Chief of Party, USAID Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Activity in Senegal EnCompass LLC, United States
The first mapping told the story of the local organizations - their sectors, staffing, structure, and revenues. Specifically, the local landscape assessment answered eight research questions addressing categorization, donor collaboration, experience, challenges, competencies/strengths, barriers to working with the donor, capacity-building, and characteristics of nontraditional partners. Data collection took place in September-October 2022, including surveys of 341 local organizations, 116 key informant interviews and 2 listening sessions with organizations that have and have not worked with the donor. Findings shared stories of the challenges local organizations faced in submitting proposals, understanding procedures, navigating linguistic and cultural barriers, and having a voice in implementation. The evaluation team co-developed recommendations with stakeholders that would support local organizations in having access to a larger budget and ultimately a greater say in the international development sector. The second study, the MEL Local Landscape Analysis, is part of a multi-step process. Results from the initial MEL capacity landscape will inform subsequent stages that involve an Organizational Capacity Assessment of select MEL service providers and development of capacity-strengthening plans. The initial assessment phase sought to answer five questions. Questions focused on the identification of service providers and their characteristics, perceptions of market demand, experiences/opportunities/challenges, strengths/weaknesses in MEL, and capacity building needs. Data collection took place between October 2022 and April 2023 and incorporated a survey of 39 MEL service providers, and interviews with key stakeholders within the sector.
