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TRANSCRIPT
Self-Esteem: The Missing Factor
Forum ReportA cross organisational workshop
hosted by Feed the Minds
13th April 2015
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This report draws on the notes, observations and group work from participants of the forum “Self-esteem: the missing factor” on April 13th 2015, hosted by Feed the Minds.
This cross-organisational workshop was inspired by the Education and Rights project in partnership with Sudan Evangelical Mission (SEM), supported by the Baring-Ellerman Foundation.
Feed the Minds is grateful to presenters, participants and our donor, the Baring-Eller-man Foundation, for such a rich and stimulating discussion.
Front cover illustration and line drawings by Anne Wilson [email protected]
Feed the MindsThe Foundry, 17 Oval Way, London, SE11 5RR
facebook.com/feedtheminds@FeedtheMinds
Contents2
Introduction 4
Speaker Profiles 5
Group Work Discussions 8
Self – esteem reflections 11
Looking forward 13
Final thoughts 14
Participants 15
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Introduction
On Monday 13th April 2015, Feed the Minds hosted a forum to explore how self-esteem fits into development models that support marginalised groups to be more active change agents. Participants were invited to explore the place of self-esteem, self-confidence and self-awareness in their own work. Invited panel speakers from SIL International, LifeLine Network International (LNI), Plan International and Tools for Self Reliance through presentation explored the value of building self-esteem in community development initiatives, this included sharing their own project findings. Finally we looked at the extent to which self-esteem fits into current models of outcome measurements and impact assessments. Knowing that donors are looking for more tangible aspects that show change in people’s lives challenges NGO’s to push the boundaries of conventional development models.
As Feed the Minds becomes more accomplished in evaluating the impact of our work, we have noticed the frequency with which stakeholders refer to increases in self-esteem and self-confidence.
“Before learning about citizenship, I did not know my rights. Now I know my rights and can talk about it to my friends. I even have good ideas on how to improve services in Mundri town and the confidence to express them.” Joanna Benjamin, Baya Adult Literacy Centre
“The training on civic education and conflict resolution/mediation has helped us to respect individual rights, particularly women and treat everybody equally. And this training has enabled me to speak in public.” Abraham Choti, Army Barracks, Mundri
“[the training] is very interesting because it uses a participatory approach that makes learning alive and gives learners the freedom to express themselves instead of teaching or lecturing”.Assistant Director of Republic of South Sudan’sCurriculum Development Centre
These examples come from our work with Sudanese Evangelical Mission (SEM) in South Sudan on education and rights, generously funded by the Baring-Ellerman Foundation. These changes to people’s confidence seem to be key factors enabling people to use new knowledge and skills to make positive change around them, yet we rarely mention them, preferring to focus on more measurable, objective indicators of success. This forum was an opportunity to share experiences around self-esteem and self-confidence with others working in community development, challenging ourselves to ask how self-esteem fits into community development initiatives, outcome measurement and impact assessment.
Panel Speakers4
Lifeline Network PJ Cole and Harriet Labouchere
Lifeline Network is a growing and dynamic group of grassroot community organisations and NGOs based in 16 countries around the world. They help rebuild communities through exchanging knowledge, expertise and resources. All Network members have come together to fight the poverty, injustice and hardship that afflicts our world. The network of partnerships built to empower people locally, nationally and globally, by building a better, self-sustaining future for themselves and for their children is at the core of their work. In today’s forum, PJ Cole and Harriet Labouchere will engage us in thought-provoking examples, activities and exercises that will explore; what self-esteem really
means to us and to our organisations, why it matters, and does it make a difference? In particular they will look from an organisational aspect, on how we position ourselves and incorporate self-esteem in our values, our work, and our projects.
