In early June, we joined an online meeting of the learn4dev Knowledge Management and Knowledge Sharing expert group which was a good opportunity to learn how institutions with similar mission as ours are coping with new realities hindered by the worldwide pandemic while still performing their learning programs. Meeting attendees were representatives of different organizations from around the world: The World Bank, Enabel -  Belgian development agency, LuxDev, German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) , Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), European Commission's Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO), Agence Française de Développement (AFD), and Global Affairs Canada.

In mid-March good part of the world found itself in a lock down. The face-to-face learning events, which are one of the main focuses for the majority of participating organizations, got canceled overnight, and staff was grounded at their home locations. Remarkably not even one organization reported on any digitalization issues when the need to connect teams online emerged. Meeting attendees agreed that all of the sudden the future happened to all of us. Some digitalization aspects which seemed unimaginable three months ago became possible and real overnight.

The organizations took some time to explore available tools to re-connect teams online and to continue making learning opportunities available online. Most organizations opted to use Microsoft Teams for internal communications while they chose Cisco Webex and Zoom Video Communications platforms for delivery of online courses. In general, most organizations directed their efforts into translating their face-to-face learning events into different types of online courses – from webinars, self-paced and facilitated e-learning courses to Massive Open Online Courses. It was interesting to learn about launches of new e-learning academy of FAO, offering 350 multilingual courses free of charge.

And what about the CEF? We are slowly returning to our offices while we continue moving planned learning initiatives to our Online Learning Campus.  Preparing the program for the next two years and adjusting our response and actions remain our main focus at the moment together with strategizing possible scenarios for the world of learning in the coming years.