USAID Uganda Community Connector Technical Notes Series No. 1 - fhi360 (2016)

The USAID Community Connector (CC) agriculture and nutrition project in Uganda serves as a case study for implementing USAID's Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) framework. The CC project, as the first in Uganda to explicitly emphasize CLA, integrates this framework into its design, knowledge-driven systems, and organizational culture. The project utilizes a modular approach with alternating "Learning" and "Implementation" phases to facilitate an iterative cycle. This involves comprehensive situation analyses and rapid data sharing to foster collaborative design and adapt interventions. The project also has multiple feedback loops, including community field days and regular meetings with various stakeholders, to encourage open discussion and learning from failures. A key element of the CC's success is a nimble, fixed-price contract with a performance-based award fee system that provides the flexibility and incentive to adapt and re-allocate resources based on new learning.

To operationalize CLA, the CC project focuses on asking the "right" learning questions that challenge underlying development assumptions. It has invested in a robust M&E system using mobile technology to collect and disseminate real-time data to decision-makers, ensuring transparency by not just emphasizing successes but also negative feedback that could drive learning. The project's organizational culture is critical, fostering a shared commitment among staff, partners, and USAID to question the status quo, share ideas, and take risks. Leadership plays a key role in cultivating this culture. However, there are also challenges, such as the time required to gain consensus among diverse stakeholders and the initial discomfort with major shifts in programming. While large-scale learning and adaptation are crucial in the early years, later years should focus on improving and scaling successful approaches for greater impact.