what is the systematization approach

[ESTEBAN TAPELLA]

Hi, Rituu asked me to tell something about the Shared Learning and Participatory Approach I'm working on... We called systematization!  

The word systematization is used in several disciplines, mainly in the sense of classifying, ordering data and information, that is “placing them into a system”. However, as it is understood in Latin America, systematization is much more than classifying, ordering and documenting a case. It has to do with obtaining lessons from our interventions, or producing knowledge from practice.

It’s a sort of systemic approach in evaluation developed in Latin America that brings participatory research and evaluation into one methodological tool. It’s a sort of formative evaluation, an ex post assessment oriented to gain understanding and comprehension about the intervention process, mainly usful for development progras and projects.

One of the most representative concepts defines Systematization as "a participatory and thoughtful process of reflecting about a development experience to explain the logic of the intervention process, how external and internal factors influenced it and why it performed in this way. The main purpose is to draw lessons from action to improve future interventions".

There are just a few papers on this approach in English. We has recently publiched an article higlighting the main features and method.

http://evi.sagepub.com/content/20/1/115.abstract

Hope you find it useful.... All the best! Esteban

[Rituu B Nanda]

Hi Esteban, 

I found this document, is it a good one to read http://zunia.org/post/documentation-capitalisation-sistematizacion-...

Thanks

[Rituu B Nanda]

Dear Esteban,

Many thanks. Please may I request you to share an experience of using this approach.

Warm regards,

Rituu