Key points raised during PJ’s and Harriet’s presentation:
Self-esteem is realising your true potential As an organisation we can facilitate this true potential How do you hold a vision for someone? The focus was on ‘Hold a Vision’ this way we can build self-esteem of those we
work with ‘we can see the value of those and hold on to it’
SIL International Ian Cheffy
Ian is a Senior Literacy and Education Consultant with SIL International, the international NGO specialising in the study and development of the world's unwritten languages. He has worked in literacy for almost 25 years. Although now based in the UK, he spent 10 years working in Cameroon as a literacy specialist, initially assisting one language community to develop a literacy programme for children and adults and subsequently setting up a training centre for local people in literacy and translation work. Ian is currently undertaking a research project in seven African countries exploring the changes which have come about for people and their communities as a result of literacy in local
languages. Ian will be looking today at the importance of recognising ‘self-esteem’ as one of the significant outcomes of literacy initiatives, especially in the minds of speakers of minority languages. He will draw on examples from his recent research in Ethiopia, Kenya and Cameroon.
Key points raised during Ian’s presentation:
A focus on language development
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Sense of self can be created from your own language, not from ‘English a borrowed language’ for many we work with.
Image of oneself grows with confidence. The word ‘transform’ should be taken lightly – an individual may feel different
about themselves – no longer vulnerable. The individual grows not only within themselves but within a unit.
Literacy is a direct effect on people’s self-esteem.
Plan international Alex Munive
Alex is a development and gender specialist. Currently, he works for Plan International leading the Global Girls Innovation Programme (the GGIP). The GGIP is a collection of Plan’s flagship programmes on girls’ empowerment and rights that are known for quality programming, innovation, and results. Most recently, Mr. Munive has been participating in the development and roll out of Plan’s global initiative for promoting gender equality, “Because I am Girl”, developing, among others, a curriculum for engaging men and boys in the promotion of girl rights and a
curriculum for adolescent girls. Alex will be talking today about one of Plan’s flagship approaches that aims to raise the profile of girls in school and as active citizens in their communities. He will take a particular focus on both boys’ and girls’ journeys to change and how empowerment is only sustainable when it is supported by simultaneous change in agency, relationships and structures.
Key points from Alex’s presentation:
The use of sport to build self-esteem When talking about self-esteem, one must make underline the importance of
agency. Girls’ empowerment and gender equality are inter-dependent: one can’t exist
without the other. It is vital to engage both men and boys and acknowledge the entrenched
traditional views of masculinity to understand both how girls feel and experience inequality, as well as boys attitudes, is key for defining the vision of change and how change comes about in practice.
Plan’s Curriculum links to specific KAPs, each activity is designed to be lined to a KAP. Therefore each component will be developed around a set of key statements on knowledge, attitudes, and practices and skills at each level of change (Individual, family/community and institutional)
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Tools for Self Reliance Sarah Ingleby
Sarah started working at Tools for Self Reliance in 2001. Af-ter a short career as a teacher in Doncaster, she headed to Zambia as a VSO volunteer. There she worked with the Na-tional Sports Council and for 2 disability organisations who made mobility aids. Her first job at Tools for Self Reliance was Group Support Officer. After a few years she moved into one of the Partnership Development posts where she worked with their partners in Sierra Leone and Tanzania and was instrumental in setting up a new programme in Zambia. In between work and trips to Africa Sarah completed a MSc
in Development Management. Sarah was promoted to CEO in. Today Sarah will be drawing on TFSR experience of ‘self-esteem’ within their projects and its effect on its beneficiaries.
Key points from Sarah’s presentation:
Defining self-esteem - confidence in one’s own worth or abilities; self-respect Drawing on examples for TFSL partners – ‘We are no longer just housewives,
now we are also breadwinners’. An emphasis on creating a catalyst to push donors to recognise the importance
of self-esteem. To develop knowledge and measuring expertise of self-esteem ‘we should not
shy away from it’ The people who take part in their projects inform TSFL;
o They feel that they had grown in confidence and have greater self es-teem
o They have a more positive outlook on life, compared to before the projecto They now feel more confident to play an active role in their communities
– including offering training to others
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Group DiscussionKey questions and queries that arose from group discussions
What would the monitoring and evaluating indicators be for self-esteem? What backlash could be experienced developing such indicators? Is it easier to measure capacity than value? Values are culturally varied and contextualized, how does this affect across the
board measurement? The effect of hostile environments What is the definition of self-esteem? How does self-esteem differ at an individual level and community level? Is self-esteem an end in itself? What are barriers and expectations? How participatory are we prepared to be? Does it boil down to whose vision, when defining and measuring self-esteem?
