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237 on how to improve practice is generated. Thus the conscientious use of lessons leant from critical reflection to improve practice constitutes best practice. In other words, best practice means the use of learning or best evidence to aid relevant decisions-making. The World health Organisation (WHO) defines “Best Practice” as a technique or methodology that, through experience and research, has proved reliable to lead to a desired result. Best practices are processes, practices, or systems identified in organisations that performs exceptionally well and are widely recognised as improving the performance and efficiency of organisations in specific areas. The main difference with a lesson learnt is that best practices are positive activities or systems that you recommend to others for use in similar situations, while lessons learnt are typically negative with respect to identifying processes, practices, or systems to avoid, in specific situations but are positive with respect to identification of solutions to problems when they occur. When a solution identified through formulation of lessons learnt is proved to have a wider improvement in performance and efficiency of an organisation over a period of time it is then called best practice. Though, best practices are derived from lessons learnt, identifying “best practices” requires sound judgment on the part of project staff and all stakeholders involved. Core evaluation criteria and questions can aid in identifying best practices. These include effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, sustainability, involvement, replicability or transferability and ethical soundness (WHO, 2008). Thus, if best practices are to be adopted, it importance not only to identify such lessons, but also to document such lessons as well as best practices. Just like lessons learnt, the best practice is knowledge derived from experience that is sufficiently well-founded (has been tested and proved to lead) and can be generalised to other projects and has potential to improve action (IFAD, 2002). The steps to document best practices include the following format. Focus Box 1: Criteria for Best Practice Effectiveness : The practice must work and achieve results that are measurable. Efficiency : The proposed practice must produce results with a reasonable level of resources and time. Relevance: The proposed practice must address the priority problems Ethical soundness : The practice must respect the current rules of ethics for dealing with human populations. Sustainability : The proposed practice must be implementable over a long period of time without any massive injection of additional resources. Possibility of duplication : The proposed practice, as carried out, must be replicable elsewhere in the region. Involvement of partners : The proposed practice must involve satisfactory collaboration between several stakeholders. Community involvement : The proposed practice must involve participation of the affected communities. Political commitment : The proposed practice must have support from the relevant national or local authorities.