Great training methodology and dynamic learning approach for adult audience.

Through UONGOZI Institute, the Institute of Africa Leadership for Sustainable Development in Dar es Salaam, Erik has delivered quite a number of Results-Based Management courses to various Government Ministries, Agencies and Institutions and has supported these institutions in adopting a more structured and systematic framework for better project design, management and measurement of results.

Erik applies different practice oriented participatory learning methodologies that engages the participants while he challenges them to think logically following the distinct Logical Framework Analysis procedure.

We are proud of his work and his commitment to deliver "world-class" training.

The first time I met Erik was in the mid-nineties in Laos where he facilitated a Logical Framework Analysis (LFA) workshop for a UNDP-supported program on Public Administration Reform. Erik worked with translators, but from the level of participation and enthusiasm in the room and the multi-color cards on all the walls, one could see that the participants really liked and appreciated the workshop.

Jumping a decade ahead, while working for UNICEF, I engaged PCM Group to facilitate a series of LFA workshops in preparation of proposal submissions to the EU Water Facility by UNICEF Country Offices in Africa. UNICEF became the organization with the most projects awarded by the EU Water Facility for a combined total of Euro 42 million, across the two EU Water Facility submissions. I have no doubt that the LFA workshops facilitated by Erik and his team made the difference in the quality of our proposals and programs.

Jumping ahead yet another ten years, still working for UNICEF, I asked Erik to facilitate a LFA workshop in Kabul, Afghanistan with government and NGO partners to formulate a program strategy to end open defecation in Afghanistan by 2025. We brought together +/- 25 senior staff from different Ministries and NGOs who after five-days produced a logical framework that became the blue-print for the national strategy to end open defecation in Afghanistan. The workshop allowed for all views and opinions to be heard and discussed and resulted not only in a clear plan, but more importantly it brought all stakeholders together in a coalition that agreed on a common goal, common objectives and on a common set of strategies of how to reach that goal. Differences of opinion between civil servants of different ministries which existed at the beginning of the workshop were set aside and resolved at the end of it. Participants realized that all actors had a role to play in achieving the common goal and that only by working together and through respecting each other’s roles and contributions could that goal actually be achieved. The main strategy was to bring about behavioral change through a careful and controlled scaling-up of the successful Community-Led-Total-Sanitation (CLTS) approach which through community mobilization and without any subsidies or material hand-outs, successfully encourages families to construct their own latrines and toilets and give up open defecation.

Two years later, Afghanistan is well on its way towards addressing the issue of open defecation. Under the firm joint leadership of the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development and the Ministry of Public Health, and with the support of UNICEF and now eleven NGOs (and counting), over 1,600 communities have been declared Open Defecation Free (ODF). On 1 November 2017, Afghanistan will celebrate the first 100% Open Defecation Free District. Another four ODF districts celebrations are planned for the coming months. The movement to end open defecation in Afghanistan, which is one of the targets of the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), is steadily growing and expanding. Recently, the Government of Afghanistan included the CLTS approach under its new ten-year multi-billion dollar rural development program, called the Citizen’s Charter. This presents a new opportunity and at the same time a huge challenge, as it requires a further acceleration of our joint efforts.

Thanks Erik and thanks PCM-Group for your critical contribution towards the initial success in ending open defecation in Afghanistan. We may need to call upon you again to assist us in addressing this new challenge.

Read more om the Community-Led-Total-Sanitation (CLTS) approach and workshop here:

http://projectsforchange.eu/shame-shock-and-disgust/

Erik is one of the most seasoned experts on the Logical Framework Approach that the world counts. We have collaborated two years long between 2012 and 2014 on the PROVE project, where he made substantial contribution to achieve the project goals.

Erik is one of these professionals everyone wish to meet in his/her career because he's a genuine leader, able to inspire and guide individuals and groups. Erik belongs to these few people who can inject energy and motivation to everyone sitting in the room.

With the help of the LFA method, he is also a change catalyst; that is to say, he is able to initiate and manage change to organisations and people through his thought-provoking questions, energy and assertiveness.

