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.
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Acting Administrator John Barsa has streamlined Chapter 201 of our ADS, Program Cycle Operational Policy, to shift our emphasis from bureaucracy to the real work of supporting development progress. The reformed policy... read more
The Discussion Note defines Third-Party Monitoring (TPM) and provides information on key considerations when utilizing it. Created using interviews with TPM practitioners and USAID managers, the Discussion note provides suggestions for how to most effectively utilize TPM,... read more
Library Resource | Oct 15, 2020 | Technical Resources
USAID maintains staff and operations in more than 80 countries around the world, all of which the COVID-19 pandemic will disrupt. USAID remains committed to protecting the health and safety of our staff, while continuing appropriate oversight of our programs and... read more
This content is currently under revision to align with the recently updated ADS 201. For guidance and support associated with revisions to ADS 201, please see the Program Cycle overview page.
This Discussion Note outlines key considerations for USAID staff and evaluators... read more
Focus group interviews (also often called focus group discussions) are a key tool for collecting data to support many USAID activities. This data collection technique is widely used in international development planning, monitoring, and evaluation. They are quick, versatile... read more
This short introduction to an applied political economy analysis is from the Somalia Expanding Access to Justice program, implemented by Freedom House in consortia with Pact. This introduction is worth sharing because it lays out the framing of the PEA to explicitly connect... read more
This solicitation for analytical activities in Burma provides a good model for a targeted investment in context understanding, including through use of political economy analysis. The solicitation asks for a diverse set of analytic skills and capacities in order to have a... read more
This content is currently under revision to align with the recently updated ADS 201. For guidance and support associated with revisions to ADS 201, please see the Program Cycle overview page.
Evaluation syntheses are analytic reviews of evaluations that aggregate findings... read more
This resource, part of the context-driven adaptation collection (see https://usaidlearninglab.org/context-driven-adaptation-overview), provides tips on how to enable context-driven adaptation, or thinking and working politically (TWP), within a USAID strategy. It also... read more
This content is currently under revision to align with the recently updated ADS 201. For guidance and support associated with revisions to ADS 201, please see the Program Cycle overview page.
This updated template may be used as the basis for developing an evaluation... read more