Search CLA Toolkit
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Collaborating, Learning & Adapting
Facilitation
What is it?Portfolio reviews and the Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) mid-course stocktaking are complementary approaches for a Mission’s ongoing learning and adapting within the Program Cycle. Both processes serve as key “pause and reflect” moments for the Mission to generate and apply continuous learning across a broad range of programmatic and operational approaches.... READ MORE |
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What is it?In order for staff to collaborate, learn, and adapt effectively, there needs to be a culture in place that supports openness to new learning, processes that help capture knowledge and bring evidence and institutional memory to bear in decision making, and resources to support the planning, facilitation, and execution of these activities.By creating and implementing effective processes... READ MORE |
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What is it?Integrating CLA into how we design and implement programming in an intentional and systematic way requires adequate resources. For example, strategic collaboration requires staff time to identify and engage the right stakeholders. An investment of time is also required to build trusting relationships and partnerships that leverage individual strengths for collective benefit. Learning... READ MORE |
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What is it?A team or organization’s culture is its set of shared norms and beliefs - both spoken and unspoken. The culture, and resulting organizational climate is established over time by leaders and team members and informed by the organizational purpose and context within which it operates. Culture is continually communicated, reinforced, and changed through various means, including team... READ MORE |
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Activity Design & Implementation, Collaborating, Learning & Adapting
Adapting, Collaborating, Learning, Program Cycle, Resourcing CLA
What is it?Coordinated programming is grounded in evidence and, when adjusted as necessary, enhances the development results of an activity throughout implementation. By integrating collaborating, learning and adapting (CLA) throughout the activity design and procurement process, you help to ensure that implementing partners (IPs) have the capacity and the flexibility to reap the full... READ MORE |
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Activity Design & Implementation, Project Design & Implementation, Strategic Planning
Adaptive Management
What is it?USAID’s work takes place in environments that are often unstable and in transition. Even in more stable contexts, circumstances evolve and may affect programming in unpredictable ways. For its programs to be effective, USAID must be able to adapt in response to changes and new information. How to: Manage adaptivelyKnowing When to Adapt - A Decision TreeDiscussion Note: Adaptive... READ MORE |
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What is it?Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) is a set of practices that help us improve our development effectiveness. Learning has always been part of USAID’s work, and most USAID missions and implementing partners are already practicing CLA in some way. Our aim now is to make CLA more systematic and intentional throughout the Program Cycle, and to dedicate the resources necessary to... READ MORE |
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Budget & Resources, Collaborating, Learning & Adapting
Resourcing CLA
What is it?Now that we understand CLA, integrating CLA into our development work takes planning. By developing a plan tailored to our context, efforts to collaborate with stakeholders learn from a variety of sources and apply adaptive management practices will be systematic, intentional and resourced.As we apply the CLA Framework and pathways approach to our work, it is important... READ MORE |
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Collaborating, Learning & Adapting, Evaluation, Monitoring, Strategic Planning
Learning
What is it?A learning agenda includes (1) a set of questions addressing critical knowledge gaps (2) a set of associated activities to answer them and (3) products aimed at disseminating findings and designed with usage and application in mind. A learning agenda can help you:Test and explore assumptions and hypotheses throughout implementation and stay open to the possibility that your assumptions... READ MORE |
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Activity Design & Implementation, Project Design & Implementation, Strategic Planning
Collaborating, Organizational Culture
What is it?“Achieving and sustaining any development outcome depends on the contributions of multiple and interconnected actors...Each set of interconnected actors whose collective actions produce a particular outcome is a local system.” ~ USAID Local Systems FrameworkDevelopment is an inherently collaborative process and so engaging with stakeholders is essential when designing and implementing... READ MORE |
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What is it?The purpose of monitoring, evaluation and learning practices is to apply knowledge gained from evidence and analysis to improve development outcomes and ensure accountability for the resources used to achieve them (ADS 201.3.7). Before we plan our activities, we need to know what we are trying to do and what we need to learn to ensure that the data we collect will help us make... READ MORE |
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Activity Design & Implementation, Adapting, Evaluation, Monitoring, Project Design & Implementation, Strategic Planning
Adaptive Management
Pact’s Adaptive Management Guide provides practical guidance to development practitioners globally on the mindsets, behaviors, resources, and processes that underpin an effective adaptive management system. It presents an approach to managing adaptively that is rooted in complexity analysis and program theory. It draws on Pact’s global experiences and work on topics as diverse as health,... READ MORE |
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Adaptive Management
This working paper, produced under the Global Learning for Adaptive Management (GLAM) iniative, sets out four steps for strengthening evidence-informed adaptive management:1) Establish the need for evidence in adaptive management (why, what and how).2) Consider the appropriate types and levels of evidence.3) Assess the robustness of that evidence, including whether and how it can be used for... READ MORE |
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Adapting, Learning, Evaluation, Monitoring, Strategic Planning
Learning, Program Cycle
A Performance Management Plan (PMP) is a Mission-wide tool for planning and managing the process of (1) monitoring strategic progress, project performance, programmatic assumptions, and operational context; (2) evaluating performance and impact; and (3) learning and adapting from evidence. Each Mission must prepare a Mission-wide PMP within three months of CDCS approval. Updated in 2020... READ MORE |
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Adaptive Management
This guide was originally developed for Winrock International's projects as they adapted their monitoring, evaluation, and learning practices in response to the biggest constraint caused by COVID-19: the lack of direct access to the participants. It contains tips on how to conduct routine data collection, surveys, and evaluations in this context as well as what to do when access to participants... READ MORE |