T he issue of developing indicators used to measure self-esteem
The journey to achieving self-esteem is not linear – and having self-esteem is not as simple as ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Self-esteem can be experienced on difference scales and can jump backwards and forwards according to the person’s experi-ences and circumstances changing over time. Gaining self-esteem may not ne-cessarily cause a ‘transformation’ which donors or organisations might wish to see, but it could simply be progress, in one direction or another. This has implic-ations for developing indicators. A small change in someone’s perception of themselves might look petty on a monitoring and evaluation form, but it may have made an enormous difference personally or at the family level.
o Additionally, we discussed the problem of attributing change in self-es-teem to interventions that aimed to do so, when it is impossible to control other factors that can potentially increase self-esteem, such as increase in income, etc.
Plan International’s matrix tool for measuring change in confidence regarding gender equality provided a good framework for considering how to build a tool that measures changes in self-esteem. We discussed how indicators could be considered for the knowledge, attitude and practise rows of the matrix, on per-sonal, family and community levels.
o But first, defining self-esteem would be essential. Self-esteem is a very fluid concept, and can be interpreted in different ways. It can also mean different things to different people on a personal level. One suggestion for the matrix above was to ask the people being interviewed of what they valued in their lives, and use questions around how satisfied or con-fident they felt about their achievement or success in things that were important to them to determine what self-esteem is to them.
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We discussed the notion that self-esteem can also be caused by realising how others value you. For example, project beneficiaries stated that they gained enormous satisfaction when they became valued members of their communit-ies, and people looked up to and respected them, or valued their contribution and potential. Realising how others perceive you can positively reinforce how much you value yourself. We discussed the possibility of measuring one’s role and influence in the community, and your power to change people’s perceptions of you through actions or change in behaviour.
How can organisations model appreciative and participative ways of working rather than using deficit models. The main hurdle was felt to be donors’ requirements for quantitative measures against which programmes will be evaluated. Rise in self-esteem as a result of a programme is not easily quantifiable and therefore may not be accepted by donors as a viable goal. Some recommended responses are:
Educating donors to the value of raising self-esteem as an important goal of a programme. This would involve dialogue with the donors and might involve re-questing funding for an initial period in which a vision for the programme would be developed in a participatory way with local people. Only then would a final be proposed. It was also suggested that previous research and experiences of the organisation could also be used in developing the vision.
Including qualitative and quantitative information in reports since mixed re-search designs are now more acceptable. A positive change in self-esteem as, described by the people themselves, is evidence of change that can be attrib-uted to a programme and should also be included in reports. Furthermore, it is possible to give an impression of the percentage of people who report a devel-opment of self-esteem, making it somewhat quantitative if necessary.
Using the ‘lessons learned’ section which is often included in feedback forms to talk about how the programme has affected people’s self-esteem and how pro-grammes can make provision for this at the outset.
Making provisions for longer term feedback which can track some of the changes to people lives and self-esteem well after the programme has ended.
Making self-esteem part of the organisation’s theory of change so that it is an integral part of what the organisation is about and not an ‘add on’ to what is considered to be donor requirement for funding.
What backlash could be experienced developing such indicators? Important to engage with men and boys – avoid/mitigate negative unintended
impacts for womeno Community is not homogeneouso Organisational responsibility to provide support services to stakeholders/
all actorso Contextual specificityo How to report negative impacts – moral responsibility. Include backlash as
an assumptiono Boys are vulnerable too – not necessarily dominant e.g. street children
etc.
