Quarterly Progress Report: Monitoring and Evaluation Support Activity II (MEASURE II) in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The program is implemented by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) under a contract valued at $7.3 million. During the reporting period of October 1 through December 31, 2023, MEASURE II provided technical assistance to the Mission related to USAID/BiH's Performance Management Plan (PMP) and Activity monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) plans. The program interacted with the Mission on 283 occasions, informing changes to the PMP Results Framework, preparations for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Annual Budget Review (ABR) and Performance Plan and Report (PPR), and changes to the Activity MEL Plan template. MEASURE II also interacted with 12 of USAID/BiH's Implementing Partners (IPs) on 113 occasions, providing them with one-on-one MEL assistance and consultations. The program assisted 4 IPs in using the Performance Information Management System (BIHPERFORM). Under Component 2, MEASURE II finalized and published the 2022 Judicial Effectiveness Index of Bosnia and Herzegovina (JEI-BiH) and the 2022 National Survey of Citizens' Perceptions in Bosnia and Herzegovina (NSCP-BiH) reports. The program also completed final reports for the Developing Sustainable Tourism Activity in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TURIZAM) Evaluation and the Ex Post Evaluation of USAID/BIH's Grant Assistance to Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in BIH (2012-2022) (SGE). Additionally, MEASURE II prepared for four upcoming research projects by drafting the Statements of Work (SoWs) and presented them to the Contracting Officer's Representative (COR). The research projects include performance evaluations of the E-Governance Activity in Bosnia and Herzegovina (E-Governance), Local Works (LW) portfolio, and INSPIRE – Human Rights Activity (INSPIRE), and the Country-level Gender Analysis. Under Component 3, MEASURE II continued discussions with the Mission to inform the design of two co-creation workshops on digitalization and anti-corruption and investigative journalism, scheduled to take place in the third quarter. The program also proposed new Collaboration, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) activities to USAID/BiH, primarily knowledge sharing and sensemaking sessions with IPs and a workshop for the Mission staff around the implications of the NSCP-BiH findings on USAID/BiH's programming. MEASURE II also conducted an internal After-Action Review to discuss the Activity's achievements and lessons learned during Year 4 of implementation. The program also participated in meetings with USAID/BiH and the Technical Assistance Project for Economic Growth (TAP EG) and participated in discussions around the design of learning experiments to be implemented by the Local Governance Assistance Activity (LGAA) and Diaspora Invest 2 Activity (DI2).