How FIELD-Support Planned to Capture End-of-Project Learning

On September 30, 2014, the USAID-funded FIELD-Support LWA came to a close. For 9 years, FIELD-Support, led by FHI 360 and implemented by a team of 25 partners, worked in more than 40 countries to advance the frontiers of practical knowledge in microenterprise development, microfinance, value chain development, institutional and human capacity-building, and promotion of other market-based approaches. FIELD-Support worked in close collaboration with USAID’s Microenterprise and Private Enterprise Promotion (MPEP) Office, USAID Missions and Operating Units, and the broader community of development practitioners. In this article, Lori Reid from FHI 360 explains how the team approached end-of-project learning.

1. How did you begin to think about capturing the project’s experience over so much time?

The activities of FIELD-Support generated a significant amount of knowledge. Deciding how to synthesize the learning from such a broad and lengthy project presented a challenge to the FIELD-Support team….How could we possibly capture ALL the learning from nine years of program implementation?

FIELD-Support oversaw implementation of more than 40 pilots and strategic learning initiatives, and more than two dozen Associate Awards. We knew that it would be difficult to adequately cover all these areas in a standard end-of-project report, so we set out to do something a bit different instead. We wanted an opportunity to reflect on what was learned on FIELD-Support and how the industry had changed over the life of the project.

2. What kind of activities did you plan?

During the last year of the project, we engaged the SEEP Network, a consortium partner on FIELD-Support, to revisit the interventions and results from FIELD-Support activities and Associate Awards and analyze them using an updated thematic framework that reflected new thinking in the field of development.

SEEP’s work included reviewing all project documentation; interviewing key informants from most FIELD-Support activities from USAID, FHI 360, and the consortium partners; developing frameworks for analyzing the progress of FIELD-Support activities against the original major thematic areas of the project; and then assessing the project using those frameworks—recognizing that over nine years, the thinking about problem identification and solutions had evolved and, we hope, advanced. This process was intended to identify experiences where collective impact, unexpected learnings, or good practices emerged, and to look for ways the sum of FIELD-Support’s parts added to more than the whole.

These assessments and experiences were then summarized and contributed to the development of a retrospective that captured the key areas of learning from the project. This retrospective can be downloaded here: Nine Years of the FIELD-Support LWA.

3. What are some lessons learned after having closed out this project?

Synthesizing the learning from a 9-year program is not an easy task! Here are some of our lessons learned and recommendations from the process: 

• Be adaptable to change. Over a long period of time, such as nine years, the industry’s understanding of development challenges, or the environments within which the project operates may change, which in turn may change your assumptions, objectives, or approaches.
  
  
• Start collecting learning from the beginning!  It’s hard to retroactively collect learning from projects and activities that took place several years ago. The people who implemented activities at the beginning of a program are rarely still around at the end of a program.
  
  
• Capturing learning throughout the project can contribute to improved design and implementation of work in the later years of a project. FIELD-Support was somewhat unique because this type of learning agenda was part of the program’s mandate from the beginning. It’s exciting to see this being built into more and more USAID programs through the CLA (collaborating, learning, and adapting) approach.
  
  
• Consider holding a workshop or event where you bring together as many of the original project team members and partners as possible to reflect and discuss some of the key areas of learning and impact from the project. Besides bringing closure to the project, this is a great way to capture some of the firsthand knowledge and learning that might not be contained in quarterly and annual reports.

CLA in Action articles are intended to paint a more detailed picture of what collaborating, learning, and adapting (CLA) looks like in practice. Unlike other disciplines, CLA is not a technical "fix;" it looks different in different contexts. This series will showcase examples of intentional collaboration, systematic learning, and resourced adaptation, some of which you may find applicable to your own work. The case studies, blogs, and resources represented in this series document the real-world experiences of development practitioners experimenting with these approaches for the benefit of sharing what's possible.