Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting for Improved Development (CLAimDev) Final Report

The contract purpose was to bolster the capacity of USAID/Philippines to effectively lead and practice collaborating, learning, and adapting (CLA), by working closely with USAID/Philippines to integrate CLA principles into the Mission's work. This included helping staff to strategically collaborate with key internal and external stakeholders, adopt a culture of continuous learning, and practice effective, agile adaptive management to achieve greater development impact. CLAimDev's work focused on supporting the Program Resources Management Office (PRM) with performance management, monitoring, and evaluation tasks, to help build the Mission's evidence base. Completed evaluations and research include the STRIDE Final Performance Evaluation, SURGE Final Performance Evaluation, E-Peso Ex-Post Performance Evaluation, Marawi Response Project Final Performance Evaluation, and ABC+ Midterm Performance Evaluation. These evaluations achieved significant cost savings from conducting remote evaluations, which allowed CLAimDev to experiment with new ways of disseminating evidence to increase learning and use. As the Philippines lifted its pandemic restrictions and the Mission returned to hybrid and in-person work, CLAimDev's CLA work moved into high gear. The Mission began its preparations for the CDCS Midcourse Stocktaking (MCST), and CLAimDev provided support to the Mission for the MCST. This included collating, verifying, collecting, analyzing, and displaying performance management and monitoring data, summarizing and reporting on the Mission's work on cross-cutting issues, and facilitating adaptive management workshops. CLAimDev's collaboration with the Mission's technical and support offices was a key aspect of its work. The team worked closely with the leadership and staff in the PRM, technical offices, and other support offices in the Mission to build strong relationships and support the Mission's performance management and monitoring work. CLAimDev's support to the Mission for the MCST included organizing logistics, creating presentations, and facilitating Development Objective (DO) team meetings to analyze the data and issues. The CLAimDev team also generated evidence for the Mission through its evaluation and research efforts. This included conducting evaluations and research on topics such as disaster risk reduction, civic engagement, and local governance. The team used a variety of methods to disseminate evidence, including interactive, multimedia web reports, videos, and infographics. Throughout its work, CLAimDev prioritized learning, use, and dissemination. The team worked to create a stronger CLA culture in USAID/Philippines by supporting the Mission's performance management and monitoring work, generating evidence, and facilitating adaptive management workshops. CLAimDev's work was guided by a commitment to evidence-driven CLA and a focus on increasing development effectiveness. The CLAimDev team received extraordinary support from the Office of Program Resources Management (PRM), from its Director, Allyson Gardner, to all its members. CLAimDev's Contracting Officer's Representative (COR), Albert Aquino, and Alternate COR, Josephina Cervantes, provided technical guidance and gave CLAimDev the encouragement and approvals needed to experiment with new ways of disseminating, learning, and using evidence for adaptive management and decision-making. In the final section of this report, CLAimDev's work on CLA is described in greater detail. The report includes hyperlinks to full written reports, video interviews with CLAimDev team members and Mission staff, and infographics. An interactive web version of this report is available at LINK.