Developmental Evaluation Attempted Pilot - Bureau for Food Security

"USAID's Developmental Evaluation Pilot Activity (DEPA-MERL) project was one of the first attempts to introduce Developmental Evaluation (DE) to USAID. The DEPA-MERL project provided high quality DEs to interested Operating Units while also rigorously collecting and widely disseminating learning about how to conduct DEs in the Agency’s unique context.

For this DE, as USAID’s Bureau for Food Security (BFS) navigated a structural transformation, BFS identified a need to use learning from current practices to inform the Bureau’s future structures and functions. BFS aimed to use DE to better understand how successful the Bureau’s units were in capturing learning and dealing with challenges related to knowledge management and knowledge sharing. The DE was not fully implemented due to external challenges and ultimately focused on a narrow set of questions and products. These resources are intended for those interested in gaining an understanding of when DE is not a good fit within USAID."