PROGRAM CYCLE SERVICE CENTER Quarterly Progress Reportpdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PA00MZNK.pdf · USAID/Policy, Planning, and Learning (USAID/PPL) Program Cycle Service Center Quarterly

PROGRAM CYCLE SERVICE CENTER

Quarterly Progress Report

January 1, 2017 to March 31, 2017

April 15, 2017

This publication was produced for review by the United States Agency for International Development. It was prepared by DevTech Systems, Inc., under Contract No. AID-OAA-M-11-00026.

USAID/Policy, Planning, and Learning (USAID/PPL) Program Cycle Service Center Quarterly Progress Report No. 22 January 1- March 31, 2017 AID-OAA-M-11-00026

2

PROGRAM CYCLE SERVICE CENTER

Quarterly Progress Report

January 1, 2017 to March 31, 2017

Submitted to: Christina Beck, Contracting Officer’s Representative

USAID Bureau for Policy, Planning and Learning

Submitted by: DevTech Systems, Inc.

Contract AID-OAA-M-11-00026 DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government.


3

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 5

PROGRAM CYCLE SERVICE CENTER RESULTS ........................................................ 5

Result 1: Mission and Bureau Support Delivered .........................................................................6

Result 2: Program Cycle Tools and Learning Resources Developed and Sustained ......................8

Result 3: Knowledge Management Supported ............................................................................ 10

PCSC Plans for the Next Quarter (April to June 2017) ...................................................... 12

Annex A: FY 2017 Q2 Deliverables Summary ................................................................... 15

Annex B: Summary of PCSC Quarter Activities by Result, April to June 2017 ................. 18

SUBMITTED UNDER SEPARATE COVER: QUARTERLY FINANCIAL REPORT


4

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

A&A Acquisition and Assistance AAR After Action Reviews ADS Automated Directives System ALC Administrator’s Leadership Council BFS Bureau for Food Security BRM Office of Budget and Resource

Management CDCS Country Development Cooperation

Strategy CLA Collaboration, Learning, and

Adapting COR Contracting Officer’s

Representative DCHA Bureau for Democracy, Conflict &

Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA) DIS Development Information System DLI Development Leadership Initiative DRC Democratic Republic of Congo E3 Bureau for Economic Growth,

Education, and Environment E&E Bureau for Europe and Eurasia FAQ Frequently Asked Questions FFP Bureau of Food for Peace FSN Foreign Service National FY Fiscal Year G2G Government to Government GCC Office of Global Climate Change GH Bureau for Global Health IRG International Resources Group IPC Introduction to Program Cycle Lab U.S. Global Development Lab LAC Bureau for Latin America and the

Caribbean LER Office of Learning, Evaluation and

Research M&E Monitoring and Evaluation

MECAP Expanding Monitoring and

Evaluation Capacities Contract MEL Monitoring, Evaluation, and

Learning MKL Management, Knowledge, and

Learning M/MPBP Bureau for Management/Office of

Management Policy, Budget and Performance

MSI Management Systems International NCE No-Cost Extension NPE Non-Permissive Environment OAA Office of Acquisition and

Assistance OAPA Office of Afghanistan and Pakistan

Affairs OE Operating Expense OFDA Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster

Assistance PC Program Cycle PCSC Program Cycle Service Center PPL Bureau for Policy, Planning, and

Learning PAD Project Appraisal Document PADI Project & Activity Design and

Implementation PMP Performance Management Plan POC Point of Contact RTI RTI International SPP Office of Strategic and Program

Planning STTA Short-Term Technical Assistance TDY Temporary Duty USAID/W USAID Washington WWT World Wide Training


5

INTRODUCTION This is the twenty-second quarterly progress report of the USAID Bureau for Policy, Planning and Learning (PPL) Program Cycle Service Center (PCSC) contract. The PCSC contract, implemented by DevTech Systems, Inc. (DevTech),1 provides technical assistance to the Office of Strategic and Program Planning (PPL/SPP) and the Office of Learning, Evaluation and Research (PPL/LER) to:

• Assist PPL in strengthening key areas of the Program Cycle: strategic planning, project and activity design, performance monitoring, evaluation, learning, and knowledge management; and

• Support USAID in its efforts to strengthen the capacity of Agency staff in areas relevant to the Program Cycle.

