Given Hapunda

236 Once you have formulated a lesson learnt, the next step is to document it. There are at least five elements of a documented lesson learnt;  Theme of lessons learned - this is a core question that the project asked itself due to a problem, evaluation finding, or because it is a key issue in a project.  Original understanding or assumption – this is a short description of the original understanding of the problem, theme or question. This is what stakeholders assumed before the implementation and experience on which they reflected and formulated a lesson learnt. For example, we assumed after training traditional birth attendants they would use the learnt skills to help safe delivering of mothers and help prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission.  Revised understanding or assumption – this is the new understanding of the initial problem, question or theme that prompted a lesson learnt. For instance, we now know that training women in reproductive health should involve assessing their interests, motivation but also give them incentives to sustain their practice to make it possible for women to deliver safely and prevent mother to child HIV transmission (WHO, 2008; IFAD, 2002; White & Cohen, 2016). The above elements help document lessons learnt, but their quality need to be assessed. Maurer (2012) suggests six criteria for assessing quality lessons learnt:  Rationale : Provide a justification by stating how this lesson was learnt. Three aspects are important: What happened? Why did it happen? Why is it important?  Preconditions : They refer to the specified conditions in which the application of a lesson learnt could be considered as appropriate.  Lesson suggestion : It refers specifically to what has been learnt through the experience, and therefore it is appropriate to be repeated or avoided in future contexts.  Applicable task : It describes the task to which a lesson learned could be applied. Depending on the context, a lesson learnt may be applied to an activity, a decision or an organisational’s process."  Examples to substantiate the new understanding – here provide evidence to support the lesson learnt. The more multiple source of proof, the more its application in future.  How project come to new insight – this is a description of what triggered the project team to be challenged by its current view that needs revision. Best practices are offshoots of both reflective practices and learning. As practitioners engage in critical reflection, lessons are learnt (what is being done right and what is not right), thus ideas or knowledge