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Community Contribution

USAID Places Second in the 2017 Federal Invest in What Works Index

Nov 15, 2017
USAID Learning Lab
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Earthquake-affected women in the new community of Emilio del Solar (named after the supportive Mayor of Chincha Baja), in Peru, share their vision for improving their reinforced adobe neighborhood during a project monitoring visit. Credit: USAID.

Congratulations to USAID for placing 2nd in the 2017 Federal Invest in What Works Index! 

Results for America’s Federal Invest in What Works Index (2017) highlights the extent to which the Administration for Children and Families (within HHS); Corporation for National and Community Service; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (within HHS); Millennium Challenge Corporation; U.S. Agency for International Development; U.S. Department of Education; U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Department of Labor are currently building the infrastructure necessary to be able to use data, evidence and evaluation in budget, policy, and management decisions. These agencies are overseeing more than $220 billion in federal investments in FY17.

A few notable excerpts of USAID's report are pasted below (see mentions of the Program Cycle and Collaborating, Learning and Adapting!). Click here to read the full report.

Did the agency use evidence of effectiveness when allocating funds from its 5 largest competitive grant programs in FY17? (Examples: Tiered-evidence frameworks; evidence-based funding set-asides; priority preference points or other preference scoring; Pay for Success provisions)

  • USAID is committed to using evidence of effectiveness in all of its competitive contracts, cooperative agreements, and grants, which comprise the majority of the Agency’s work. USAID has rebuilt its planning, monitoring, and evaluation framework to produce and use evidence through the introduction of a new Program Cycle, which systematizes use of evidence across all decision-making regarding grants and all of USAID’s work. The Program Cycle is USAID’s particular framing and terminology to describe a common set of processes intended to achieve more effective development interventions and maximize impacts. The Program Cycle acknowledges that development is not static and is rarely linear, and therefore stresses the need to assess and reassess through regular monitoring, evaluation, and learning...

In FY17, did the agency shift funds away from or within any practice, program, or policy that consistently failed to achieve desired outcomes? (Examples: Requiring low-performing grantees to re-compete for funding; removing ineffective interventions from allowable use of grant funds; proposing the elimination of ineffective programs through annual budget requests)

  • USAID’s updated operational policy for planning and implementing country programs has incorporated a set of tools and practices called Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA), that include designing adaptable activities that build in feedback loops; using flexible implementing mechanisms; and adopting a management approach that includes consulting with partners about how implementation is evolving and what changes need to be made. Through the Program Cycle, USAID encourages managing projects and activities adaptively, responding to rigorous data and evidence and shifting design and/or implementation accordingly.