What is technical facilitation?
Technical facilitation refers to enabling a process involving scientific or engineering analysis to come to an effective conclusion, whereby value is generated not only in the outcome, but through the process itself. Examples of processes can be as simple as a meeting where several viewpoints need to be taken into account or as complex as multi-disciplinary international research and development projects. An independent facilitator in these processes can add value by ensuring that different viewpoints are aired in a neutral forum, and that the process stays focused on the intended agenda in a timely manner. If there are interesting and potentially useful ideas generated which are not strictly relevant to the original agenda, then these should be captured by the facilitator for later use by the organisation, at a more suitable time. The term technical facilitation cannot be precisely defined as an expert facilitator must adapt to the circumstances of each process each group will have di