Using Evidence to Iteratively Test, Scale and Sustain Effective Interventions

• In Event: Improving Effectiveness and Sustainability by Localizing Evidence: Models for Testing, Scaling, and Institutionalizing What Works

Proposal

With every new project or initiative, donors and implementers alike have the opportunity - and responsibility - to ensure effectiveness, value for money, and impact beyond life-of-project. There is a need for more evidence on what works, how it works, and why it works in order to increase the likelihood of scale up and sustainability of critical education interventions. But how can we best generate and use evidence of what works in education, both locally and globally?

To address this question, the USAID Center for Education has designed a new course for Agency education stakeholders which promotes the use and generation of evidence and data within USAID education activities. With its first offering scheduled for the spring of 2023, the course will stimulate continuous inquiry and reflection about what works and what does not. The course will prepare participants to iteratively co-evolve interventions with critical stakeholders through a series of defined steps (the “Evidence Cycle”). The course also demonstrates how these steps change based on the state of the evidence base for any intervention. Adapting JSI’s Pilot-Scale-Practice model, the course explores how evidence generation and use may vary and change approaches to, for example, creating theories of change, generating learning questions, and developing evidence generation and learning activities.

This panel session will summarize the Evidence Cycle process proposed by the USAID Center for Education and explore how the process should be adapted for interventions depending on the available evidence. The session will be of particular interest to USAID education implementing partners and stakeholders.

Author

• Deborah Greebon, USAID (Dexis Professional Services)