USAID's Bite-Sized Learning Series

On November 7, 2023, USAID’s Bureau of Planning, Learning, and Resource Management hosted Session 1 of the 2023-2024 Bite-Sized Learning Series: Operationalizing Localization through Collabrating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA). The session featured opening remarks from USAID’s Senior Advisor for Localization, Sarah Rose (see Sarah's reflection on the event here); as well as input from members of Agency implementing partners, Global Communities and The Institute for Development Impact (I4DI). During the session, participants watched this video, which can be seen below, and which zooms in on winning cases from the 2022 CLA Case Competition as a means to explore the links between CLA and localization. Then, in the Q&A session that followed, panelists and participants unpacked the question: How can USAID staff, implementing partners, and other development practitioners use CLA to advance localization in their contexts? Watch the session recording and download the event slides here.

The ongoing Bite-Sized Learning series offers candid perspectives from development professionals within and beyond the Agency, as well as tangible tips and tools for applying CLA to tackle pressing development challenges. The series, which builds upon insights from the 600+ Collaboration, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) Case Competition submissions on Learning Lab, is open to USAID and its partners. We hope you will continue to join us! To that end, keep an eye out for the following upcoming invites: 

• Early 2024: DEIA and CLA: Alphabet Soup for the Soul

• May 2024: CLA Paves the Way…for Evidence Capture and Use 

• July 2024: CLA Saves the Day: Successful Activity Redesigns and Pivots

Watch the video, How CLA Supports Localization, below, and follow USAID Learning Lab on Twitter and LinkedIn for more information about the Bite-Sized Learning Series!

Thank you for joining Bite-Sized Learning Session 2! 

USAID’s Bureau of Planning, Learning, and Resource Management held its second CLA Case Competition Bite-Sized Learning webinar on February 28: Alphabet Soup for the Soul: DEIA and CLA.

The event took place on February 28, 2024, and featured opening remarks from Neneh Diallo, USAID’s Chief Diversity Officer, and head of the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in USAID’s Office of the Administrator. Expert panelists from Agency Implementing Partners Chemonics and Grassroots Soccer Zambia unpacked the question: How does the use of CLA by USAID staff, implementing partners, and other development practitioners advance Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) in their contexts?  

Watch the recording here.

Thank you for joining Bite-Sized Learning Session 3: CLA Paves the Way… for Putting Evidence and Learning to Use

On June 5th, USAID’s Bureau of Planning, Learning, and Resource Management (PLR) held the third Collaborating, Learning and Adapting (CLA) Case Competition’s Bite-Sized Learning webinar, “CLA Paves the Way… for Putting Evidence and Learning to Use!” 

This webinar featured opening remarks from USAID’s Agency Evaluation Officer, Winston Allen. Together with members from Agency Implementing Partners from the Data for Impact activity in Moldova and the USAID Water Sanitation and Conservation Project in Lebanon, participants unpacked the question: How can USAID staff, implementing partners, and other development practitioners use CLA to put evidence and learning to use, and ensure that the right information is available for the appropriate parties, when it is needed most?

PLR hosts the Bite-Sized Learning series to build upon the CLA Case Competition evidence-base on Learning Lab (which houses 600+ CLA cases). The series offers candid perspectives from development professionals within and beyond the Agency, as well as tangible tips and tools for applying CLA in your work.

Post-Session Resources

If you missed the third session, read this overview by USAID Evaluation Officer, Winston Allen, or watch the session recording here! 

The slide deck, question and answer transcript and other session resources are available here.

Winston, USAID’s Chief Evaluation Officer

Dr. Winston J. Allen is the Agency Evaluation Officer, located in USAID’s Bureau for Policy, Planning and Learning (PPL). He has over 30 years of experience in international development program evaluation, project planning and design, and social science research.

Prior to this role, he was Senior Evaluation Specialist, during which he managed a $455 million evaluation services contract, and provided technical leadership in designing performance and impact evaluations, towards strengthening evaluation practice, and evaluation capacity across the Agency. His evaluation and research experience cut across several sectors including economic growth, health, transportation, labor, education, agriculture, business, and natural resource management. Over the years, he has served as evaluation team lead for a broad range of evaluations supported by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), private foundations, and U.S. Federal Government Agencies. 

He has extensive experience conducting program evaluations in countries in Africa, Asia, Latin American, the Caribbean, Europe and Eurasia, and the Middle East. Prior to joining USAID, he was the Director for Monitoring and Evaluation on a USAID funded project, Africa’s Health in 2010, where he led the effort to strengthen the evaluation and program monitoring capacity of African regional health organizations. He holds a master’s and a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning, with a focus on international development, from the University of Pennsylvania.

Christelle-Elie Safi, MEL & CLA Lead, USAID Water Sanitation & Conservation (WSC) Project, DAI

Dr. Christelle is a MECLA expert with 15 years of experience working with international donors in the Middle East and the Caribbean. Her technical expertise includes program development and monitoring, quantitative and qualitative research, data quality assessment and analysis, reporting, and adaptive management. Christelle has worked in Lebanon and in Haiti on a variety of projects including rule of law and justice, local governance, and water and sanitation. She also led the MEL team of the first USAID-funded MEL-focused project in Lebanon, supervising 22 projects in Economic Growth (Agriculture and Health), Democracy and Governance, Education and Water sectors.

Camelia Gheorghe, Chief of Party, Data for Impact, The Palladium Group

Camelia has over 30 years of experience in social development and M&E in EU countries, Western Balkans, Central Asia, Ukraine, Moldova and Turkey. She worked as Program Manager for Social Policy in the European Commission (Brussels), as Social Policy Specialist in the Council of Europe (Strasbourg) and as senior researcher at the Institute for Quality of Life (Bucharest). Camelia managed complex international projects funded by USAID, UNICEF, EU and World Bank in child protection, social assistance and human resources development, coordinated European-wide research studies on education, employment and social inclusion, and implemented M&E capacity building programs for governments and international organizations in Eastern Europe.