Valens Mwumvaneza is part of a team of specialists at The World Bank who are leading the effort in monitoring Myanmar’s agricultural sector and food security. Each year, they use a wide range of methods to get a full picture of what’s going on in the country’s agricultural systems–and, importantly, why.
With so many stakeholders providing insights and approvals, they needed compiling and editing support from someone who was already deeply familiar with the subject matter. Through their collaboration with Megan, Valens’ team published a polished, comprehensive report, inclusive of feedback from a wide range of stakeholders.
How it worked
The annual reports that Valens and his team writes need to perform many functions. They need to concisely capture the perspective of multiple authors, reconcile conflicting interests, provide comprehensive analysis, and present it all in an aesthetic, polished format. The report is high profile: it needs to be approved by the Myanmar government, multiple levels of leadership across The World Bank, and all the contributing scientists with diverse areas of expertise. The 2023 report drew insights from interviews with well over 1000 agricultural workers and needed to accurately reflect their on-the-ground realities on both macro and micro-levels. Valens came to Megan for a fresh set of eyes that would pull together many diverse perspectives, create original illustrations, and find language that his many stakeholders could unify around. To boot, he also needed to free up his own attention for in-field research and leadership.
With the help of her peers, Megan began by familiarizing herself with the smaller reports that functioned as building blocks for the full report. Many ideas were repeated in the main report, and there were missed opportunities to make stronger arguments and new connections between ideas. An outline for reorganizing the content in a way that flowed more effectively, including spaces for insights that could be unearthed through additional research, won the excitement of Valens and his team. The scope of work evolved from a copy-editing job to a complete “up-leveling” of the report — concept and all.
Once the fresh draft was complete, the next leg of the project was to intake, process, and synthesize additional feedback as it came in from a wide range of stakeholders.
The resulting report has all the details a community development professional, policymaker, or funder would need to understand why and how to support and advocate for Myanmar’s agricultural community.
Why they succeeded
The World Bank knows it’s important to earn the trust of a wide range of stakeholders by involving them in the process of reviewing and contributing to the report. Megan developed an intentional and streamlined method of collecting that input — one that was user-friendly for those participants and made effective use of time – and Valens’ budget.
This meant that Valens was relieved of the pressure to compile all the ideas, and better able to focus on managing the internal and external relationships and monitoring his own on-the-ground research.
The final report is visually clear, logically organized, and remarkably concise. And Valens immediately sent Megan a request to work on the 2024 report, as well.
What we learned
If your report needs to cover a lot of ideas and thread a ton of needles, get in touch with us. We can fill in the research gaps, simplify the process, and bring everything together with clarity and style. Reports with the Written Progress touch are created with the help of many voices, but manage to sound like only one.
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