Strategy to Build USAID Staff Capacity on Resilience

To support this goal, the Center for Resilience is undertaking a variety of activities to help USAID deliver programming that is designed with built-in flexibility to rapidly and appropriately respond to shocks when they occur. These activities include research, knowledge management, and training. The Center for Resilience identified three priority target audiences: general staff, practitioners, and leadership. General staff includes technical staff in bureaus and missions, as well as support office staff in bureaus and missions, including OAA and communications staff. Practitioners include [Deputy] Resilience Coordinators and Center for Resilience staff. Leadership includes Deputy Mission Directors and Deputy Assistant Administrator of Bureaus across Agency who serve on the Resilience Leadership Council, office directors. The desired actions for general staff include incorporating resilience approaches into the design of programming and policy, understanding the ways in which a resilience approach is different from "business as usual," and knowing some of the evidence for resilience related to their specific sector. Technical staff in bureaus and missions need to know what resilience is, understand the ways in which a resilience approach is different from "business as usual," and know some of the evidence for resilience related to their specific sector. Support office staff in bureaus and missions, including OAA and communications staff, need to understand the role of resilience approaches in development programming and believe that resilience approaches complement their work. The desired actions for practitioners include expanding opportunities for peer knowledge sharing and capture, sharing resources via online collaboration space, and adding a face-to-face topic discussion during existing meetings/conferences. Practitioners need to understand the ways in which a resilience approach is different from "business as usual" and know some of the evidence for resilience related to their specific sector. The desired actions for leadership include using existing opportunities for peer exchange and learning, writing blogs from (D)MD perspective or sharing talking points with supporting staff to ensure key evidence is articulated and thought leadership is showcased, and connecting Resilience champions where possible. Leadership needs to understand the role of resilience approaches in development programming and believe that resilience approaches complement their work. The Center for Resilience's overall capacity goal is to enable staff to integrate resilience approaches into USAID policy, programming, research, learning and analysis, and measurement. The strategy to build USAID staff capacity on resilience is based on Jane Hart's Modern Workplace Learning approach, which emphasizes personal learning, social collaboration, accessing resources, and formal training. The methodology for development of this strategy consisted of desk research, meetings with a Center for Resilience focal point per target audience to identify the desired behaviors required to integrate resilience as well as the capacities needed to perform these behaviors, validation of the capacity needs with a sample of eleven staff, presentation of recommendations to the C4R team for feedback, and finalization of recommendations. It is essential that each member of a target group has a different set of capacities and experience, and individual needs will dictate which combination of solutions is best for each staff member. The strategy details the desired behaviors or actions for integrating resilience; the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that enable those behaviors; a summary of existing solutions and gaps for meeting those needs; and recommendations of priority actions to take to support capacity building. The strategy aims to enable staff to integrate resilience approaches into USAID policy, programming, research, learning and analysis, and measurement, thereby increasing the ability of vulnerable communities to manage through crises without compromising their future well-being.