Year 4 Annual Progress Report: October 1, 2018 — September 30, 2019

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 Policy Research, Abt Associates, and the Notre Dame Initiative for Global Development (NDIGD) – convened and supported by the U.S. Global Development Lab (the Lab) – is designing and testing the implementation of the Rapid Feedback MERL approach. The approach was developed as part of the Lab’s initiative to co-create and co-design development solutions that innovate on traditional MERL approaches. In Year 4, activities focused on consortium management, Rapid Feedback MERL framework development and pilot selection, pilot implementation, and synthesizing lessons learned from the Consortium’s work. The Consortium tracks all pilot engagements on the Rapid Feedback MERL Pilot Tracker and pursued three new buy-ins: USAID/El Salvador (Education), USAID/Ethiopia TIGER-OR, and USAID/Guinea. The Tusome Pamoja pilot engagement officially launched in FY17 Q3 with a scoping trip to Tanzania. Following the trip, the Consortium developed an Options Memo for Phase 1, which focused on the implementation of community engagement activities. In FY18, after feedback from Tusome Pamoja stakeholders, the Consortium finalized the experiment design and completed Round 1 of data collection in Zanzibar and in the mainland regions of Iringa and Morogoro. In Year 4, Rapid Feedback MERL shared its findings from Round 1 of data collection with the Tusome Pamoja team and worked on Round 2 of data collection. The Consortium held its first Learning Check with Research Triangle Institute (RTI), the Tusome Pamoja implementer, and USAID/Senegal to present findings from Round 1 of data collection. Key takeaways from the analysis were related to the Community Education Mobilization and Action Planning (CEMAP) process, Parent Teacher Partnership (PTP) formation, School Committee (SC), Enablers and Barriers to Community Engagement, and Factors Improving Sustainability. The Rapid Feedback MERL engagement team provided RTI with additional data analysis to answer questions that arose during the Learning Check. This analysis included more description of PTP activities and how PTPs operate within a community, information on CEM utilization of Tusome Pamoja’s self-learning modules, and data on parents’ perceptions of their child’s learning. After several conversations with USAID/Tanzania and RTI in 2019, Rapid Feedback MERL developed a Design Memo and implemented two discrete studies to answer Round 2 questions. The first study explored how the CEM self-learning modules are being used by community members and how effective the modules are as tools for community engagement. The second study examined whether there is evidence in the Tusome Pamoja monitoring and evaluation data that the implementation of community engagement activities leads to actions – and the linkages between those actions – that are ultimately needed to affect student learning outcomes. The Consortium utilized Tusome Pamoja program monitoring data and conducted a separate data collection activity to gather enrollment and attendance data from District Education Officers. Next steps for the Tusome Pamoja pilot include completing analysis of the data to answer the Round 2 questions and holding a final Learning Check with Tusome Pamoja stakeholders. The THALI/IDAT pilot in India focuses on determining which patient characteristics are associated with non-adherence to TB medication among patients selected for a pilot of various technology adherence tools. The pilot is designed to identify the risk factors of low-engagement and non-adherence across four technology models: 99DOTS, videoDOTS, Medication Event Reminder Monitor (MERM), and e-compliance. The Rapid Feedback MERL Consortium tracks all pilot engagements on the Rapid Feedback MERL Pilot Tracker and pursued three new buy-ins: USAID/El Salvador (Education), USAID/Ethiopia TIGER-OR, and USAID/Guinea. The Consortium continues to work closely with USAID and implementing partners to design and implement pilot activities and to synthesize lessons learned from the Consortium’s work.