Driving Results & Local Ownership with Systems-Based CLA in Colombia

Migration from Venezuela has grown steadily since 2016, now with an estimated 6 million Venezuelan migrants worldwide, and approximately 2.8 million in Colombia. Under the USAID/Colombia Venezuela Response and Integration (VRI) IDIQ, we have taken a systems approach to Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA). Recognizing that the complexities of mass migration requires a whole-of-system response to ensure migrants have access to rights and that there is mutual migrant and receptor community integration. In this submission, we discuss the application of our CLA approach to our support to municipal governments under VRI’s first task order, Integra (Migration Management Activity), which supports the Colombian government and multi-sectoral actors to improve their collective responsive-capacity to the challenges of migration management. Through intentional, robust, and local systems-based CLA; and through using tools like USAID’s 5Rs Methodology, and co-creation; Integra has collaboratively engaged municipal governments and other system actors to understand system needs, build individual and joint capacities, and co-implement local solutions. As a result of this holistic approach, local system actors own the CLA process, and have strengthened their support to migrants, returnees, and receptor communities. Taken together, these processes have yielded substantial outcomes for Colombia. Ultimately, they offer lessons learned for impactful CLA work that may be adopted by others.