By Jorge Chavez-Tafur
The XIIIth IAALD World Congress, which started three days ago, has just finished here in Montpellier, France. It has been a very interesting experience to meet so many professionals from all over the world, and to hear about their projects and activities, their results and challenges. It has equally been interesting to meet, in person, people with whom we had been in touch before, but only through the e-mail. Barnabas Kapange, for example, sent us an article a couple of years ago, describing the work his organisation (the SADC, based in Botswana) does in terms of in situ and ex situ conservation. We exchanged many ideas back then. It was great to meet him personally, and to hear about the developments which his work has seen since his article came out in our magazine.
I had the chance to present some of the results of our documentation programme - and was happy to get some very positive reactions. I talked about the importance of thinking about a method (not a recipe, but some guidelines), but also of thinking about other issues: why exactly are those participating in a documentation processes actually participating? How to ensure that the "owners" of an experience take a very active role? What role must an external facilitator take? We had a good discussion afterwards (both at the plenary session and during coffee), covering issues such as the "property" of the information which results from a documentation process, or the importance of ensuring quality all through the process. I have just seen that those running the IAALD blog have beaten me and posted my Power Point file on their blog, so I hope that these discussions continue! (See here.)
I also found it particularly interesting to hear Thiendou Niang talking about his documentation activities in West Africa. He highlighted many of the positive impacts that a documentation process can have (visibility, inspiration, learning), and repeated the need to pay attention to the dissemination and use of the results - especially in order to influence policy. I can also repeat here his remark on the importance of building content, and not just focus on tools or techniques: "we must make an extra effort to build content with the actors themselves, or we are going to miss the boat".
All in all, these have been three great days, full of ideas and inspiration for further work. It has been good to hear and talk about social media, tools, information exchange, targetted products, innovative learning processes, etc., etc. Thank you IAALD!