What is Juntos Aprendemos

• In Event: Localization in International Development and Education: Lessons Learned From the USAID/Colombia “Together We Learn” (“Juntos Aprendemos”) Project

Proposal

In response to the challenges faced by Colombia’s education system, on February 5th, 2021 USAID/Colombia and U.S.-based Partners of the Americas (POA) signed the first NPI agreement in Colombia to implement the six-year Juntos Aprendemos (JA) project. The project represents an investment of USD $35 million to increase children and adolescents’ ongoing access to quality education in geographic areas of Colombia impacted by migration. This NPI is managed by a consortium of partners including the POA (Prime Partner) and three Colombian organizations with long-standing histories of education programmatic success: Proantioquia, Parque Explora, and Fundación Carvajal (Core Partners, or “CP”).

As the first NPI implemented in Colombia, JA is entrusted with the challenge of re-designing, implementing, assessing, and scaling-up innovative ideas and evidence-based solutions to improve the country’s education system. JA does this by ensuring a tight-knit collaboration among the consortium members while also strengthening the capacity of CPs. JA conducts CP capacity-building via a multi-pronged approach that includes mentoring, technical assistance, and facilitating peer-to-peer learning in key operations and programmatic areas of growth (e.g., monitoring and evaluation, grants management, and systems-based approaches, among others).

During the first years of technical implementation as an NPI, JA has faced challenges throughout the project’s various phases: start-up, planning, co-design, and rollout of strategies in schools, communities, and with public institutions (including education authorities at the national and subnational levels). The process of bringing several education-focused non-governmental organizations together to make one cohesive program that delivers education and migration results, while building the capacity of the organizations, has yielded many lessons. JA has documented the best practices and lessons learned identified during the different phases that may offer insights to others USAID (and non-USAID) projects taking on locally-led development so that they can fast-track milestones, mitigate delays, and increase implementation efficiencies.

Author

• Marcela Astudillo, Fundación Carvajal