The Program Cycle is USAID’s operational model for planning, implementing, assessing, and adapting development programming in a given region or country. The Program Cycle is how policy gets translated into action and how USAID supports countries on their Journey to Self-Reliance.
USAID Learning Lab hosts three toolkits to provide USAID staff and implementing partners with a curated set of resources to plan, implement and integrate monitoring, evaluating and CLA practices into their programs.
Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) is a framework and a set of practices for strengthening organizational learning and the conditions that enable it throughout the Program Cycle to improve our development effectiveness, and support countries on their Journey to Self-Reliance.
“Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” --Samuel BeckettHere’s my favorite part of that quote: the ultimate goal is not a lack of failure; it’s better failures. That’s good news for CARE, because we just published round two of our Learning From Failure... read more
This blog is a response to our invitation to reflect on how this community is using CLA approaches to respond to COVID-19. We’d love to hear from you, too! To add a blog, click here and select “Add a Blog” in the blue bar.
I’ll admit, I had about a minute on the... read more
I’ll admit, I had about a minute on the second day of COVID lockdown where I thought, “maybe this time will be slower for me. It’s so hard to prioritize learning in emergencies.” After all, I’m the Director of Knowledge Management and Learning, and the vast majority of my... read more
My first job in development was as an “Institutional Memory Specialist” (a fancy title to avoid calling me “intern in charge of finding paperwork”) in Bamako, Mali. On my first day, my boss handed me two documents—the proposal and the log frame—and said, “Here’s... read more
CARE's Failing Forward initiative is sparking opportunities to showcase the ideas that don't work so we can spend more time implementing the ones that do. It's changing the conversation inside the organization, and leading to changes in the way we design and implement... read more
As a part of USAID Feed the Future's Agriculture Extension Support Activity in Bangladesh, the Dhaka Asiana Mission and CARE Bangladesh worked with local farmers, service providers, and private sector companies to understand the most important changes the project could... read more
Using a collaborating, learning and adapting (CLA) and curiosity-centered approach made it easier and more effective for program staff to work with communities on the sensitive issues of changing gender norms around women farmers and changing gender workloads. Staff noticed... read more