Applying Collaborating, Learning and Adapting Principles to Develop and Implement Innovation Grants

USAID Owod, an integrated district health activity funded by USAID and implemented by RTI international and its consortium, aims to support the Government of Senegal to address the main determinants of maternal, neonatal, and child morbidity and mortality, as well as malaria-related mortality. To address these, USAID envisioned a dual approach: base Grants for reproductive, maternal, neonatal, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH), malaria and nutrition that all districts receive, and innovation grants awarded competitively for innovative approaches in RMNCAH and nutrition. Innovation grants are a novel strategy within the USAID technical approach that has not been previously implemented in Senegal. Getting stakeholder buy-in, utilizing monitoring and evaluation data, and providing support or motivation to try new approaches were key challenges to successful innovation grant implementation that required a Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) approach. This CLA approach aimed to design innovative solutions with local stakeholder buy-in and, ultimately, local ownership of the projects. The USAID Owod activity utilized consistent internal and external collaboration, monitoring and evaluation data for learning and a pause and reflect approach to successfully design the innovative grants with USAID and local stakeholders and strengthen local actors' CLA capacities. As a result of this process, collaboration with stakeholders is now increasingly integrated into daily activities and data is routinely used for activity planning. We anticipate witnessing changes in the development outcomes targeted by the innovation grants once they are fully implemented because of the local ownership achieved through the CLA process.