Development Synergy & Alignment Tool
Development Synergy and Alignment Tool
DevSAT® is a web-based solution invented by Trimpact in 2015 and has improved ever since. Its principal function is to enhance the impact of projects towards restoration of the Earth through co-creation of Alignment & Synergy (A&S) of actors and to match integrated and sustainable development plans (ISDPs), i.e. local Action Plans with activities at different levels of scale, and using lessons learned from previous projects.
Impact boosted by synergy and alignment
Introduction
DevSAT is an interactive multidisciplinary development ecosystem platform for daily use. We specifically designed it to stimulate and assist all stakeholders in working together and increasing their impact in an integrated way. These stakeholders can be governmental, humanitarian aid, development and research organisations, donors, planners, entrepreneurs, and suchlike.
The figure to the left illustrates the envisioned interactions between the stakeholders for which DevSAT can lay the foundation.
The tool has four inventory forms to describe in detail:
- the focus of the ISDPs and the corresponding needs for products and services.
- the activities of projects or programs of various organisations (including government and NGOs).
- the actions of enterprises.
- the lessons learned from closed projects.
The details include National Development Plans, target groups, value chains (certified or not), target landscape units, methodologies (e.g. organic cultivation), needs to be able to increase their impact, and deliverables that other parties can use. These details are georeferenced, preferably to the lowest administrative unit (i.e. village).
In practice, therefore, one should DevSAT apply at least in one or more provinces (or districts) in one or more countries. DevSAT can then support the range of stakeholders from different levels of administrative scales (from national to district and local) to use the same information for their individual needs to implement the ISDPs jointly.
For the analyses, different dashboards exist. The user can filter activities on distinctions such as territory, project status, implementing organisation, funder, leading subject (i.e. OECD’s DAC list), and the items mentioned above. That allows us to obtain the shared basis for all actors: ‘who is doing what, where, when and how for whom’. DevSAT presents results in tables, charts, and thematic maps with distinctive markers (as illustrated here and in the book on Co-creating A&S and available reports in English and French).
The results of the analyses provide options to stimulate collaboration between projects towards common goals and identify the missing disciplines (i.e. specific projects) in a particular ISDP.
Those results also allow stakeholders to integrate better the various disciplines (spearheaded by ministries) based on practical synergy and alignment principles to boost the impact. Finally, the results provide opportunities to facilitate and guide the organisational innovation most probably needed for effective, efficient, sustainable, and integrated development.
DevSAT® user licenses
Trimpact is the official provider of the platform DevSAT®, the introductory workshop for DevSAT® users, and the DevSAT® Facilitator Licensing Course.
The paid license is best provided to a national organisation (e.g. under the umbrella of an inter-ministerial committee) for a more extended period so that all stakeholders can use the platform for free after completing the introductory workshop.
Workshop DevSAT in Burundi
Workshop DevSAT in Burundi
DevSAT® User Workshop
The introductory workshop for users takes three days to understand and have practical experience with synergy and alignment, the four inventory forms, the dashboards, and the presentation of results of analyses. Trimpact has trained at location various stakeholders from different levels of administrative scales (from national to district and local) to use the same information for their individual needs.
DevSAT® Facilitator Licensing Course
A facilitator is someone who engages in facilitation, any activity that makes a social process easy or more manageable. A facilitator often helps a group of people to understand their common objectives and assists them in planning how to achieve these objectives; in doing so, the facilitator remains “neutral”, meaning he or she does not take a particular position in the discussion (Wikipedia).
DevSAT Facilitators have the skills to inspire and train staff from various disciplines to understand and have experience with the principles of S&A and DevSAT. They encourage and support them to put S&A into practice and use DevSAT daily. Staff participating can be from organisations that execute development activities, provide humanitarian aid, do research, perform commercial activities, or do the planning.
Licensed DevSAT Facilitators train people to become change agents by creating Synergy and Alignment of actions towards the ERGs defined by planners in ISDPs at different levels of scale. They allow the various stakeholders to find ways to become more efficient and increase impact. Finally, they help them by using DevSAT to affect resource management and increase empowerment of collaborating implementing organisations.