Having the chance to learn how to use the LFA tool was a unique opportunity to help me enrolling teachers in the PMI Portugal Chapter program for Portuguese schools.

It was an outstanding and very intensive course which made us put in practice the fundamentals of such powerful tool. A profound understanding of the problems and subsequent design of simple and practical solutions looks like a "magic way" to solve complicated issues.

Thank you Erik for sharing with us your expertise and knowledge with a great kindness and generosity.

I met Erik 9 years ago on a LFA and facilitation course, in the context of an ESF funded project that I coordinated; he trained a team of facilitators to disseminate project management in NGOs. Both the content and the provider in this training had a strong effect on me and my future work thereafter. Not often you have this combination of a excellent tool with an outstanding and experienced trainer and communicator. So that, it inspired me to launch in 2012 a volunteer social program to disseminate project management again... in Portuguese schools. After 5 years of this social program, we needed to boast the volunteer Tutor´s skills in project design and facilitation. And of course Erik was the best man for the job. Everyone of the 20 participants, leader teachers and project managers felt again this communication power, this energy that comes with great learning.

I was absolutely fascinated.
This LFA workshop offered me a great amount of tips to think over.
Your power of communication together with the interaction techniques you used and the transparency which made us understand the Logical Framework Analysis and Planning (LFA) methodology and its advantages in our professional contexts were amazing.
By the end of the workshop I felt really encouraged to apply the principles backing the LFA process, being sure that becoming better facilitators teachers will get much more interesting results in their project works with students at school.
The workshop was a unique opportunity to find out new tools which can change our teaching practices and make the difference in a near future.

First let me truly thank you for the incredible and intensive training that you have provided.

On the content / knowledge perspective, I'm delighted with the LFA methodology and I'm quite keen continue improve knowledge on it.  Although most of the time (as project managers) we only start when the project is decided, it will allow us to thoroughly understand the reasons WHY we are doing the the projects, properly manage the expectations between the project stakeholders and, in this particular scope, will allow us to better support our teachers (and other stakeholders) while tutors, aiming to get the right projects, for the right reasons.

On the facilitation techniques, I'm even more delighted, all the communication skills that we were able to train (although only for a small amount of time 🙁 , all the tips and experiences that you shared with us, will truly increase our capability to gather problems / ideas / aims, to communicate better, to better understand, to be better understood, and most relevant, to make the right questions.

Regarding the delivery, your ability to not only deliver the content in a quite practical and understandable way, being able to create the "need" and after introduce the content as "solution", show us "WHY", how it works, and present how everything is glued (on the wider scope outside of the project only focus) is just incredible. Your capability to keep everyone focused (even after a long week of work), to keep pushing everyone to participate, is amazing and shows the skilled facilitator and communicator that you are.

Without any doubts, you are the best and strongest communicator with whom I've interacted, and it was a pleasure seeing you working and learn with you.

I had a wonderful, memorable training week in Brussels! Erik’s training technique is simply stunning, I have never before received such an intensive highly interactive training literally “planting” in our brains all the information and knowledge to be acquired!

Thank you so much Erik for such a wonderful experience!!! Even though the increase in the water price for smallholders in Mauritius may have been a subject for debate for us, I have enjoyed each and every second of your training sessions!! It will be impossible to forget the tapestry of notes on the walls AND windows!! Such a wonderful learning method!!

Back in 2015 I had the pleasure and luck to contribute to the enrolment of PCM group and Erik Kijne as an organizer and trainer to a number of Moldovan civil servants on Project Cycle Management. Since then, I found Erik’s experience and coaching approach, namely on using LFA, extremely useful and innovative to spot all significant risks and issues for problem-solving oriented project planning. It was one of the most engaging and interactive experience so far. Needless to say that trainer skills were perfectly matched with the knowledge and competence. It was particularly inspiring to see how Erik could roll over a hardship situation into logical bits and parts, and at the same time induce involvement, creativity and ownership to groups.

