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Community Contribution

The Needle is Moving on CLA!

Dec 20, 2016
Piers Bocock

Moving the Needle Logo

Two weeks ago, the USAID LEARN contract supported the Learning, Evaluation and Research (LER) Office in USAID’s Bureau for Policy, Planning and Learning (PPL) to produce our second annual learning event, Moving the Needle, a forum for showcasing practical examples of USAID’s Collaborating, Learning and Adapting (CLA) in action. Nearly 200 USAID staff and implementing partners (IPs) attended the event, representing at least 14 USAID Bureaus and Missions and including non-technical staff such as those who work on contracts and human resources.

The focus of this year’s event was “Managing Adaptively through Collaborating, Learning and Adapting.” More and more often, I find myself speaking to donors, partners, and USAID colleagues—in Missions and in Washington—about the topic of Adaptive Management. This term and ideal are gaining significant traction across the development landscape as a means to make development investments and activities more effective. The most frequent question I get is, “but how do we do that?”  And the answer is always the same: more intentional, systematic, and resourced CLA, as laid out in USAID’s CLA Framework.

Piers Bocock speaking at MTNIn my opening remarks, I noted that Adaptive Management is gaining traction because it is imperative that we nimbly adapt to ever-changing contexts in the places we work. “Nimble” is not always a term that one thinks of when talking about government agencies, but USAID is bucking that trend. Starting at the top with the priorities that Gayle Smith has emphasized—to Mission directors, Foreign Service Nationals and implementing partners—USAID programs are increasingly building their capacity to plan for uncertainty through more effective CLA practices. What’s heartening to many is that CLA and the resulting adaptive management capacity is not a fad; it is here to stay, and now a required approach to the way that USAID missions are guided to strategize, implement, monitor, learn and adapt across all their programs (as directed by PPL’s Program Cycle ADS guidance).

But don’t just take it from me. If you haven’t already seen it, I highly recommend reading Duncan Green’s blog on the topic. We had the great pleasure of Duncan’s participation in the event, along with other USAID and IP thought leaders on the topic of Adaptive Management. While approaches are varied, the experts agree that Adaptive Management is here to stay, and that more and more examples are being documented (check out our CLA Case Competition finalists to learn more).

What hearted me the most at the event was the number of people who came up to me with energy in their eyes asking questions about how to keep the momentum from the event going and how to keep that proverbial needle of adoption and integration moving in the right direction. In my closing remarks, I noted—and continue to stress whenever I can—several ways to do this:

  1. If you’re not already registered on USAID Learning Lab, go to www.usaidlearninglab.org and register. Engage with other members as well as casual readers by commenting on blogs, using and browsing the Ask and Answer feature, and submit blogs of your own (either originals or for cross-posting).
  2. Start working on your own documentation of CLA in action (you can see the format by reading cases already on USAID Learning Lab), and submit these stories when the next CLA Case Competition kicks off on May 1, 2017.
  3. USAID staff can read more about CLA and Adaptive Management, join the CLA Community of Practice, and engage with other CLA Champions on ProgramNet. They can also contact USAID/PPL/LER to inquire about how their various support contracts, including LEARN, can help with CLA Capacity Building.
  4. Read USAID’s updated Program Cycle guidance, and if you’re an implementing partner, talk to your USAID counterparts about how you can support their CLA efforts.
  5. Become a CLA Evangelist by piloting some of the CLA approaches documented on USAID Learning Lab, and help those around you see how strategic collaboration, continuous learning, and adaptive management can make your programs more effective.

While we look forward to another engaging Moving the Needle event in 2017, we also look forward to hearing from you between now and then on the challenges and successes of putting these principles into practice.

Piers Bocock is the Chief of Party for the USAID LEARN contract, one of the best jobs in development because he is supported by a stellar LEARN team and a fantastic CLA Team from USAID/PPL/LER.