Measuring Impact II Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Plan

MI2's initiatives focus on strengthening Agency business processes to enable adaptive management, increase capacity and motivation of key stakeholders, and reinforce the use and value of evidence and learning. The program is designed to help USAID achieve greater gains in conserving biodiversity and contribute to human well-being outcomes. A context analysis conducted during the activity start-up period recognizes that USAID's Agency-level enabling conditions to support more effective programs are evolving and dynamic. The predecessor activity, Measuring Impact (MI), focused on strengthening a set of enabling conditions, including capacity, knowledge, tools, and guidance, business processes and policy, and culture. Under MI, the Bureau for Economic Growth, Education, and Environment's (E3) Office of Forestry and Biodiversity (FAB) made progress partnering with missions, implementing partners, and Agency partners. The MI2 situation model builds on the success of MI, with USAID biodiversity programs having a set of new practices, new expectations, a strong foundation of individual and institutional capacity, and a policy environment that encourages learning. Priority enabling factors that need to be addressed in the next five years include Agency-level conditions that are evolving to support adaptive management and learning, existing business processes, and the evidence base, synthesis, and information exchange to support learning and adapting. USAID operating units have different needs, constraints, and priorities, and their paths to effective programming may vary greatly. Staff of both USAID and implementing partners face several challenges in making rigorous, evidence-based decisions in programming, including a need for new knowledge and skills, a set of institutional practices that support rigor and adaptive management, and incentives to use new practices. The constraints on good decision-making can result in programs that do not fully realize their potential due to flaws in design and/or implementation. The MI2 MEL Plan is a performance management tool that enables the MI2 team to plan, measure, and report progress to USAID; to test assumptions inherent in the MI2 theory of change; to assess activity successes and shortcomings; and to provide a foundation for the MI2 evidence-based learning agenda. The plan is intended to be a dynamic document that MI2 will update routinely to reflect changes in activity baselines, targets, or indicators. Throughout implementation, MI2 will use metrics and outcomes related to activity progress to inform activity management. The MI2 MEL Plan includes several key components, including monitoring indicators and methods, external evaluations, collaborating, learning, and adapting, and implementing the MEL plan. The plan also includes annexes, such as performance indicator reference sheets and a performance indicator tracking table. The MI2 team will use the MEL Plan to track progress, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions to enhance the effectiveness and impact of USAID biodiversity conservation and integrated programs. The MI2 program is funded and managed by the USAID Office of Forestry and Biodiversity/Bureau for Economic Growth, Education, and Environment and the Office of Regional Sustainable Development/Latin America and the Caribbean. The program is implemented by Environmental Incentives, LLC, with partners Foundations of Success and ICF Macro, Inc. The MI2 team will work closely with USAID operating units, implementing partners, and other stakeholders to ensure that the program is aligned with USAID's goals and objectives and that it is making a meaningful impact in conserving biodiversity and contributing to human well-being outcomes.