Morocco Locally Led Learning: Advancing Local Knowledge

Over the past several years, Missions like USAID/Morocco have worked to advance locally led development through programs in which local partners set their own agendas, develop solutions, and utilize their leadership, resources, and capacity to implement those solutions. In Morocco, after five Local Works activities concluded in 2021, the Mission began planning for new activities. This prompted the team to reflect on a critical question: how can we ensure that not only activities themselves, but also the evaluations, assessments, and research informing future work, are all locally led?

This case study investigates the process USAID/Morocco undertook to stand up a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) for local research, evaluation, and learning facilitation services. The BPA process included early market research and a multi-stage procurement, including an Oral Presentations Day. As a result, four local firms and individual consultants were selected as BPA Holders. Since the BPA was established, the Mission released several Call Orders, awarding two to a local firm to conduct listening tours and one to a local consultant for a climate gender analysis. The process has been time- and energy-intensive and not without its challenges. Yet, at each step, the Mission has learned more about how to engage effectively with local actors and make research and learning efforts more locally led. Through these efforts, more local voices have driven the conversation as the Mission designed and adapted programs and partnerships.

Read the case study to learn more and access resources and templates used by USAID/Morocco. Also watch the Morocco Locally Led Learning video to see how the results have been instrumental in informing the Mission’s program designs around climate change and the Open Government Partnership.