We attended a 3-day introductory course on Logical Framework Analysis as a tool for Quality proposals and Monitoring in PCM. As desk officers the course was very useful and it gave us a lot of insight in the way project proposals are written and how we can detect the pitfalls. He didn’t lecture a course, he learned us a new way to look at the whole project cycle. The course is practically oriented, so we could put the methods into practice right away. Last but not least, the hospitality of Erik is fantastic. With his enthusiasm, he makes sure everyone feels at ease from the start.

I worked for Mr. Kijne at the PCM Group back in 2000-2002. He trained me, and many other development professionals, in Results-Based Management (RBM) and in facilitation of participatory processes. I learnt a great deal with him and became a trainer myself. His contagious enthusiasm for a more systematic way of doing development work, in bringing inquisitive questioning of preconceived solutions, of formulating results that could be later on evaluated has stayed with me as a most valuable tool in my work. This discipline opened a whole new world for me and eventually led me to where I am now.

 In terms of facilitation, Erik taught me the power of an outside moderator of a process, to be fair and let everybody express their views, regardless of the hierarchy and get to the bottom of the bottlenecks preventing progress in decision-making. Sometimes painful processes, Erik was very mindful of the human dynamics and the egos involved. I truly am grateful to his teachings.

Many years later, as I was working in the Office of the Resident Coordinator in Viet Nam, leading the UN reform process, Erik facilitated a crucial meeting of the UN Country Team. He did a fabulous job in easing the tensions in the team and unblocking a very delicate balance. He was widely recognized as the problem solver.

In all, he is a great professional, passionate of RBM and has excellent training skills. I could not recommend him strongly enough.

I received a training at PCM Group a few years ago on Monitoring and Evaluation, which has proven as an M&E expert. Their approach is focused on logic and practice, lessons being supported on real life examples, and benefits from Erik's outstanding teaching skills, engaging everyone's participation in class while keeping a great group dynamic.
I'm hoping to bring PCM's M&E and PCM training to my company, and usually advise M&E experts to enrol in their courses.

I attended a training by Erik in Brussels, about Monitoring and Evaluation on PCM/RBM including the LFA as a system for Quality Control. At that time, I had the opportunity to meet him as teacher, and as a person. As teacher, he is a passionate and creative and makes easy to understand almost everything through real and interesting examples that only a person with his professional background and experience can have. And as person, he is a very pleasant and committed, and I'm sure someone you can always count on.

Working with Erik was an excellent experience : professional, up-to-date, in the best mood. A real teacher en educational professional !

His expertise is a must for everybody working on strategic programming and planning!

I know Erik now for over 10 years. He is one of the most dedicated and experienced consultants with logical framework approach (LFA) I know.
With his enthusiasm, experience with different cultures all over the world and personal approach, he is both a great trainer as well as a good consultant. Workshop facilitation and training by Erik is a recipe for success!

Tijdens het volgen van de vijfdaagse LFA training heb ik Erik ervaren als een gedreven, zeer ervaren en energieke moderator/trainer. Hij is zeer direct en duidelijk in de feedback die hij geeft en blijft daarin respectvol. De LFA training door Erik en Frank Little is een echte aanrader voor iedere moderator, is het niet voor de LFA methodiek, dan is het wel om weer eens intensief 'onder het vergrootglas' te liggen.

I attended twice a training by Erik Kijne: the logical framework basic course which is a 'conditio sine qua non' in the acquisition of European Union projects and then an advanced Project Cycle Management course focused on quality control. Erik taught me an innovative analysis method which I applied afterwards successfully in various projects in Turkey and Burundi. Erik is a passionate and creative teacher and easily masters his students understanding the different roles in complicated international projects. On top of this, he is a very pleasant person.

I enjoyed the collaboration with Erik. He is someone you can disagree with while learning from him at the same time. He is also a very dynamic facilitator with a result in mind ... and on paper at the end of the session. Great facilitator. Strong character too.

Erik has been working with Searce for several projects now. He is a truly internationally experienced professional with an inspiring personality. He is very flexible and and in project management or in market forecasting, he quickly recognises problems, directions, and more importantly, their causes and consequences. He knows well how to stimulate people in workshops and trainings and does this in a very positive way. He is an excellent sparring partner and a very pleasant ‘colleague’.

