CLA for Evaluation Use: The Case for Stakeholder Engagement

This case fits in the context of USAID prioritizing evidence-based decision making for its Climate Strategy, and, more broadly, the intentional use of evaluation findings to improve Development Objectives. Because the Pacific Islands’ ability to finance climate change mitigation and adaptation is crucial both to USAID and to Pacific Islands governments, making sure that stakeholders learned and took actions based on the evaluation of USAID’s Climate Financing Activities was of utmost importance. To that effect, USAID/Pacific Islands and Agency MEL and technical experts worked closely to design an evaluation that leveraged local and international expertise and actively engaged stakeholders. They thought through a process and the respective roles of evaluation, USAID Missions, implementing partners (IPs), and local stakeholders to learn from evaluation findings and to derive recommendations for future actions.

The significance of this case can be measured along the CLA maturity matrix. It demonstrates advanced practices with respect to both external and internal stakeholder engagement, as well as technical evidence base. With respect to M&E for learning, it puts USAID Pacific Islands on the trajectory to institutionalize a focus on timeliness and usefulness of evaluations.