Utilizing CAM to Collect Localized Data for Responsive Decision-Making

CEPPS partners in Iraq faced challenges operating in a rapidly changing political environment. Local partners implemented activities regarding the adaptation and adoption of key legislation. As political support for legislation consistently shifted, CEPPS/IRI relied on local partners to identify, capture, and report on programmatic information necessary to make appropriate adaptations. Local partners did not have the capacity to do so, prompting CEPPS/IRI to invest in promoting a culture of collaboration, learning, and adaptation with local partners.

CEPPS/IRI adapted its internal processes to create feedback loops between an inclusive group of stakeholders to better facilitate collaboration. As a result, local partners meaningfully participated in pause and reflect sessions, highlighting changes in the local context. This allowed CEPPS/IRI to adapt support given to local partners to ensure their campaigns were responsive to shifts in political support for key legislation. In response, legislation passed and included citizen-responsive recommendations developed by local partners. To increase local partners’ capacity to collect and discuss data, CEPPS/IRI supported local partners to operationalize complexity-aware monitoring methods. As a result, local partners highlighted gaps in their programming, and collaborated with each other and with IRI staff to adapt activities to become more inclusive to women and youth.

Altogether, access to higher quality, localized data, and processes to facilitate informed and collaborative discussions, supported more effective and inclusive programming. In turn, as MEL processes become more accessible to local partners, increasing their capacity, local partners were able to collaborate independently of CEPPs/IRI, increasing program sustainability.