USAID/Malawi CDCS Mid-Course Stocktaking Collaboration

USAID/Malawi conducted a multi-faceted, highly participatory Country Development Cooperation Strategy CDCS Mid-course Stocktaking (MCST) exercise from October 2023 to March 2024.

Through a two-stage process, we engaged with a wide variety of Malawian stakeholders and drew on performance and context data to assess progress, ground truth assumptions with and solicit valuable insights from local stakeholders and identify adaptive management pivots. We organized the MCST into two interconnected phases: retrospective and prospective.

The retrospective phase involved participatory gathering of information on the state of CDCS assumptions, the development context, and performance results from internal and external stakeholders. During this phase, we conducted three learning sessions featuring 15 with local experts, three Development Objective (DO) level portfolio reviews, an external stakeholders’ engagement meeting, and a Government of Malawi (GOM) portfolio review. We consulted the Zimbabwe and Philippines Missions on their experiences.

The prospective phase involved synthesizing information from the retrospective phase and making decisions on adaptive management. We held an Implementing Partners (IP) meeting, staff pivot team meeting, and a senior staff decision making meeting.
To respond to findings from the retrospective and prospective phases, we started the Malawi@60 media campaign to increase awareness of USAID work among Malawians, revised indicators, and related targets, reinvigorated our youth approach, revised CDCS assumptions, and are piloting a district integration approach.

Our relationship with the GOM and other stakeholders facilitated honest feedback. Our culture of openness to feedback enabled a genuine reflection of information coming from the stakeholders and the ability to adapt.