A Learning Route is a continuous process of training in the field organized thematically around successful experiences, case studies and best practices on innovative rural and local development in which local actors themselves become trainers.
The first learning route in Morocco on Producers´ Organisations has started! Hammou Laamrani, director of Karianet, was very clear on the first day Monday 25th of February: the learning route is a hard and tiring work. And the ruteros have sensed it at the end of the first day: a long day of explanations, presentations and discussions.
But the ruteros who did inform themselves about the learning route before their application, could have known reading the definition of a learning route as used by PROCASUR, the oganisation that developed this methodology:
When we start decorticating this definition, we sense easily the first dimension of the word: learning is an active verb. The dictionary mentions: gathering, assimilating, studying, discovering, teaching, informing, practicing, repeating, initiating, instructing, doing, explicating, finding, observing. One immediately realizes that it is quite an exercise. At least 14 different activities to find some innovations and practices!
The second dimension is the double side of the process: in the learning route, some ruteros are experts in their profession and become students during the route. At the other side, there are local actors who are experts of specific experiences and who become the teachers during the route. The two change roles. Imagine the efforts this takes on the ruteros and the local hosting organisations!
The third dimension is linked to the process of traveling: the route started on the 25th of February in Agadir and will end the 4th of March in Meknès. The experiences during the route will determine the final lessons. Moreover, the result is an Innovation Plan, to be implemented in the home organization, so it is only the start! Hard work indeed, this learning route…
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