Reformulate and communicate the Theory of Change in a simple way per city, appoint an expert who collects and arranges data across the DEALS cities, and give new impetus to internal learning. Those were some of the suggestions that came up in the DEALS expert meeting of October 22th. The ideas of the experts will be used as input for the 2021 plan.

The expert meeting was held online, with participants in as far as Pereira (Colombia) and Pathein (Myanmar). For some of them it was early in the evening, others had just risen from their bed and were accompanied by an impressive bird concert.

Irene Oostveen, programme manager of DEALS, said that the main goal of the meeting was to gather ideas for the 2021 plan, with special attention for Covid-19. She had a relaxed brainstorm in mind, using an interactive online board which allows for structuring, rearranging and synthesizing ideas.

Here you can read the report of the session.