LINC

Read our latest newsletter and subscribe to stay informed about our work alongside local communities. In this issue, we share a new report on #AI for Climate and Development, the recently published DECA that highlights #Ghana ’s vibrant #FinTech startup sector, more about the Resilience #Innovation Competition in #Ethiopia, an assessment about USAID’s contributions to reductions in crime and violence prevention in #Mexico, and more. Read and subscribe below 👇

We are thrilled to share that LINC, Corporación ECOSS, and the Gerry Roxas Foundation are finalists in the 2024 USAID Learning Lab CLA Case Competition.   This year, our case focuses on the Communities of Practice for Effective Partnerships (COPE) Activity. COPE groups 16 local organizations working to address complex development challenges through #SystemsThinking and dispel the belief that systems thinking is exclusive to high-level international practitioners.   From 2017 to 2020, USAID funded the Local Systems Practice Activity, which provided systems thinking training to organizations from different countries in #Asia and #LatinAmerica. Seeking continued learning, 16 of these local organizations came together and established COPE in 2023. ‘The initiative aimed to organically grow a community of systems-thinking practitioners in the Global South. COPE incentivized participation with "learning while doing" through demonstration projects, providing $55,000 to each eligible organization to address a local development challenge using systems thinking. Recognizing that training and funding alone wouldn't build a community, COPE emphasized intentional engagement to be a ‘member’.”   💡 Learn more about COPE and our CLA Case below: https://lnkd.in/e5b3GnQ7

Congratulations to the finalists and winners of the 2024 #USAIDCLACaseComp—now in its milestone 10th year! https://bit.ly/2024CLACC And thank you to all who participated! We received a record 176 cases, with over 73% from first-time participants. With 800 cases collected in the past decade, we’re continuing to grow our evidence base for how Agency staff and partners collaborate, learn, and adapt for better development programming. Explore all the cases on #USAIDLearningLab, and follow along as we celebrate the finalists and winners over the next month.

Today, the USAID PLR Local Evaluation and Evidence Support Effort closed out the second day of its Peer Learning Event in Zambia. Over the past two days, we’ve celebrated our pilot cohort’s accomplishments, learned new skills in strategic planning and training of trainers, discussed best practices for evidence utilizaiton, and deepened the community of evidence actors in Zambia. Today concluded the first phase of the LEES program and launched Phase Two, during which we will focus on strengthening relationships within Zambia’s evidence ecosystem through communities of practice, learning events, and other activities. We would like to give a special congratulations to those organizations who completed a mock USAID proposal and competed in the pitch contest, during which organizations gave an oral presentation of their proposals’ technical approach. We were blown away by the technical depth and presentation skills of our trainees. Congratulations to the winner Telos Consult Limited and runner up Brasys! Our other Zambian trainees included: cavendishuniversity zambia, Centre for Trade Policy and Development, COREPlus Consult Limited, EM Associate Limited, IMPACT Research, Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute (IAPRI), Institute of Organisation Development Facilitators, Ipomea Consult, Ipsos Zambia, Keno Institute of Training & Research, Klinex Limited, Laria Consultancy & Research Solutons, M31 Research, March Associates Consulting, MashMap Consultancy Services, Nangoma Consult, Palm Associated Limited, Policy Monitoring and Research Centre, Renovatio Business Services Limited, Southern African Institute for Policy and Research, Zafrik Consulting Group, Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis and Research, and THE ZCAS University. LEES is implemented by LINC with partners The Cloudburst Group, DevLab@Penn, and infotrak research and consulting.

