Abstract Information: In November 2021, Administrator Power announced a new commitment to ensure all United States Agency for International Development (USAID) programming is more inclusive and reflective of the countries in which it operates. In efforts to mobilize this commitment and challenge existing power dynamics, Administrator Power announced the Agency’s New Localization Agenda. Specifically, the New Localization Agenda outlines four pillars, or lines of effort, to ensure success: 1. adapting policies and practices to each country’s context; 2. shifting power to local actors; 3. channeling a larger portion to assistance directly to local partners; and, 4. using the Agency’s global voice to advocate for locally-led development. As USAID and its implementing partners commit to support processes in which local actors – encompassing individuals, communities, networks, organizations, private entities, and governments – set their own agendas, develop solutions, and bring the capacity, leadership, and resources to make those solutions a reality; the evaluation and learning community must also reconsider how we define and capture progress, measure effectiveness, and tell the stories of donors, implementers, and beneficiaries. Through this panel discussion, we will hear from USAID, its implementing partners, local actors, and evaluators on what we have learned thus far as we put down the pens and allow local actors to take the lead, strengthening local systems that are truly responsive to local communities.
Relevance Statement: Elevating local voices has, for several years now, been a key focus or topic of interest within the evaluation community. Practitioners have strived to collect data and stories from program beneficiaries for decades as we are tasked with measuring the effectiveness and impact of programs across the globe. Now is the time, however, as donors like USAID have a renewed commitment to tackle the lingering sentiments of colonization and shift power dynamics, for the evaluation community to champion not only who stories is being told to measure change, but moreover, who is telling the story and constructing the narrative.
