Delivering capacity strengthening virtually during COVID-19: Lessons from Nigeria

By: Hyacinth Edeh

December 2021

Introduction

This blog reflects the lessons IFPRI-Nigeria (https://nssp.ifpri.info/) garnered in delivering virtual capacity strengthening activities to stakeholders in Nigeria during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. As in other parts of the world, the pandemic led the Government of Nigeria to introduce several measures to contain the spread of the virus. These measures included closure of offices and public spaces, and restriction of movement and gatherings. In a bid to continue with its project activities including trainings, IFPRI-Nigeria adopted the digital platforms GoToMeeting and MS Teams to deliver its planned activities under the USAID Feed the Future (FtF) Nigeria Agriculture Policy Project (https://www.nigeriaagriculturalpolicy.net/). The virtual trainings conducted during the peak of the pandemic included Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL), data validation, phone survey management, and policy brief writing.

This blog focuses on virtual training on Policy Brief Writing delivered to the staff of the State Ministries of Agriculture and Natural Resources (SMANR) from seven states (Benue, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Niger, Kaduna and Kebbi) in June and July 2020. Jointly identified with these state ministries, the training aims to strengthen capabilities on writing of policy briefs and improve dissemination and communication of various agricultural issues to relevant stakeholders to influence decisions. To prepare for the training, IFPRI-Nigeria requested for three staff nominations from the relevant departments of the ministries in each state at least one month in advance. Following the receipt of the nominations, and a week prior to the commencement of the training, the GoToMeeting link, agenda, slide deck, date and time was shared with the nominated staff with a request to indicate whether assistance in the installation of the digital link was needed. In addition, the organizers requested each state team to identify an agricultural issue of critical relevance in their respective states to develop a policy brief at the end of the training.

Policy Brief writing: Training Overview

The training was organized in two phases over a period of two days. Each day, the training lasted for four hours with twenty- minute breaks between sessions. The first training day, focused on conceptualizing a policy brief and its purpose, structure, and some key features along with a Q&A session. The second training day, focused on examples of policy briefs relevant to COVID-19 in Nigeria. Participants identified the key issues addressed and structure of sample policy briefs presented in addition to how the findings could influence COVID-19 related decisions. The various opinions were discussed in a Q&A session with the facilitators adopting a random call up of participants to discuss issues raised during the session. Each state team was then given five minutes to speak about its proposed area of interest for a policy brief and thereafter, appointed a contact person for correspondence and post-training follow up. The participants collectively set a two-week timeline to submit the first draft of the Policy Brief for IFPRI training facilitators to review. The entire capacity strengthening process was participatory beginning with the training need assessment, to policy issue identification, and finally drafting state-specific policy briefs.

IFPRI-Nigeria provided all the necessary logistic support for the training including reaching out to nominated participants with relevant pre-training information, sharing training materials and resources, addressing post-training related issues, and issuing training certificates. Based on feedback from previous in-person trainings that highlighted government officials’ financial challenge to attending trainings, an allowance was made for internet subscription to the three major telecommunication networks so participants could switch between them in the event one has poor network service.

Virtual Trainings in Nigeria: Best Practices  

From the experience narrated above, the following are some practical lessons to guide successful virtual training in developing countries such as Nigeria:

1. Organizers should give adequate notice of the training ahead of time to allow for nominations to be received from the target organizations. There should be reminder emails and telephone calls to officers responsible for coordination of the training within their respective organizations.
2. Organizers should contact nominated participants well ahead of the training period to ensure awareness of their nominations for the planned training and to support online participation in the training.
3. Both organizers and participants should check training weblink at least 30 to 45 minutes before the training commences to allow for resolution of any technical issues to ensure a smooth training.
4. Participants should receive training agenda, slide decks, and other resources at least three days before the commencement of the training. Any updated training slides and resources should be shared with participants immediately after the training.
5. Moderators and training facilitators should be well prepared to provide adequate guidance and solutions to questions raised by participants. This ensures a high level of understanding of the subject matter and gives confidence to the participants that they are receiving the right training.
6. Organizers should provide allowances for internet subscriptions to enable participants to connect to the training.
7. Organizers should encourage participants to turn on laptop cameras during the training to ensure active participation. Calling on participants at random to contribute during the training encourages engagement and concentration.
8. Regular check-ins and post-training engagements of participants should be well considered. This allows skills learnt to be practiced and sustained.

Key Challenges with Virtual Training in Nigeria

A major challenge for effective virtual training in Nigeria like other developing countries is the poor internet infrastructure which often leads to frequent disruptions. Often, training participants are encouraged to locate and stay in areas with better internet connectivity or switch service providers to a more stable one in their locality. Though participants are encouraged to have their videos on to stay engaged, it is still difficult to ascertain the participation level of the trainees especially with poor internet connectivity. Video also draws heavily on the bandwidth and the quality of audio. As such, keeping video on throughout the training cannot always be implemented. In addition, the poor power supply in many locations limits participation for those with laptops with weak batteries or if the trainings go on for too long. It is common to lose participants after long breaks between sessions. Short and engaging training sessions can therefore be adopted to avoid both physical and mental fatigue among participants. Most often, there is apathy for participation in virtual trainings due to associated energy and data costs. The provision of daily training allowance, particularly for low and mid cadre staff, proves to be a good incentive for effective participation in virtual training.

Opportunities with Virtual Training

The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated challenges also provided a few opportunities. First, virtual training provided an opportunity to understand the level of technical capacity of stakeholders and the areas for improvement. Trainees became aware of and learned to use alternative digital options including GoToMeeting and MS Teams besides the Zoom virtual platform that was common in the pre-COVID-19 era. Second, virtual training allows for greater flexibility and trainings can be conducted outside of work when participants may be more available. Third, virtual training is more cost effective since travel and venue costs are not incurred. Fourth, training can be spread over several days to allow participants to assimilate the training contents and better prepare for follow up sessions. Fifth, the training provided an opportunity for further engagement with staff within the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) and supported the development of policy briefs for the Ministry.

 

Hyacinth Edeh is the Nigeria Country Program Manager in IFPRI's Development Strategy And Governance (DSGD).