I got to know Erik when we hired him to facilitate a workshop where we tried to get Swedish local governments to meet and get partnerships started with Indonesian counter parts. Erik had great innovative ideas on how this could be achieved and did an excellent job in facilitating the meetings. The meeting room was buzzing with energy the whole week we were there. Erik is flexible and responsive and the results from the weeks work was impressive. I can strongly recommend Erik for similar work.

Erik is an excellent facilitator that takes your staff through high intensity conceptual and practical learning process effectively and efficiently in the area of project identification, planning and programming.

Erik is a very professional facilitator. He assisted with the development of a multi-million dollar transformation project in the South African Police Service and helped us to focus our efforts and develop an implementation plan.

Erik is an excellent coach in PCM training. I was trained and coached by him in 2002. His training had a great impact and multiplier effect on hundreds of students around the world. Through his coaching I became a trainer within the ADRA network and for a Masters Program at Andrews University, reaching out to many students worldwide, who benfitted from this PCM course. Thank you Erik!

Thank you, Erik, for your excellent training (sept 2011) in moderation skills and Logical Framework Analysis. Your unique way of 'neutralizing' extremely difficult problems into logical bits and parts are of great example to me.

.... these two words describe Erik best.
Bright in facilitation and SMART in analysis
Erik has a natural seniority when it comes to stimulating people to think beyond their imaginary boundaries
At the same time he has a stunning ability to clarify complex issues without simplifying them.

Erik Kijne is without any doubt a "Sadhu" in moderating and facilitating planning sessions during the whole program cycle. Mastering these tools, he can tackle topics of all kinds with a divers group of stakeholders. Keeping respect at all times for all participants, he is able to drive discussions to concrete, tangible, ambitious but realistic results. He makes every one to participate. While at BTC, I engaged him for several successful workshops in early 2002. Since then, on Linkedin and other ways, I stayed in contact and I see him very engaged in new aid modalities, on a practical-benefit to the field approach, rather than theoretical speeches. He has the age, the experience, the integrity, the charisma and is courageous enough to tackle all elements, even the tricky ones (where other consultants would drop out).

Erik is an excellent trainer and moderator. You and your organization should hire him immediately if you want that change the project related working culture

I Have Known Erik Kijne since 1985 and have worked closely with him on various projects and assignments since then. Erik Kijne is an extremely reliable, knowledgeable and competent consultant who has always delivered the required outputs. His approach to his work has always been highly professional and dedicated. I have no hesitation in recommending Erik Kijne.

Erik is not only a professional trainer with detailed theoretical and practical knowledge and expertise of the subject, but also an excellent "educator" and "animator ". A man with a view, a vision on world - matters.

Erik is an excellent facilitator and trainer, able to get along with all cultures. He is one of my masters.

Erik Kijne is a phenomenal trainer in PCM and RBM, with many years of wisdom and knowledge in the subject areas. I have taken many courses with Erik and can honestly attest to his skills as a trainer and expert in project management. I would definitely recommend contracting Erik’s services if you want to be trained by the best in the field!

I have had the pleasure of engaging PCM group and Erik Kijne services as a facilitator/moderator. In this concrete case, I found Erik’s experience and approach extremely productive and useful. It was very elevating to see how Erik could turn around a difficult situation and create involvement, ownership, and energy, in a group that initially did not have much hope that things could improve. This kind of capacity is quite unusual, and I strongly recommend Erik for missions that are challenging and needs a lot of energy, creativity, and fingerspitzgefuhl.

Erik immediately strikes you as a creative, assertive, social, adaptive and proactive person with a good sense of humour. His social and communication skills are unquestionable and his enthusiasm unequalled and in combination with his international exposure and extensive international experience he achieves great results. I’ve interacted with Erik in collegial/partnership discussions and as student at his courses and he always impressed me with his ability to keep things simple yet covering the details and an ability to transform theory into practice as well as being an excellent listener who can relate to other people’s experience. I would highly recommend to hire him for workshops and programs.

