Enhancing Supervision Visits to Document and Use Learning in Rwanda

The USAID-funded Inclusive Nutrition & Early Childhood Development (INECD) project is wide in geographic scope and technical breadth. To overcome the common pitfalls of consortium-implemented multisectoral projects – including siloed planning and supervision – Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and partners designed a harmonized field visit supervision system to enhance collaboration, learning and adaptive management (CLA). Field visits conducted monthly by technical advisors, quarterly by partner leaders, and annually with government utilize harmonized tools that engage field actors in active reflection of challenges and successes. Lessons learned are immediately captured on tablets and compiled remotely by project monitoring, evaluation, learning and accountability (MEAL) staff. These documented insights then inform bi-weekly planning meetings and quarterly reflections attended by all project staff. As a result, field-based insights form the core of pause-and-reflect events where inclusive decision-making yields adaptive management decisions to continuously improve project impact. Senior leaders report that structuring and documenting field supervision discussions has improved coaching, elevated the role of field staff in continuous reflection, improved knowledge management, strengthened multisectoral integration, and led to important course corrections after the first year of implementation. While the system initially spurred hesitation over perceived auditing of different supervision styles, early improvements to project approaches have contributed to consortium-wide buy-in as the honed CLA practice continues to inform adaptive management and government advocacy for the 2021-2026 INECD project.