple guidebook The Inside Story:Process Documentation Experiences from EMPOWERS which accompanies a story book called Doing things differently: Stories about Local Water Governance in Egypt, Jordan and Palestine .
Documenting change: An introduction to process documentation (2011) presents lessons learned from a range of projects and describes IRC's emerging understanding of how process documentation can support learning and action. It also offers tools for collecting and presenting observations that stimulate reflection, learning and sharing.
The sustainable sanitation and water management toolkit includes a short introduction to key steps and resources on process documentation.
IRC provided several process documentation trainings, including one in 2007 for the SWITCH project and in 2011 in Uganda.