Today, the USAID PLR Local Evaluation and Evidence Support Effort closed out the second day of its Peer Learning Event in Zambia. Over the past two days, we’ve celebrated our pilot cohort’s accomplishments, learned new skills in strategic planning and training of trainers, discussed best practices for evidence utilizaiton, and deepened the community of evidence actors in Zambia. Today concluded the first phase of the LEES program and launched Phase Two, during which we will focus on strengthening relationships within Zambia’s evidence ecosystem through communities of practice, learning events, and other activities. We would like to give a special congratulations to those organizations who completed a mock USAID proposal and competed in the pitch contest, during which organizations gave an oral presentation of their proposals’ technical approach. We were blown away by the technical depth and presentation skills of our trainees. Congratulations to the winner Telos Consult Limited and runner up Brasys! Our other Zambian trainees included: cavendishuniversity zambia, Centre for Trade Policy and Development, COREPlus Consult Limited, EM Associate Limited, IMPACT Research, Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute (IAPRI), Institute of Organisation Development Facilitators, Ipomea Consult, Ipsos Zambia, Keno Institute of Training & Research, Klinex Limited, Laria Consultancy & Research Solutons, M31 Research, March Associates Consulting, MashMap Consultancy Services, Nangoma Consult, Palm Associated Limited, Policy Monitoring and Research Centre, Renovatio Business Services Limited, Southern African Institute for Policy and Research, Zafrik Consulting Group, Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis and Research, and THE ZCAS University. LEES is implemented by LINC with partners The Cloudburst Group, DevLab@Penn, and infotrak research and consulting.

Today, the USAID/PLR Local Evaluation and Evidence Support (LEES) effort kicked off the first day of its Peer Learning Event in Zambia with the pilot cohort of twenty-five local monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning organizations. The event represents the culmination of four months of intensive training in business development, research and evaluation methodologies, and systems strengthening. Participating organizations attended workshops on communications planning; decision-making in design; collaborating, learning, and adapting; and evaluation partnerships. Additionally, organizations that completed a mock USAID proposal competed in a pitch contest to sell their technical approach to a panel of USAID and LINC judges. Stay tuned for an update from day two! LEES is implemented by LINC with partners The Cloudburst Group, DevLab@Penn, and infotrak research and consulting.

Congratulations to our Ghana LEES trainee cohort! Beginning in October, twenty-five Ghanaian organizations will begin our intensive 4-module training program. This cohort represents a diverse cross section of the Ghanaian evidence ecosystem and includes private firms, universities, research institutions, think tanks, NGOs, and government institutions. Trainees include: AGRESEARCH LEAD, AKDE Solutions Consultancy Services, Associates for Change (AFC), The Bureau of Integrated Rural Development (BIRD) at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Bureau of Market & Social Research Ltd, the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Evaluation Development (CEED), Confidential Strategies, Devtplan Consult Limited, Emperiks, Endogen Global Consult Ltd, Endogenous Development Service Ghana, the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research at the University for Development Studies, Institute for Peace and Development, Institute for Public Policy Initiatives, Ghana, JMK Consulting Ltd, the Monitoring and Evaluation Secretariat of the Office of the President of Ghana, the Northern Regional Planning Coordinating Unit, Participatory Development Associates Ltd, Positive Insights Africa, Regional Institute for Population Studies (RIPS), Research Trust Ltd, International Centre for Evaluation and Development (ICED), the Department of Peace Studies at the University of Cape Coast, VIS Africa Technologies Limited, and the West African Centre for Sustainable Rural Transformation.

Join us, #ResiliencePartners! The webinar "Unleash the Power of Collaboration for Greater MSD Impact" will be hosted next week, on September 19, by USAID Ethiopia Resilience Learning Activity's partner Vikāra Institute. Have you signed up yet? You can register here: https://lnkd.in/d7c4n4_4

Please join us on this exciting Sept 19 Webinar to learn about LINC's USAID-funded USAID Ethiopia Resilience Learning Activity's work to pilot collaborative regional approaches to building #marketsystemsresilience in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. This effort is being led by RLA's sub-partner, Vikāra Institute Register now and I look forward to seeing you all there! Here's the link: https://bit.ly/3SqiJpu

#Hiring LINC is seeking an IT Consultant to assess and make recommendations about strengthening its IT infrastructure. Learn more:👇 https://lnkd.in/gdhpDKUN