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o Recognition of men and boys as part of the ‘system of dominance’ – chal-lenges to this would be unwelcome
Importance of context/environment in influencing behaviour/attitude o How feasible/relevant is attitude/behaviour change – longitudinal changeo If possible, need critical mass and education/ information to support e.g.
smoking; FGM How to balance what people choose/value with paternalism. Cap-
ability approach and where something is causing physical harm. Adaptive preference
o Need for realistic expectations and indicators to fit with funding cyclesMeasurement/indicators
Led by donor requirements Measuring degrees of change difficult – possible to say there will be change
without specifying? o Measure progress along a scale (e.g. independence, confidence, feeling
good about self) that can be quantified – e.g. the number of people re-porting positive change. Follow up with what changed, and what else would need to change to improve further. Quantitatively measure qualit-ative change
Believe is self-esteem as a concept but challenging for donors – need to fit with and manage donor requirements
o How much do they need to/expect to know? Measurements of wellbeing – how to include self -esteem
o Participation of ‘beneficiaries’ in defining indicators e.g. income, health, access to resources, decision making etc.
Self-esteem as contributing to sustainability and therefore VFMo Assumption that needs to be tested
Self-esteem as the ‘mortar’ that holds the other elements of the project/indicat-ors together – not as separate
o Self-esteem and happiness as feeding into a cycle of further achieve-ments – one begets the other
Important to use simple language Self-esteem as an end point in itself or a means to an end
Need to look at context and environment – adaptive preference and impact on people’s own perceptions of SE and happiness
Wellbeing is an outcome in itself, with self-esteem being an element of this Plan’s model of developing self-esteem for girls could be equally applicable to other marginalised groups, building on the idea that particular groups need more support in order to get on the ladder of development towards self-esteem. Self-esteem is closely linked to agency and the ways in which people use and negoti-ate power. Sometimes the first steps of women and other disempowered groups to-wards using power can be quite aggressive, mirroring perhaps the use of power they have experienced from others.
Self-Esteem, ReflectionsSarah Ingleby and Ian Cheffy reflect on their time at the self-esteem work-shop.
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Sarah Ingleby, CEO of Tools for Self Reliance:
On Monday 13th April, I spent a really informative afternoon talking about something that often gets missed off the development agenda. ‘Self-esteem’ – not always some-thing that is pegged as an outcome of a project, but something that very often hap-pens.
It was interesting to get different perspectives from each of the speakers; different ap-proaches and different activities, but all creating an environment where people have the opportunity to do something that makes them feel differently about themselves.
For Tools for Self Reliance it is a hands on approach to help people learn vocational, business and life skills so they can start small businesses or find work. Providing them with the tools they need is very much part of this package. From visits I have made to the countries we work in, I have heard such positive comments about the changes people have seen in themselves. Including, the graduates of the Eliashib Training Cen-tre who are so proud that they are now breadwinners and not only housewives. Also Moses Chafuka telling us that after training he was no longer viewed as someone with HIV unable to do anything, but that he had hope, he could be independent and could do great things.
These example demonstrate that participation in a project can play a significant role in helping people to feel better about themselves, can make them see themselves and their world differently, can help them to feel more confident and more able to partici-pate in what is happening in their own communities.
The discussions that followed the presentations were stimulating and showed that, no matter the organisation, all felt that this was a topic worthy of more thought and at-tention. There were many of Feed the Minds, Programme Director Katy Newell-Jones’s light bulb moments and I came away from the meeting with lots of thought as to how Tools for Self Reliance can better capture the valuable outcomes around self-esteem. The challenge moving forward is to work with donors to ensure ‘self-esteem’ is recog-nised as a valid, meaningful and important outcome; and to look at ways to move it up the indicators pecking order.
Well done to Feed the Minds for organising such a great event.
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Ian Cheffy, SIL International Literacy and Education Consultant.
