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Monitoring in the Program Cycle

The Program Cycle is USAID’s operational model for planning, delivering, assessing, and adapting development programming in a given region or country to advance U.S. foreign policy. It is described in USAID policy ADS 201. Monitoring plays a critical role throughout the Program Cycle and is used to determine whether USAID is accomplishing what it sets out to achieve, what effects programming is having in a region, and how to adapt to changing environments.

Performance monitoring and context monitoring occur throughout the Program Cycle, from Country or Regional Development Cooperation Strategies (CDCS/RDCS), to projects, to activities. Data from monitoring are used to: assess whether programming is achieving expected results; adapt existing activities, projects, and strategies as necessary; and, apply Agency learning to the designs of future strategies and programming. The diagram below identifies some of the ways in which monitoring is embedded in the Program Cycle.
 

Monitoring in the Program Cycle