USAID PLR Local Evaluation and Evidence Support Effort

Calling all researchers from East or West Africa! See the below call for applications for the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) fellowship for 2025-2026.

The USAID Local Evaluation and Evidence Support (LEES) Effort implemented by LINC with The Cloudburst Group is a global effort by USAID to help meet its localization goals with a strong emphasis on monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL). It does this by building the capacity of host-country research and evaluation entities that USAID, other international organizations, and local governments can engage in conducting future evaluation and learning activities; strengthening their technical and organizational capacity; helping them market their services to potential clients; and supporting them as they begin to conduct evaluations and learning activities. Currently, LEES is operating in Ghana before being replicated in other nations around the world. Read more below. To engage with the LEES network: https://lnkd.in/d-Pq6wvi #globaldevelopment #monitoring #evaluation #localization #developmentpartners #internationaldevelopment #WorkwithUSAID

To celebrate the successful completion of Phase 1 of the LEES capacity strengthening program in #Zambia, implementing partners LINC and The Cloudburst Group hosted a two-day Peer Learning Event to bring together participating organizations to practice skills they learned in the training and network with other local evidence ecosystem actors. Attendees also participated in a mock proposal pitch contest and attended additional workshops on topics like Communications Planning, Decision-Making in Design, and Strategic Planning, among others. The Peer Learning Event also served as the launch of LEES Phase 2 activities, which will focus on strengthening Zambia’s evidence ecosystem and creating linkages with evidence actors across Africa. LEES participants shared their reflections and learnings from the four-month training and how they feel it will strengthen their organization’s capacity to do business with #USAID and other funders. ‘The sessions were quite detailed, they had a lot of depth (…) getting to understand USAID’s language was very interesting (…) to be more concise, more specific. Understanding the processes for the strategic planning as well as communicating… these really stood out for me.’ ‘In proposal development (…) The feedback that we got was an aha! moment because it highlighted talent issues that we’ve been ignoring.’ To listen to more of what participants shared, watch the video below. #LearningEvent #CapacityStrengthening

Today, the USAID PLR Local Evaluation and Evidence Support Effort closed out the second day of its Peer Learning Event in Zambia. Over the past two days, we’ve celebrated our pilot cohort’s accomplishments, learned new skills in strategic planning and training of trainers, discussed best practices for evidence utilizaiton, and deepened the community of evidence actors in Zambia. Today concluded the first phase of the LEES program and launched Phase Two, during which we will focus on strengthening relationships within Zambia’s evidence ecosystem through communities of practice, learning events, and other activities. We would like to give a special congratulations to those organizations who completed a mock USAID proposal and competed in the pitch contest, during which organizations gave an oral presentation of their proposals’ technical approach. We were blown away by the technical depth and presentation skills of our trainees. Congratulations to the winner Telos Consult Limited and runner up Brasys! Our other Zambian trainees included: cavendishuniversity zambia, Centre for Trade Policy and Development, COREPlus Consult Limited, EM Associate Limited, IMPACT Research, Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute (IAPRI), Institute of Organisation Development Facilitators, Ipomea Consult, Ipsos Zambia, Keno Institute of Training & Research, Klinex Limited, Laria Consultancy & Research Solutons, M31 Research, March Associates Consulting, MashMap Consultancy Services, Nangoma Consult, Palm Associated Limited, Policy Monitoring and Research Centre, Renovatio Business Services Limited, Southern African Institute for Policy and Research, Zafrik Consulting Group, Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis and Research, and THE ZCAS University. LEES is implemented by LINC with partners The Cloudburst Group, DevLab@Penn, and infotrak research and consulting.

Today, the USAID/PLR Local Evaluation and Evidence Support (LEES) effort kicked off the first day of its Peer Learning Event in Zambia with the pilot cohort of twenty-five local monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning organizations. The event represents the culmination of four months of intensive training in business development, research and evaluation methodologies, and systems strengthening. Participating organizations attended workshops on communications planning; decision-making in design; collaborating, learning, and adapting; and evaluation partnerships. Additionally, organizations that completed a mock USAID proposal competed in a pitch contest to sell their technical approach to a panel of USAID and LINC judges. Stay tuned for an update from day two! LEES is implemented by LINC with partners The Cloudburst Group, DevLab@Penn, and infotrak research and consulting.