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Collaborating, Learning & Adapting, Learning
Learning
This resource is intended for use by USAID staff or implementing partners as they develop or review learning questions during monitoring, evaluation or learning (MEL) planning processes. It complements the Learning Questions checklist and is geared toward strategy-level learning. The tip sheet includes examples and Do's and Don'ts for developing learning questions. READ MORE |
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Collaborating, Learning & Adapting, Learning
Internal Collaboration, Facilitation, Learning, Continuous Learning & Improvement, Organizational Processes
Compiled in partnership between the U.S. Global Development Lab’s Office of Evaluation and Impact Assessment (Lab/EIA) and the USAID LEARN contract, Learning (in the) Lab: A Utilization-Focused Learning Playbook is designed to share with our colleagues the tools and resources we’ve used to design, develop, implement, and iterate upon a bureau-wide, utilization-focused learning agenda called the... READ MORE |
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Learning
Technical Evidence Base
Armenia Youth Situational Analysis (2019): USAID/Armenia contracted Making Cents International to conduct a cross-sectoral youth assessment (CSYA) to gain a detailed understanding of the drivers that motivate youth and identifies the obstacles or constraints that undermine their contributions to Armenia’s political, economic, and social well-being in a meaningful way. The assessment team... READ MORE |
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Evaluation
Learning, Evaluation, M&E for Learning, Monitoring
EXECUTIVE SUMMARYThis 2017 Data Quality Analysis (DQA) of the Partnership for Conservation of Amazonian Biodiversity (PCAB) Project reports on the quality of data used to measure five standard indicators of PCAB outputs or outcomes. This DQA report also includes recommendations for USAID and the PCAB implementing partners (IPs) to implement for improving procedures for standard indicator data... READ MORE |
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Activity Design & Implementation, Monitoring, Planning
Learning, Monitoring, Organizational Processes, Decision-Making
Recommendations for multilateral funding agencies to increase the use of forest monitoring tools across development sectors, as a matter of policy and practice to meet sustainability goals.https://bankinformationcenter.org/en-us/update/forest-monitoring-what-can-world-bank--others-do/ READ MORE |
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Resourcing CLA
Examples of position descriptions for CLA-focused staff as highlighted in the Resourcing CLA landing page of the CLA Toolkit.This position description for a Senior Learning Advisor (PSC-14) provides useful information for those that want to apply or for those developing their own organizational learning advisor position descriptions. The original PD was updated to reflect the evolving set of CLA... READ MORE |
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Resourcing CLA
Example language for a CLA Mechanism as highlighted in the Resourcing CLA landing page of the CLA Toolkit. |
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Learning
Technical Evidence Base, Organizational Processes, Knowledge Management
What is this?This document outlines a systematic and intentional approach to managing the transfer of skills and knowledge in order to support sustainable organizational outcomes. Each section has a brief description of what should be contained in it.When should this be used?This tool is intended to be used throughout the tenure of a staff member from the beginning of their tenure to the end.... READ MORE |
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Collaborating, Learning & Adapting
Collaborating, Facilitation, Learning
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is excited to announce the publication of the Self-Reliance Learning Agenda (SRLA) questions and additional resources. Please check out the resource on this page to see the full list of questions and the latest SRLA learning products.What is self-reliance?Self-reliance is a country’s capacity to plan, finance, and implement solutions... READ MORE |
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Collaborating, Learning & Adapting, Evaluation, Monitoring
Learning, Theories of Change, Program Cycle
This webinar is an introduction to performance monitoring at the activity level. It explains some key concepts in performance monitoring and demonstrates how one develops a performance motioning plan based on a project or activity theory of change and its associated logic model. COR/AORs and MEL specialists and anyone else who is wondering how to translate a theory of change into a coherent plan... READ MORE |
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Adapting, Adaptive Management, Organizational Culture, Resourcing CLA
If you are involved in hiring, this tool can help you increase your chances of selecting staff members skilled in adaptive management. It will help answer the questions:Which competencies should I recruit for in order to hire more adaptive employees?Which desired qualifications should I incorporate into position descriptions to attract adaptive employees?Which interview questions should I ask to... READ MORE |
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Organizational Processes, Knowledge Management, Resourcing CLA, Adaptable Mechanisms, MEL Support Mechanisms
Strategic collaboration, continuous learning, and adaptive management throughout the Program Cycle helps USAID missions and operating units (OUs) achieve better development outcomes. Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) can be integrated into the procurement process, solicitation, and management of implementing mechanisms. Support activities, also known as support platforms or support... READ MORE |
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Facilitation, Learning
A Pause and Reflect moment can take many variations (team retreats, individual time to read and process, after-action reviews, etc.), but one of the most common missed opportunities is meetings. These include implementing partner meetings, stakeholder meetings, office meetings, all-hands meetings, portfolio reviews, mid-course stocktaking, or other recurring or one-off meetings. Using... READ MORE |
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Adapting, Adaptive Management, Organizational Processes
There is some agreement that flexible and adaptive management, throughout the programme cycle and in the financial and operational management of implementation, is essential for programme effectiveness. Yet for a wide variety of reasons, most organisations have far to go to reach this adaptive ideal. This study provides a catalyst for an open discussion of the many challenges to adaptive... READ MORE |
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Organizational Culture
Research shows that companies that use a few specific cultural catalysts — that is to say, those that use informal emotional approaches to influencing behavior — are significantly more likely to experience change that lasts. Of the companies that reported consciously using elements of their culture in Strategy’s 2013 Global Culture & Change Management Survey, 70 percent said their firms... READ MORE |
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