Technical Assistance Program wins USAID case study competition
By Hasan Altall
The USAID Technical Assistance Program (TAP) recently won first place in Jordan for USAID’s Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) Case Competition.
The competition showcases examples of USAID staff and partners using a CLA approach and informs how the agency and its implementers can promote organizational learning for better development results.
“The Case Competition helps us learn about what works and what does not when implementing CLA,” says USAID. “Cases will help inform our adaptive approaches to localization, climate change, addressing equity issues, and other contextual challenges.”
TAP is a five-year program that aims to improve the organizational culture and technical and institutional capacity of the Government of Jordan by providing technical assistance to stakeholders implementing education and youth reforms.
The program’s winning case study focused on two key components of the CLA framework: strengthening internal collaboration within the Ministry of Youth and fostering external collaboration with other stakeholders and government entities to operationalize the National Youth Strategy.
The Ministry of Youth created the National Youth Strategy in 2019 but ran into challenges implementing it in collaboration with other relevant ministries.
TAP and the Ministry of Youth established an internal task force to discuss challenges and find solutions, then co-created a process to engage external stakeholders through a series of interactive workshops. The result was a realistic action plan with an accompanying M&E framework, media and communication plan, and a budget, creating a full CLA process.
This CLA process helped institutionalize a cultural shift toward collaboration and co-creation throughout the Ministry of Youth. The Ministry later used the same approach to develop annual plans for its 200 field youth centers.
“Winning this competition has been a great achievement, providing us with the opportunity to demonstrate the practical application of the CLA framework in technical assistance programs. It showcases how embracing CLA fosters meaningful engagement with local stakeholders, resulting in heightened buy-in, ownership, and ultimately, improved development outcomes,” says Nour Al-Mansour, TAP’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Director.