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Community Contribution

Stakeholder Consultation Visits Improve Strategic Planning

Resources

Published
Organization(s)
Social Impact Inc.
Authors
Abdu Ebrahim Mohammed
Tags
Adaptive ManagementCollaboratingTechnical Evidence Base
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Description
Finalist RibbonUSAID/Ethiopia is using a purposeful collaborating, learning and adapting (CLA) approach to develop its second generation Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS 2.0). Mission leadership is committed to ensuring a participatory process that integrates CLA in the strategic planning process itself to build stakeholder understanding and ownership of the strategy, while also establishing behaviors and systems to support CLA during strategy implementation. Apart from the mandatory and additional CDCS assessments and analyses, the Mission organized six cross-sectoral, participatory, stakeholder consultation field visits in five of Ethiopia's nine regions with Social Impact (SI) support. Participants in the field visits included both technical and operational staff. The visits created various opportunities for internal and external collaboration as well as generating and documenting technical evidence to help the leadership adapt and make decisions. In the current dynamic local environment, these visits helped the Mission to gain new perspectives from different stakeholders to: 
  • Identify and validate regional and national development priorities generated during the CDCS 2.0 processes;
  • Obtain reactions to existing USAID activities from various levels of Government of Ethiopia (GOE) staff, implementing partners (IPs), academics, private sector partners, beneficiaries and other donors;
  • Explore coordination mechanisms with GOE counterparts and other stakeholders at all levels;
  • Uncover potential areas where USAID/Ethiopia activities can leverage greater cross-sectoral synergy;  
  • Identify potentially feasible implementation strategies (cross-sectoral monitoring and supportive supervision, strengthening community resilience, etc.);
  • Enhance team building and improve awareness about the breadth of USAID activities across all offices; and,
  • Identify areas of policy dialogue and promote a culture of learning and collaboration within the Mission.

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