Reports for Whom?
Part B of Writing Reports; A Guide for Community Mobilisers
Writing Reports for Whom?
 by
Phil Bartle

PART B: Who Should Receive Reports?

 Before deciding who should receive any report, it would be useful
 to review who benefits from those reports. Let us look at the
 benefits to each of these:

 These include:
 . The authors of the report;
 . The community engaged in the project;
 . Any other community;
 . Donors and contributors (including community members);
 . Researchers: and
 . Government: central, district, local.

Benefits to the Author(s):

 At first glance, one might assume that the recipient benefits
 first and foremost from a report. Not quite! The first beneficiary
 is the author (or authors) Why is that? In our workshop, I asked
 the mobilizers to suggest why the author or authors might benefit
 from writing a report. Here are some of their suggestions:

 . It arranges and organizes the available information;
 . Information just inside one's head is disorganised;
 . Any missing information can be identified;
 . The author can get a total and more neutral view;
 . It makes analysis and assessment easier;
 . It clarifies the relationship between the activities (input) and
   the (output) results;
 . It assists the author in making a less biased self assessment;
 . It provides information for making recommendations; and
 . It can lead to changes in objectives, strategies, and/or
   activities in the future.

 A bonus benefit (possible, but not guaranteed) is feedback
 (advice, experience, recommendations, about the report, author, and
 others). After the authors, of course, the next beneficiaries are
 the recipients.

Who Receive Reports?

 Consider the actors that should receive reports. (When writing
 reports, always remember who will read them). All can use reports
 for the same benefits as listed above. These can include the CBO
 (community based organization or the executive of the community
 project), LC (Local Council), CAO (District's Chief Executive
 Officer), DPC (District Programme Coordinator), the agency or
 project national headquarters (which might in turn report to UN, the
 government, home headquarters, and the donors).

 When objectives, strategies and activities are modified (based on
 reports) the project can be fine tuned and improved; then the target
 communities benefit from those reports. Decisions by community based
 organizations, such as sending copies of financial statements (when
 and to whom), and verbal reporting at community meetings, are made
 in similar brainstorming sessions as the facilitator trainer guides
 community members through the why and how.

How Do Recipients Benefit?

 How do recipients of reports benefit? There are three main ways
 they can benefit: information, assessment, encouragement.

Table 1: Who Benefits from Reports?

=========================================================================
Who Benefits? | How Do they Benefit from Reports?
==============|==========================================================
The author(s) | Through writing, the author(s) learn skills (how to 
of the report | organize ideas, how to write), identify weaknesses,
              | identify failures and successes, and identify strengths
              | (many hidden until written). Writing (itself) improves
              | assessment abilities.
--------------|-----------------------------------------------------------
The community | Just as "seeing" helps the driver of a car check on its
Engaged  in   | speed and direction, so a community "sees" its progress
the project   | through monitoring and reporting. Results (reaching desired
              | objectives) make community members feel happy and
              | encouraged (to do more) (especially verbal reports).
--------------|------------------------------------------------------------
Any other     | By seeing or hearing about a community's progress, people 
community     | in any other community get their awareness raised; they
              | learn that such things are possible. When the read or hear
              | about the community's achievements, they are also given
              | courage (encouragement) to undertake their own community
              | projects.
--------------|-------------------------------------------------------------
Researchers   | Researchers can use well written reports as sources of
              | research data.
--------------|-------------------------------------------------------------
Donors and    | Donors and contributors can learn how their donated money,
contributors  | labour, land, or donations in kind are being used, by reading
              | or hearing reports. Remember that all the community members
              | are donors. Do not think that only outsiders are donors.
--------------|--------------------------------------------------------------
 Government:  | Community project reports and mobilizers' reports help by 
 Central,     | providing vital information that is needed for informed and 
 District,    | effective planning, at the central, district and local level
 and Local    | of Governments. As in the other cases above, reports are also
              | a source of encouragement, useful to Governments as well as
              | others.
==============================================================================

 This table indicates that many different actors benefit from well
 written reports, and so that when reports are written, they should
 be written with those readers in mind.

--» «--

If you copy any text from this site, please link it back to
 www.scn.org/cmp/

Updated: 2003 April 9