I am delighted that Feed the Minds had the vision to bring together people from a wide range of development organisations to discuss a topic of importance to us all. I know how easy it is to focus so much on the immediate and pressing priorities of our own work and the programme demands of our own organisation that we fail to take the time to consider fundamental issues in discussion with colleagues in the same field but within other organisations. There are always reasons for not doing this, but I know that my own professional competence is enhanced by making the effort to do it. I particularly valued the opportunity to meet with people who share my commitment to international development but whose focus is different from my own on literacy and education. Opportunities like this put your own practice into perspective and call into question – in a positive way – the assumptions that you make about your own activities. I hope that there will be other similar opportunities in the future. I was particularly struck that the topic of the day was Self-Esteem, given that the primary emphasis in international development these days seems to be on increased productivity, enhanced livelihoods and the like, not to mention the focus on primary education as a goal in its own right. The discussions during the event made it clear that development practitioners are very aware that self-esteem is a very important outcome of our work even if it does not receive much attention. But I was left pondering on what exactly we mean by “self-esteem”. I have a feeling that it is a rather abstract concept which may mean something to us who are working in development but which does not mean a lot to the people with whom we are working on the ground. I don’t mean that they do not have a sense of their own worth, but that “self-esteem” is not something which they put much thought to in those terms. Self-esteem is perhaps a jargon word, useful in our internal development discourse, but not of much use with the people with whom we are working. That is why in the presentation I made, highlighting some of the people I have been interviewing about the changes they have experienced as a result of literacy in their own language, I described them as being “proud” of themselves and “proud” of their language (hopefully avoiding any negative connotations of that word at the same time). They were people who were pleased with themselves because of what they had achieved in learning to read and write and making use of literacy for the purposes which mattered to them. They felt better about themselves as people, as parents, and as members of their communities. As such their confidence in their own abilities had grown, bringing benefits to themselves and the people around them. From our perspective, we can say that their self-esteem had grown (or that they had been empowered, which might be the same thing), but from their point of view they simply felt better about themselves and were pleased that they had been able to achieve the things which they had previously aspired to. To the extent that we all have a vision for our futures and for what we would like to achieve, experiencing deep satisfaction when we achieve those things, we can understand how they felt. Feeling a sense of achievement is fundamentally important because it is connected in some way with our sense of identity and our concept of ourselves as individuals and as adults. As we learn to do new things and as our capabilities grow, we move that bit closer to achieving our God-given potential. We never fully achieve it, of course, but the moving towards is what matters. And the same applies to the people we are working with in our development projects – which is probably why many of us are in this field. Other people matter to us. At the end of the day, it’s all about what it means to be human – and that applies both to ourselves and the people we work with.
Looking forward 12
At the end of the session participants were asked to make commitments on post-its.
Yellow – key learningsDiscussing topic itself is fascinating – implicit to donors (mostly) but somehow taboo therefore this is an energiser to bring to forefrontSelf esteem involves both personal perceptions of worth but also being aware of how you are valued externally by others.Most in development do not recognise the importance of self-esteem. This is a call to take responsibility and make donors care as well.How to integrate self-esteem into project indicatorsGreat value in getting organisations together and meeting people who have the same concernsWe need to devise a theory of change that has self-esteem as an integral factorSo many agree on the importance of self-esteemInclude ‘self-esteem’ in our definition of theory of change.The sheer empowerment of self-esteem.VulnerabilityI realised how little attention my organisation gives to self-esteemIan’s slide: self-esteem is NOT soft! Just ask someone!Fantastic variety of perspectives on self-esteemGood group discussions.Helping other to have a vision/whose vision?
Green ACTIONRemembering self-esteem will not be an end in itselfEncourage my organisation to continue to encourage beneficiaries to define ‘self-esteem’Talk to colleagues about my own self-esteemIntegrate self-esteem into the donor development dialogueThink about how self-esteem impacts family and community spaces and how they impact self-esteemWill try to look at Self-esteem as integrated rather just an add-on outcomeReflect how my research project needs to take on board the relationship of other organisations on self-esteemWe are going to include a soft outcome in all project proposals/funding applicationsProactively define self-esteem as an outcome rather than repost it as a by-product!Measuring on a scale of progression as quantitative indicator e.g. X of people experienced positive/negative change (back up by qualitative data).
