Partner Journey: Dr Cindy Regalado, Independent Evaluator, Tekiu Ltd
Dr Cindy Regalado is an entrepreneur and researcher with years of experience in environmental monitoring, social policy, community development, programme monitoring and evaluation, and public engagement in science and technology.
She earned a BAH and MSc at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, where she developed a passion for social and rural innovation. More recently, she completed a PhD in Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at University College London, UK.
Cindy’s early research and projects focused on how people thrive by innovating solutions and build capacity in rapidly changing socio-economic and environmental landscapes, and how to connect social innovations to governmental frameworks. Her more recent work has focused on environmental monitoring and community-led development of technologies to monitor environmental pollution.
Her involvement in Engaging Environments is as Co-Founder and Managing Director of Tekiu Ltd, providing independent Evaluation and analysis across the entire project, with each Co-Investigator and Community Partner.
Here, Cindy provides her reflections on working in phase I and II of Engaging Environments, public engagement with communities, project design and delivery, and building equitable partnerships over the last 6 years.
Our journey through Engaging Environments demonstrates the need and value of being flexible and adaptable
Looking back over the years of being involved with this project, I have to say that it has been a real privilege to be a part of, and a unique opportunity. I also reflect on the circumstances that this project has faced – a global crisis in the COVID pandemic, which no one foresaw and tangibly changed our lives and the project, and made us question the very nature of what we’d set ourselves out to do.
Engaging Environments is really a living example of why we need to be flexible in terms of design and adaptability when delivering these projects. It is imperative to recognise that, as a project, the goals and objectives you set out at the beginning cannot take into account all possible changes in circumstance over the course of a three to five year period; there are circumstances at the individual, organisational, national and environmental levels over which we have no control and so it is extremely important that partners and funders bake in flexibility from the very beginning when designing a project. This flexibility should enable project leads and partners the ability to respond and adapt decision-making process, budgets, and objectives to support the people and communities adversely affected by new or changing circumstances and to mitigate against harm.
Having gone through a turbulent journey together, and it having left a mark on everyone, and the project itself, has also made me reflect on how important it is to be aware of and very clear and honest about the capacity and capabilities that we all have and how those match the expectations in a project. A due-diligence and mapping exercise during project framing and design can help identify what demonstrable skills, experiences and resources individuals and communities have. Teams can then come together to collectively brainstorm and decide that if certain capabilities and capacity are not there, whether the framing and/or design should be changed to account for that gap, and for example, whether they need to build-in processes to develop those capabilities and capacity over time. When you’re building a team to deliver a project, the deliverables proposed need to be realistic and sustainable: they need to match team members’ interests, skills, resources, level of commitment, etc.
Especially when using public funds, we need to prove to the funder but also to each other in the team that we have real experience, capability and capacity to do what we set out to do – it is only right for the health of the project and the wellbeing of the people delivering on that.
Linked to this is the purpose of the project – looking at the ultimate purpose of what you’re trying to achieve and realising there are several avenues to get there. The way that these projects are designed and delivered needs serious revision and consideration because, sadly, over the years I’ve been involved I can see on the one side the great things that have been done, but on the other side, the negative impact and the damage that running a project with a very heavy structure and rigid deliverables can do to the leaders in charge, to the project partners, and the communities we’re meant to serve. I strongly advice that project leads and partners become acutely aware of the dangers and pitfalls caused by rigid attachment to deliver activities and deliverables for the sake of delivering them and ticking boxes – especially when circumstances have changed and/or issues have been raised. I know that project leads are under great pressure to fulfil proposals, but they run the risk of becoming blind to the emerging needs and opportunities when they arise. The purpose of a project is not merely to deliver its stated deliverables; the ultimate purpose is to have sustained impact for the communities and community organisations involved, for the team and their careers – especially ECRs, to build community capacity, to explore and kindle valuable future collaborations. In short, it is about designing projects with built-in flexibility from the start with realistic objective and deliverables that match the team’s proven capacity and capability. Lastly, project leads need to create a space with support mechanisms where the teams feel safe to raise issues.
‘Developmental Evaluation’ creates opportunities for continuous learning and builds avenues of accountability and trust
The approach that I take to evaluation is not common practice, particularly in the UK, so I am very grateful that this approach was accepted for Engaging Environments. I would advise that Principle Investigators on complex projects such as this, whether they have someone dedicated specifically to developmental evaluation or not, to consider the systematic documentation of decisions-taken. This involves documenting who was involved, evidence and data used to support the decisions, and outcomes from the decision in the short and longer terms. This is not just for the purpose of collecting data, but to seriously establish an ongoing process of learning and accountability.