Congratulations to our Ghana LEES trainee cohort! Beginning in October, twenty-five Ghanaian organizations will begin our intensive 4-module training program. This cohort represents a diverse cross section of the Ghanaian evidence ecosystem and includes private firms, universities, research institutions, think tanks, NGOs, and government institutions. Trainees include: AGRESEARCH LEAD, AKDE Solutions Consultancy Services, Associates for Change (AFC), The Bureau of Integrated Rural Development (BIRD) at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Bureau of Market & Social Research Ltd, the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Evaluation Development (CEED), Confidential Strategies, Devtplan Consult Limited, Emperiks, Endogen Global Consult Ltd, Endogenous Development Service Ghana, the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research at the University for Development Studies, Institute for Peace and Development, Institute for Public Policy Initiatives, Ghana, JMK Consulting Ltd, the Monitoring and Evaluation Secretariat of the Office of the President of Ghana, the Northern Regional Planning Coordinating Unit, Participatory Development Associates Ltd, Positive Insights Africa, Regional Institute for Population Studies (RIPS), Research Trust Ltd, International Centre for Evaluation and Development (ICED), the Department of Peace Studies at the University of Cape Coast, VIS Africa Technologies Limited, and the West African Centre for Sustainable Rural Transformation.

The USAID PLR Local Evaluation and Evidence Support Effort implemented by LINC with The Cloudburst Group and the University of Pennsylvania’s DevLab is designed to identify networks of host-country research and evaluation entities that USAID, other international organizations, and local governments can engage for future evaluation and learning activities. Through training, peer connections, and organizational strengthening, LEES aims to strengthen technical and organizational capacity to independently conduct future evaluations and learning activities for USAID-funded programs. LEES recently conducted live virtual training sessions for local researchers in Zambia on advanced research and evaluation topics. Since most of the LEES content is available asynchronously, these events were a welcome opportunity for participants to engage in real time with their peers and with the LEES evaluation experts. Read more below. Image: Participants in the Zambia cohort engaged with a LEES training module. #WorkwithUSAID #Zambia #LEES #evaluation #research #datamakesadifference #globaldevelopment #organizationalstrengthening #peerconnections

Last month, LINC Senior MEL Manager, Stephen Okoth, represented LEES on a panel titled "Localization and the Evidence Agenda: Exploring a new partnership between Hewlett Foundation, Centre for Global Development, and USAID" at the #AfricaEvidenceSummit in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Stephen and his co-panelists, Fortunata Songora Makene from the Economic and Social Research Foundation and Samuel Oti from the The Network of Impact Evaluation Researchers in Africa, reflected on how strong local evidence ecosystems benefit evidence generation and strategies to meaningfully strengthen local evidence ecosystems. Insights from the panel will inform LEES' evidence ecosystem strengthening work in Zambia, Ghana, and other future implementation countries.

USAID/Zambia has seen an increase in fraudulent hiring and grant schemes. If ever in doubt, please contact USAID/Zambia at [email protected] to confirm authenticity. All official USAID correspondence will be sent from a usaid.gov email address or will be posted on our official website at www.usaid.gov/zambia. Remember: Applying for any employment with USAID is FREE. Applying for any grant or funding opportunity with USAID is FREE.

In June, LEES completed the first training module for local organizations in #Zambia. This first module covered working with USAID and business development. As a closing event, LEES hosted a writing workshop designed to help organizations produce compelling capabilities statements and practice their marketing ‘elevator pitches’. ? The LEES team was happy to hear participants express how valuable and useful the module was and their satisfaction with the level of detail. It was also exciting to see how it helped participants reflect on how they can leverage the tools and strengths their organizations already have. As one participant put it:?"I realized we do have a capabilities statement, but it is not structured in this matter. This session motivated me to structure it in a more visually engaging format that is more specific and highlights our strengths" Derrick Mwape, Cavendish University. ? The full cohort of 25 local organizations participated in this module. Stay tuned for details about the next one!