Talking points There are, unfortunately, still many examples in the VAW field of programmes which are designed without adequate collaboration with partner organisations and community stakeholders. The result is often that the design is not optimised to contextually, and implementation quality suffers.
Co-designing with the organisations and actors who are going to implement the programme is optimal for several reasons:
- Ensuring the programme is designed for the specific implementation contexts – accessibility, social-cultural context, power relations, stakeholders
- Ensuring the programme is designed to suit the realities of beneficiaries’ lives – work, mobility, time, responsibilities
- Ensuring partner organisations have or can develop the knowledge, skills and capacity to implement the programme
- Ensuring the commitment and ownership of partner organisations and stakeholders
There are various approaches to co-design from simply ensuring that the design team is composed of EVAW programme managers and consultants as well as (potential) implementing partners, to using a human-centred design process which allows rapid innovation and real-world testing with intended programme beneficiaries.
Related resources
Human-Centred Design (HCD)
Human-centred design can be applied to programme development, adaptation, or improvement. It involves a participatory process–for example, with community stakeholders and partner organisations – of collecting information and inputs, using creative tools to generate multiple ideas, and then rapidly testing and refining them before settling on a strategy or approach.
