Dashboard East Africa: Self Reliance Sisi Kwa Sisi Coaching

East Africa Toolkit: Essentials

Sisi Kwa Sisi Coaching

Sisi Kwa Sisi (Swahili term loosely translated “from us by us”) coaching is an innovative peer-to-peer learning strategy that uses counterpart coaching and mentoring to impart knowledge and skills in the workplace to meet a given objective. For example, trained health providers at city level can mentor their peers on implementation of evidence-based interventions for scaling up family planning (FP) and adolescent sexual and reproductive health programs (AYSRH).

There are various levels of Sisi Kwa Sisi coaching within Tupange Pamoja:

Global level staff engagement with hub staff to share global practices/trends for better family planning programming
Hub level staff coaching country/city managers will focus more on various aspects of health systems strengthening (technical and managerial) through the evidence-based approaches for ownership, efficiency and resource allocation
City level paired coaching engagement with master coaches/implementers to enhance knowledge transfer on implementation of quality evidence-based reproductive health management and interventions. This includes development of policies and guidelines, advocacy for resources, supportive supervision and stakeholder engagement, etc.
Facility level – city level master coaches to facility staff/community health units involves coaching on FP/AYSRH high impact interventions as per the TCI-U toolkit for the purposes of improving access and quality of FP/AYSRH interventions

Why Is Sisi Kwa Sisi Coaching Important?

Most people learn better from those they easily relate with, making transference of knowledge more effective. The process is structured yet flexible, incorporating specific complexities of the challenge at hand.
Coaching facilitates learning, diffusion and adaptation of quality and sustainable evidence-based family planning and adolescent and sexual and reproductive health information and services.

Guidance: How to Implement Sisi Kwa Sisi Coaching

Identify Sisi Kwa Sisi coach in any area who:
- Has demonstrated competency in a technical area
- Coached on TCI model including evidence-based interventions
- Able and interested in coaching their peers

Tip: Use the Guide for identifying coaches.

Based on needs assessment, link the Sisi Kwa Sisi coach to their peer who will provide the coaching:

Category	Roles & Responsibilities
Hub Staff	Link coaching requests received through TCI University (TCI-U) to city level focal person Sharing and dissemination of programmatic information Monitor and evaluate coaching needs and provide support
Country/City Manager	Provide coaching to city implementers on need basis Develop master coaches at city level Facilitate Sisi Kwa Sisi engagement mechanisms for sustained individual Document and share success stories on coaching for diffusion
Program Implementation Team/City Reproductive Health Coordinator	Coach city level implementers on the evidence based interventions Linking coaching requests to coaches Monitor coaching activities at city level Maintain the database of coaches

Develop a plan of action by preparing a coaching plan with a period for completion. The coaching should be structured through the Lead-Assist-Observe model. Reinforce on skills especially around the following thematic areas
- Services, Demand and Advocacy
- Monitoring and Evaluation
- Finance management
- Program management
- Resource mobilization
Once the coaching has been done, ensure implementation of the action plan and follow up. Regularly monitor the action plan to see whether the coaching sessions are occurring and assess the quality.
Document best practices and learnings that need to be cross-pollinated.

Helpful Tips

Assign at least one person in your program or organization to manage the coaching sessions at the city level.
Train a pool of implementers to be able to reach more health providers through Sisi Kwa Sisi coaching.
Schedule follow-up meetings (in-person, if possible), and provide additional details as needed.
Ensure coaching sessions align with relevant work plans and strategic priorities.
When staff members have other responsibilities, it can be difficult to make time for coaching sessions. Consider assigning this task to someone on the team or include the coaching reviews during program implementation meetings or quarterly review meeting.

Key Outcomes

Adaptation and adoption of family planning evidence-based interventions
Diffusion of best practices to improve quality and access at city level
Create a pool of coaches and mentors at all levels of implementation

Monitoring Processes

Number of coaching sessions conducted
Number of Sisi Kwa Sisi coaches developed
Quality of coaching – monitor regularly via the coaching assessment tool for quality assurance

Success Indicators

Number of cities adopting TCI’s coaching model
Quality implementation of high impact interventions

Cost Elements

Coaching material and resources for learning
Facilitation costs such as transport and lunches for master coaches

Sustainability

Incorporate the coaching approach in geography annual work plans
Integrate the coaching concept into the usual facility updates such as continuous medical education programs and quality improvement programs