Pause & Reflect to Strengthen Kenyan Local Partner Collaboration

The Cooperative Leadership, Engagement, and Research (CLEAR) program is part of the Cooperative Development Program housed in the Bureau for Democracy and Innovation, Local, Faith-based and Transformative Partnerships Hub. The program’s goals are threefold: (1) support cooperative legislation, policy, and regulations in counties; (2) provide technical assistance to cooperative businesses; and, (3) enhance cooperative networks to improve education and learning among cooperatives. 

Under the third goal, CLEAR utilizes Collaborating, Learning and Adapting (CLA) internally and externally with implementing partners, stakeholders, and cooperatives to prioritize participatory design and substantial learning. Two of the activities that CLEAR utilizes are After Action Reviews and Quarterly Data Reviews. Together, these two pause and reflect activities help CLEAR develop and adapt data-driven activities that best support our implementing partners and cooperatives. After Action Reviews are often conducted with key stakeholders to reflect on the activity together, discuss any needed adaptations, and capture contextual learning. Quarterly Data Reviews are conducted internally by the CLEAR team each quarter to review lessons learned, monitoring and objective indicator data, and to plan for the following quarter. While separate, these two activities together shape CLEAR’s CLA framework, leading to more effective collaboration with local partners and a strengthening of the Kenyan cooperative sector.