With his highly inventive, proactive and motivating working style, Erik is a great colleague to work alongside of. It is always a pleasure to see him come up with new perspectives on the planning of projects and programmes in the courses we offer together.

Erik has a very long successful track record in project evaluation, coaching and training international staff on project analysis and moderation. His personal and empowering style as well as involvement and enthusiasm and experience guarantee successful training sessions.

I have known Erik as a friend and as a muse into mentoring and development for the past four years, hoping to keep in touch for inspiration and co-operation and for the fun times in- and outside working hours, for the years to come. Erik and his partner taught the elements of Logical Framework Approach as a tool within Project Cycle Management.

He pulled me/us through from being shy and introvert novices and into becoming confident moderators, eager to apply Goal Oriented Project Planning on our home businesses. Formerly facilitator of several tools, this was a new way for me to reach people and their consciousness, hence creating results within organizational challenges and strategic and business development.

Erik’s influence inspired me to build tools and methodologies, based on his teaching and belief. With further theory and practical experiences, I found ways of combining tools and methodologies, enabling me to be part of solving any kind of problem and development. Following our first course together, Erik has been available as a person and as a professional, whenever I needed someone to discuss the methodology with, or needing a partner in solving complexities beyond my wit. He has engaged in issues in languages different from his own, and still able to qualify the issues without further explanation. That is professionalism and systematic.

I will surely continue to use Erik when I need to develop and when complexities are beyond what I feel secure about handling myself. And I will surely keep in touch and visit whenever I am in the same location as Erik; to get a free advice, a constructive discussion on any issue or just to have a good time in his pleasant company.

Erik Kijne was a very professional and personal trainer in Monitoring & Evaluation. The presentation was very good and he ensured that within a couple of days participants understood and were capable of applying the content of the training. Admin’s comment: Laura Coello was Erik’s client.

I met Erik the first time in Bruxelles when I attended a moderation course he was offering with Frank Little and Charles de Monchy. Erik is a great trainer. It’s wonderful to see how he works using LFA GOPP procedures – he is really a master in this approach.

Erik is probably the world’s most knowledgeable expert on PCM (Project Cycle Management) and problem-solving oriented project planning (LFA). I have learned most of what I know in this domain from him which has helped me to progress faster than would otherwise have been possible. Next to that, he is so passionate about his work that you will find him becoming a friend rather than a service provider if you are also passionate about your work. Top qualities: Personable, Expert, High Integrity

Bénédict Wauters, Latitude Consulting; Dty Dir. ESF Vlaanderen

Erik was one of the inspirational trainers I had way back in 1996 when I ventured into the world of PCM related moderation. Since then I have had the privilege of working with him around the world, and on every occasion, have been rewarded by seeing an expert at work. I have ‘stolen’ many of his workshop practices, and he remains one of the finest exponents of workshop facilitation I have met.

I have seen Erik twice. The first time as a LFA-trainer of tough, bright and conceited scientists at the Technical University of Delft, the second time while I was attending the LFA moderator training. In both courses the results were astonishing, people coming out with a totally different mind set about project planning. Thanks to Erik’s practical and theoretical knowledge of the subject and, maybe even more important, his qualities of dealing with and intervening in group processes, switching between process and content in a very natural way, made both courses for me very successful.

Erik is an energetic and inspirational person, with a creative approach to project management. He has the ability to assess a situation rapidly, and a great talent for recognizing and developing the potential in other people. He doesn’t blind you with his brilliance but uses it to illuminate the people he works with. Being in his company is an enjoyable and positive experience.

I absolutely and utterly enjoyed the PCM course you took us through early December, and it is difficult to put words on all I learnt during those five days. I came to the course with the idea that it would be a very dry and technical set of tools to learn around Project Cycle Management and how to set up more relevant, feasible and sustainable projects.

But I came out of the week with a much wider and encompassing understanding of Project Cycle Management and Logical Framework Analysis and the process one goes through when assessing, setting up and creating projects. It was a real discovery that I will take with me for life because it wasn’t only about a set of tools and the understanding of a process.

