Mission Learning Event
October 14, 2021

The first learning event for the STRIDE evaluation was a traditional presentation to the Mission of the evaluation results. During this event, the STRIDE COR proposed presenting the evaluation results to important government stakeholders in the Philippines Department of Finance as part of the Office of Education’s (OEd) discussions with the Philippines government on a future higher education program design.

After the Mission learning event, the evaluation team discussed the evaluation recommendations with senior government officials who had been key informants for the evaluation and with the STRIDE implementing partner (IP) to further refine the recommendations to address the concerns of different audiences. Based on their comments, the evaluation team revised the draft evaluation report.

Evaluation Results Presentation to the Department of Finance
December 1, 2021

The evaluation team presented the major findings, conclusions, and recommendations to a small group of senior Department of Finance officials.

STRIDE Evaluation Presentation to the Panagora Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, Learning, and Analysis Community of Practice
January 27, 2022

The evaluation team presented the major evaluation results and lessons learned from conducting a fully remote evaluation. Participants included Panagora home and field office staff working on CLA/MEL platforms and other interested staff members.

Stakeholder Evaluation Presentation and Learning Event: Addressing Priority Challenges in Strengthening the Innovation Ecosystem
March 16, 2022

The STRIDE stakeholder learning event was CLAimDev’s first experiment with creating a different type of learning event. The fully online event included the traditional evaluation presentation and question and answer session as well as topical breakout discussions for direct stakeholders to share their STRIDE experience and lessons learned with stakeholders who were not involved with STRIDE. The breakout sessions topics were Collaboration in the Innovation Ecosystem, Innovation Commercialization, Knowledge Creation and Technology Transfer; and Human Capital Improvement for the Innovation Ecosystem. CLAimDev invited key direct stakeholders to lead the breakout sessions to share their STRIDE experience with stakeholders from other regions.

CLAimDev engaged an event organizer to manage the online event format, invite participants, including through email blasts, and confirm participant attendance. CLAimDev also created multiple social media posts in the days before and during the event to bring the evaluation report and learning event to the attention of interested audiences.

STRIDE Evaluation Presentation to the USAID Asia Bureau and Washington, DC Education Teams
April 20, 2022

Lessons learned from the STRIDE evaluation learning events include:
  • Budget for expansive knowledge products and learning events, including sufficient level of effort for the evaluation team to create multiple presentations.
  • Plan learning, dissemination, and use at the evaluation inception stage and revise as the evaluation results become clear and additional audiences are identified.
  • Engage an event organizer to manage fully remote or hybrid events for large
    complex events.
  • Create multiple knowledge products and learning events on distinct topics to
    bring tailored results directly to the attention of stakeholders who can apply the evaluation results in their work.
  • Enlist direct beneficiaries and stakeholders to share their experience with their peers to meld the evaluation results with real-world experience and focus discussions on use of the evaluation results.
  • Work with the activity COR to identify opportunities where the evaluation results can be helpful to them in their other work, such as in bilateral conversations with government stakeholders or with their colleagues in other Missions.

Learning events are opportunities to co-create the future with the stakeholders that USAID is engaging. This doesn’t happen by chance. Learning needs to be planned and resourced or it won’t happen.

Jerry Jose

ELA Specialist