Rapid Feedback Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning FY21 Quarter 1: October 1 – December 31, 2020

The program addresses the lack of systematic testing and availability of timely evidence to inform ongoing activity refinement and improvement. Rapid Feedback MERL embeds rigorous monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) approaches into activity design and implementation. A Consortium of four organizations—Results for Development Institute (R4D), Mathematica, Abt Associates, and the Pulte Institute for Global Development at the University of Notre Dame—is designing and testing the implementation of the Rapid Feedback MERL approach. The approach was developed as part of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Global Development Lab's initiative to co-create and co-design development solutions that innovate on traditional MERL approaches. During the first quarter of Year 6, the Consortium implemented several activities. Activity 1 focused on Consortium management, with R4D serving as a liaison between the Consortium and the Lab. The Lab and R4D held bi-weekly calls and worked closely on pilot generation and development, pulling in relevant Consortium members as needed. Activity 2 involved the development and selection of pilots. In addition to confirmed engagements, the Consortium pursued several new opportunities, including the Global Book Alliance (GBA), Tanzania, and Mali. The Consortium also facilitated a discussion around the feasibility of Lecture Pour Tous (LPT) and USAID's proposed areas of interest. Phase II of the LPT engagement started in early 2020, but disruptions caused by COVID-19 forced LPT to suspend several activities and re-envision others. The Consortium re-connected with LPT in September to explore new Phase II research questions that reflected LPT's new COVID-19 activities plan. Two overarching research questions were identified related to the themes of coaching and continuous teacher professional development (CPD). The Consortium presented a concept note based on the research questions to LPT and USAID. The calls allowed the Consortium to further refine the key research questions, outcomes of interests, expected sample sizes, and data collection feasibility. Following these calls, USAID and LPT agreed that the Consortium would prioritize and implement activities under research question 1 (Coaching) and provide technical assistance to LPT under research question 2 (CPD). The Consortium supported LPT to prepare for a pre-test SMS survey to measure the knowledge and attitudes of teachers prior to upcoming continuous professional development training events. The Consortium also developed and sent a baseline SMS survey to teachers and coaches participating in LPT's experimental coaching model. The Consortium is planning to conduct Lean Testing in early January to better understand how LPT's coaching model is being implemented. The Consortium will send out another SMS-based survey to participants and conduct key informant interviews with a sample of teachers and coaches. A Learning Check is tentatively scheduled for the end of February. The Consortium also closed out the pilot for THALI/IDAT (India), which focused on determining which patient characteristics are associated with non-adherence to tuberculosis (TB) medication among patients selected for a pilot of various technology adherence tools. The pilot explored two research questions and all required data was uploaded into USAID's Development Data Library (DDL). TIGER-OR (Ethiopia) is a USAID initiative to generate evidence on the improved and deliberate linkage and integration of Government of Ethiopia (GOE) programs to increase the resilience of vulnerable populations in the Ethiopian highlands. USAID/Ethiopia and the Consortium are in the design phase of the engagement. This quarter, the Consortium worked on the design phase of the engagement, with activities including the development of a detailed work plan and the identification of key performance indicators. The Consortium also worked on the development of a detailed work plan and the identification of key performance indicators for the TIGER-OR engagement. The Consortium will continue to work on the design phase of the engagement in the coming quarters, with a focus on developing a comprehensive plan for the implementation of the TIGER-OR initiative.