© 2010 Local Government Alliance for International Development
| Hosting visits, secondments, work shadowing, mentoring |
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As is the case with the arrangement of visits and exchanges, care should be taken to ensure that mutual needs and expectations are understood and that the type of placement will be suitable for fulfilling partner goals. |
Hosting visits can provide a very useful way of giving councils, NGOs or local agencies from the developing world insight into UK local government. Similarly, staff secondments, mentoring and work shadowing all provide very effective ways of building skills and capabilities. Particularly where two partners have a good understanding of their respective strengths and mutual goals, such opportunities offer focused ways, not only to provide assistance to each other, but also to enhance human resource and workforce development strategies.>>Find out how
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Practicalities Hosting visits provide a relatively easy way for UK councils to make a contribution to international development but, to be effective, it is essential that such visits are planned on the basis of partner need not host opportunity. Time and effort needs to be invested ahead of time in understanding what will be most useful to the visiting party and designing a programme to fit with their priorities. It is important that the visiting parties’ needs are taken into account not only in the programme design but also by all the people involved in briefing them during their visit. The circumstances and resource-context of the hosts and the visitors is likely to be quite different so time needs to be spent in advance on identifying those aspects of UK local government and service delivery that will have relevance to the developing country visitor. This should be done in advance with the visitor and care should be taken not to make assumptions about what they will find useful. |
>>Case studies
Coleraine strenghthens its link with Malawi by hosting Fellows
Coleraine Borough Council has been successful in gaining funding to support their link with Zomba in Malawi. Through the Commonwealth Professional Fellowships Scheme the two Local Authorities have been able to share skills and expertise through hosting Fellows.
Coleraine has hosted a total of 4 Commonwealth scholars via the scheme, The scholarships to date have been with Technical Services and Environmental Health departments, but have also involved the local Planning Service, Roads Service and Health Service, who have each helped host the scholars for periods in their 3 months in Coleraine. The scholars have been able to identify and experience concepts that can be transferred back to Zomba in an environment of severe resource limitations.
Councillors and staff at Coleraine have gained a greater awareness of developing world issues as well as personal development opportunities, largely through contacts with their 4 past Commonwealth scholars, but also through knowledge gained by a number of staff and councillors having visited Zomba City Assembly (ie Zomba council).
VSO programmes supporting staff development
Many councils have supported staff to take part in the VSO programme, which provides opportunities for skilled workers to spend time overseas sharing and developing their skills. Councils can support this through granting special leave or through the council’s career break scheme and VSO provided all the training and support required.
Coventry City Council supported an officer to work in Bangladesh as part of the council’s already established career break scheme. The Wales for Africa Scheme, sponsored by the Welsh Assembly Government supported employees from Cardiff Council to broaden their skills by spending time in an African country. This type of work has a huge impact on staff confidence and personal development and staff returned to work motivated with new perspectives and broader skills.
>>Tips
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Hosting visits + Consider what you and your partner both want to get out of the visit and involve them in planning the visit. + Develop objectives for the visit jointly with your partner. + Think about the special ways in which you can ensure the visit is about ‘two-way learning’ and not ‘one-way teaching’. + Be sure that a visit is the best way of achieving the objectives and that they could not be achieved in other ways such as online or telephone contact. + Think through and be ready for all the practical things that need to be done to ensure the visit runs smoothly (see visits and exchanges practicalities section). Secondments, work shadowing and mentoring + Explore the potential of staff secondments, mentoring and shadowing with your international development partner but make sure you both have the same understanding about what is meant by each term. + Think about how international staff secondments, mentoring and shadowing can play a part and help in your HR and staff development processes. + Have a clear and transparent process for identifying and selected potential secondees, mentors and shadows. Make sure the criteria for selection fit your partnership objectives. + Be clear about the partner ground rules so that all parties have the same expectations about the placement and also about practical things such as travel and accommodation. + Clarify where responsibility lies for staff welfare, conduct appropriate risk assessments and ensure emergency procedures are in place covering health, security or other risks. |
>>Resources
Guide
Border Agency guidelines for successful visa applications - these guidelines were produced following a meeting with the Border Agency. They aim to provide guidance to our overseas partners on the visa application process and tips on making successful applications
Useful links
Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) - International development organisation working through volunteers to fight poverty in developing countries.
Commonwealth Scholarship Commission - provide an annual programme of funding professional fellowships for people from commonwealth countries. They are trying to increase the number of scholarships awarded to local authorities.