If you are continuously creating a loop of learning for the project to be open and transparent you are also building extremely important avenues of accountability and trust. This means that project leaders can be held to account because how decisions were made, why, by whom, and what happened is open and this builds clarity and leaves a trial that we can learn from.
Whilst this is not a straightforward process, as it requires diligence as well as empathy, it is a methodology which can be applied across any project which is addressing complex issues such as climate change, equity, or social change. When it is a challenge to even define ‘the issue’ because it is multi-layered and affects many different people – such as with climate justice – how do you navigate that? You build infrastructure in the form of a person or persons who can capture project decisions and their implications in a form that is respectful, thorough and truthful. Usually, this would be an evaluator with a lot of experience working with innovative, complex projects. Either way, their job is to capture and analyse the data to extract lessons to be learnt and share them in a way that can inform new decisions and who can facilitate the conscious planning of next steps. It is important to mention that complex projects also need safeguarding mechanisms that support and protect team member from harm in the face of adversity and change in circumstances; if the team is not doing well, the project is certainly not going to do well.
Engaging Environments has been a ‘project of projects’, aiming for a shared understanding
During the lifetime of this project, as different project team members interact and get to know each other, various ways of working have emerged – especially in a project of projects where each partner organisation runs their own project and methodology. At the start of the project, we mapped different elements of ways of working based on what we knew worked well and what was essential to equitable partnerships. Through our practices, and in actively defining what an Engaging Environment means, we have aimed for equitable relationship building – one that is grounded in shared understanding and shared ways of working.
For me, an important reflection from the project is the importance of having clearly spelled out, collectively agreed ways of working. This is fundamental to equitable partnership building – mutually agreeing how to work- which can then be revised and refined as the project evolves. Through this process, where relationships and ways of working are open and agreed upon, it allows for accountability across the partnership. This is another fundamental for building equitable partnerships, because certain hierarchies might still be present, but power relations can be challenged based on how you have agreed to relate to each other and work to those expectations.
Having said that, while at the start of the project we crafted our ‘Practice Map’ outlining ways of working which we knew worked, we did not lift learning from it as the project progressed. At the overall project level, it would have been useful to outline and make visible the principles by which we stand. By outlining our principles together, we develop mutual understanding and agreement; my making our principles visible, we make ourselves accountable. One of our principles would be ‘to follow the ways of working outlined in our Practice Map’. In terms of crisis management, which we saw with the pandemic and are seeing with climate change, learning from each other and learning from how other people have grounded themselves in similar types of situations is absolutely crucial. If we have a Practice Map available as we enter into a partnership or collaboration, it becomes a resource we can all draw upon, which can help us learn how to adapt and be flexible, especially if it functions as a living document that we revise and update as lessons are learnt.
Being a leader is being a person who inspires because of their efforts
At some point every one of us has been a leader in some aspect of the project. The project would not have moved forward through its struggles were it not for the initiative taking of various individual partners. We have all inspired each other and I believe that being a leader is being a person who inspires because of their efforts to take initiative, for their commitment, their knowledge, their rigor, or simply their capacity to keep going despite the challenges they may be facing.
I have seen leadership within everyone in this project at different times with all of us stepping up to the challenge. I find that to be an amazing essence of teamwork – you have someone that is named as the Principal Investigator and administratively it is needed, but when it comes to the day-to-day, everyone has stepped up to the plate to take action, which has been truly humbling to see, and we would not be here if that was not the case. Sadly, stepping up to the challenge, especially without support and recognition has taken its toll – a reminder that, as noted before, we need strong safeguards and supporting mechanisms that enable us to practice self-care and delineation of personal and professional boundaries.
The development of certain skills which are critical to these kinds of projects should also be considered more closely, particularly in the form of individual or collective training that can be made available. I truly and sincerely believe that all projects tackling complex issues should have anti-oppression training, facilitation and group communication training, and leadership training, before activities begin. I strongly suggest project having what Innovate UK calls an “inception period” (usually 2-3 months) where the project aim and objectives are reviewed in light of what is learned from the training and creation of a Practice Map. This is absolutely essential in particular when engaging with diverse communities, minoritised groups, complex projects, it is absolutely necessary. This investment in time, effort, and resources builds capabilities that can make a fundamental difference to projects and their ultimate impact.