Pink – what if, we held this forum again??It would be nice to have more north/south diversity in this workshop, not just all UK-based/ western organisations. Include other voices.Loved the fact that there were so many different organisationsI feel that it would have been a value in a longer setting to discuss issues and actions in more depthThe donor accepts self-esteem as a valid outputWhat if… self-esteem is a community value (not individual) – integration of community self-esteem with the local political system… how?It would be nice to have a regular event (e.g. online) to follow up discussions and more ‘local’ examples of what self-esteem means to people and how it can be monitored.Can we share tools for measuring self-esteem? Including indicators.
Final thoughts The topic of self-esteem seems to have struck a chord among us, with each of us tak-ing away our individual key points from the forum. For me, I was heartened by the
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shared feeling that self-esteem is a key element which features right across our work, with each of the presenters bringing positive examples of how increases in self-esteem have been life-changing for individuals and led on to real changes in their lives. It is challenging to define and measure self-esteem, yet we agreed that it has a significant impact on the way in which individuals and communities can bring about positive change in their lives and livelihoods. There was consensus that self-esteem can be nurtured and developed. The Plan model captured this visually and linked with the experiences of many of us. Girls were identi-fied as one group typically with low self-esteem, however, it was widely felt that other groups might also benefit from the early stages of Plan’s ‘girls journey for change’. Sarah demonstrated to us that self-esteem was a key component of vocational train-ing; enabling trainees to become independent, look after themselves and their money and to make decisions in their lives. Ian brought practical examples of the links be-tween literacy acquisition and self-esteem, which life changing impact. And PJ and Har-riet turned the mirror on us to imagine how a young man might feel about themselves whilst a child soldier and when reintegrating into their community. We focused mainly on the self-esteem of individuals, but also touched on the concept of the self-esteem of groups or communities. This kind of self-esteem seemed to be a confidence in the values and culture of their community coupled with a belief in their ability to influence their own destiny and direction of development. Self-esteem is nei-ther linear nor static, but is highly contextualized and fluid. Words and phrases like ‘agency’ and ‘ability to negotiate power’ emerged strongly as the forum progressed. There was a strong feeling that currently self-esteem is not particularly recognized or valued by donors. However, this led to different suggestions when discussing how self-esteem could fit into current models of development and tools for measurement. Firstly, we should try and quantify self-esteem more, identifying those elements which can be measured, for example, numbers of previously disempowered individuals tak-ing on positions of leadership, or changes brought about by community lobbying. In these situations self-esteem is one of the pre-requisites, along with knowledge and skills, to bringing about change. Secondly, we should be including self-esteem in our theories of change models, which would raise its profile across international develop-ment, generating debate and developing definitions and deepening understandings. Self-esteem, I would argue, enables individuals and communities to transfer achieve-ment from one context to another. Finally, many of us noticed that through exploring our understanding of self-esteem we were taking a positive-appreciative approach to community development and em-powerment, which in itself was energizing.
Katy Newell-Jones, Feed the Minds
Participants
Attendees Organisation Email addressWaren Kangeyan SOAS MA Student [email protected]
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Rebecca Sibson Teach a Man to Fish [email protected] Williams Find your Feet [email protected] Kytola ActionAid [email protected] Shaw Signal [email protected] Anderson BALID/Freelance [email protected] Mandke Project Harar [email protected] Garaio SOAS MA Student [email protected] Kirby The red rubber ball foundation [email protected] Wilson Freelance [email protected] Gamble Tackle Africa [email protected] Holloway SDIA [email protected] Leggat Salvation army [email protected] Graham SIL [email protected] Wanduragala
Independent evaluation and advocacy consultant [email protected]
John Rowley Freelance [email protected] Crawford WWF - UK [email protected] Baffour Awuah Opportunity International [email protected] Ruck-Nightingale Opportunity International [email protected] Mills ISI UK [email protected] Cheffy SIL [email protected] Munive
Plan [email protected]
Harriet Labouchere Lifeline Network [email protected] Cole Lifeline Network [email protected] Ingleby Tools for Self Reliance [email protected] the Minds StaffSarah Fewkes Feed the Minds [email protected] Cole Feed the Minds [email protected] Newell-Jones Feed the Minds [email protected]
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