It’s about a mindset when it comes to development work and how to go about it; it’s about getting a REAL understanding of the system in which a project is meant to be implemented in, it’s about a way of interacting, approaching and understanding our environment and the people around us; it’s about really LISTENING. I discovered in the PCM process and the LFA tool a way of empowering people, a framework in which critical questions can be asked in a good way, and where we can learn about an environment and context.

It was wonderful to see how one can create a space in which people feel comfortable to share with the group thoughts and worries and ways in which one can systematically get to the bottom of what the real problem is. I cannot tell you how delighted I am to have been able to follow this course with you! For me the course is not only an additional paper added to my CV, which will help me further my career in my current field – even if this may be the case.

It has been the discovery of what I want to do professionally. I have finally recognized myself in a profession which combines all the values and aspects I profoundly believe in and which I consider key to respectful and broader understanding of the people and environments we leave with and in.

I found the PCM COMBI course very inspiring! The theory of the PCM process was well presented and the training highly interactive. Importantly, theory was immediately put into practice with ample exercises throughout the week. This combination of theory and exercise helped to elucidate the principles of the model very clearly. It also ensured that the principles and steps in the PCM process are still fresh on my mind and easily applied back at work.

Erik Kijne brought a lot of experience from the field to the training. I found him to be an absolute expert on PCM. Ik heb een evaluatie formulier voor de training ingevuld. Hierin geef ik aan dat de COMBI cursus zeker aan te raden is. Met vriendelijke groet, Merlijn van Waas (CORDAID)

This is to acknowledge that Mr Erik KIJNE of the Process Consultants and Moderators Group has served as a consultant for the Outreach Unit of the International Criminal Court on three separate occasions. He moderated workshops intended to develop strategic plans for outreach for Uganda, Darfur, Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. First, Mr KIJNE made an introduction to the logical framework scheme for strategic planning.

He further explained the approach of thinking from the point of view of the beneficiaries of the ICC Outreach Programme to define expected results of the process. The initial workshop covered the needs of the Unit to engage external parties in strategic thinking and to develop logical frameworks to be used as a basis to prepare the strategic plans for the situations mentioned above. The workshops were interactive and participatory. Through provocative questions, Mr KIJNE made participants communicate their thoughts assertively, and oriented the discussions towards achieving clear objectives.

In sum, materials and tools used by the facilitator were assessed as outstanding by the majority of the participants. He came across as an efficient facilitator with excellent skills in empowering groups. He has a pragmatic view that helped to cement theoretical approaches into specific and measurable objectives, and to define indicators. – Sonia Robla-Ucieda Chief Public Information and Documentation Section International Criminal Court – Claudia Perdomo-Avendaño Head Outreach Unit International Criminal Court

You need to move forward, but you know the group will contest your proposals because you are one of a stakeholders. Erik comes in and facilitates a workshop. Everybody will have a chance to present their views, often people will vent and tension will rise. But that is good in Erik’s book. Once emotions are out of the way, Erik is able to find the common ground between stakeholders and force them into a process that will result in a plan to move forward. You will be surprise how those who seem most dogmatic in their positions literally melt into the will of the group and are ready to compromise. Such is the power of good facilitation. Try it!

Have hired Erik at a number of occasions, all with very good results. He is dedicated, goal oriented and very pleasant to work with. His skills, experiences and qualities are invaluable in very complex and special situations. I highly recommend Erik.

Erik initially worked with me to start large, complex projects, through participative workshops that helped ensure local stakeholders and expert teams were focused in the same direction. He has since worked with me to help clarify strategies and action plans for projects at different stages: tenders, start up and implementation. He has been a great asset because of his depth of knowledge and his commitment to his work and clients.

Many thanks for the lovely and very productive time I spent at PCM Group. Erik was very dedicated, committed and ready to share his vast experience. I felt very lucky to benefit from all his precious “secrets”. I’m back to the office now and have already shared my experience with my colleagues at the Alliance. Of course they are all very excited and look forward to an opportunity to either attend a course in Brussels or invite Erik in Brighton. I feel better prepared to improve the planning process at the Alliance and especially provide clear guidelines to our Linking Organisations. I look forward to applying the skills acquired and also working with Erik in the future.