USAID/Ukraine: Learning & Adapting in Uncertainty

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine dramatically affected the focus and work of USAID/Ukraine. The Mission faced responding to the urgent needs of the Ukrainian people due to the war, while also keeping a longer-term strategy in mind. Uncertain conditions limited the team’s ability to build connections and make decisions collaboratively. To address these challenges, the Mission engaged the EnCompass-led USAID/Ukraine Monitoring and Learning Support Contract (UMLS) to nimbly design and facilitate a series of strategic planning workshops for Mission technical and program offices. 

In addition to improving morale, the workshops fostered a greater appreciation of the entire portfolio and a greater common understanding of the strategic context within Mission technical offices. USAID/Ukraine representatives felt more empowered and able to use evidence to make programming recommendations and advocate for funds. Technical offices report being better equipped to understand the big picture and how influence decisions made by what they jokingly refer to as “the five-thousand-mile screwdriver from Washington.” The Mission is now experiencing a massive transition as the entire team steadily returns to the Kyiv office and as nearly 20 technical and operational outgoing expatriate staff are replaced with 20 incoming staff. Material and discussions from the workshops were instrumental in preparing for this historic transition and have laid a strong foundation for technical offices to continue grounding themselves in this rapidly shifting context.