GROWTH Quality Assurance and Surveillance Plan

The QASP is aligned with the vision of success of the Center of Excellence on Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (DRG Center). The plan builds on the "acceptable quality levels" at the start-up stage of the GROWTH project and acknowledges the role of the government in developing incentives to meet these levels. The GROWTH project is structured to ensure high-quality, useful, and timely deliverables that are responsive to the requests of the Technical Operations and Coordination (TOCOR). To achieve this, the project has established management quality assurance structures that ensure full transparency and accountability. These structures include defining deliverables, quality standards, timelines, and responsible individuals for each activity, as well as tracking progress and addressing challenges. The QASP ensures that expectations are clear for each activity, including learning activities and events. The GROWTH team works closely with DRG counterparts to define deliverables, quality standards, timelines, and responsible individuals. The team also tracks the progress of individual activities each week through weekly reports and check-ins with the TOCOR. The QASP will ensure a common understanding of quality expectations among key personnel, activity leads, and the TOCOR. At the individual activity level, activity leads complete an Activity/Event Management Checklist that documents key steps, such as client approvals, deliverables, communication deadlines, accommodation requests, individuals responsible for each step, and a due date for each step. The checklist is stored on a commonly accessible repository and is updated regularly. Activity leads also provide biweekly updates to the Team Lead and Deputy Team Lead on task status, flagging issues that might require more support. The GROWTH team strives to surpass performance standards for each deliverable and recognizes that quality is directly influenced by technical capacity. The team has the right resources and sets clear expectations to produce high-quality deliverables that reflect innovative practices. The GROWTH team may also update and adapt checklists, clearance process maps, and other tools to aid both the GROWTH core team and the TOCOR and DRG points of contact in understanding the activity development process. The QASP will help the GROWTH team identify performance issues and mitigate them as they arise. The team will continuously analyze surveillance data, escalating performance issues to the Team Lead for resolution. The Data Tracker and wider project management system will help identify potential bottlenecks and other performance issues. The GROWTH Team Lead is fully responsible and accountable for the quality, timeliness, and responsiveness of the work and is the primary point of contact for the TOCOR. The QASP table presents illustrative metrics and methods to measure the quality and timeliness of the work. EnCompass brings significant experience designing and implementing innovative learning and capacity-building solutions. The finalized QASP will be standardized to reflect EnCompass' standards, contributing to a unified process to guide these activities. The GROWTH leadership team will review metrics on a quarterly basis to identify strengths and weaknesses. The team will also seek feedback from training participants and implementing partners. A key feedback and evaluation tool is the After-Action Report (AAR), which is used to document findings and recommendations for improvement following the completion of each synchronous learning activity. The GROWTH team will use the AAR templates and hold after-action reviews with DRG Center counterparts following the completion of activities.