This quarter (January to March 2017) marks the second quarter of the no-cost extension (NCE) period (September 30, 2016 to March 31, 2017) of the PCSC contract originally awarded in September 2011. This report is organized by contract results:

• Result 1: Mission and Bureau Support Delivered; • Result 2: Program Cycle Tools and Learning Resources Developed and Sustained; and • Result 3: Knowledge Management Supported.

PROGRAM CYCLE SERVICE CENTER RESULTS This section presents PCSC’s most significant achievements, lessons learned, and opportunities from the quarter. Please note that the lessons learned reflect the observations of the PCSC team and are presented in the spirit of knowledge sharing and learning exchange. Some of these observations present opportunities for adapting; however, they are merely suggestions and are not meant to suggest plans or direction for the contract. For additional information, please see the Annexes to this Quarterly Progress Report:

• Annex A: FY 2017 Q2 Deliverables Summary; and • Annex B: Summary of PCSC Quarterly Activities by Result (January to March 2017).

1 To implement this contract, DevTech leads a team with two other organizations (subcontractors): International Resources Group/RTI International and Management Systems International (MSI).


6

Result 1: Mission and Bureau Support Delivered

Significant Activities and Achievements: PPL/SPP and PPL/LER Workshops/Trainings/TDYs

• Training Delivered to Expanding Monitoring and Evaluation Capacities Contract (MECAP) Fellows– A PCSC staff member delivered sessions of the Project Design Day for the seventh cohort of MECAP Fellows.

• Monitoring Presentation Delivered to Bureau for Democracy, Conflict & Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA)/ Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) – A PCSC staff member conducted a brownbag presentation and discussion for OFDA staff regarding performance monitoring indicators and indicator reference sheets.

• Temporary Duty (TDY) to USAID/Ukraine– A PCSC staff member facilitated a three-day Results Framework workshop at a mission-wide retreat in Kiev (95 participants), and presented a draft report to the mission outlining results framework options and recommendations for next steps.

Cross-Agency Working Groups • Washington Bureau M&E POCs Monthly Meeting– PCSC staff attended the monthly M&E POCs

meeting on behalf of the Monitoring team. • Non-Permissive Environment (NPE) Cross-Agency Team– PCSC staff led the drafting of a

Strategy and Action Plan on Non-Permissive Environment, developed at the Administrator’s request and presented at the Administrator’s Leadership Council on March 28.

Strategy Technical Assistance

• USAID/Ukraine– PCSC staff reviewed the USAID/Lab’s scenario planning approach with the USAID/Ukraine mission and E&E staff.

• E&E Bureau– PCSC staff organized and participated in a meeting with the E&E Bureau on how best to integrate collaboration, learning, and adapting (CLA) programming into strategies.

Project Design Technical Assistance

• Guidance to Missions on ADS 201– PCSC staff provided guidance to USAID/Afghanistan, USAID/Cambodia, and USAID/Dominican Republic on questions related to implementing the revised ADS 201.

• Bureau for Global Health (GH) Backstopping– PCSC staff facilitated discussions with the Bureau for Global Health on the development of their project design training for their Country Support Office.

• Assistance to Office of Budget and Resource Management (BRM)– PCSC reviewed and provided feedback on the draft Budget Mission Order prepared by BRM and responded to


8

Result 2: Program Cycle Tools and Learning Resources Developed and Sustained

Significant Activities and Achievements: PPL/SPP and PPL/LER ADS Revisions

• ADS 201 Implementation Process– PCSC staff continued to help to coordinate the ADS rollout process through webinars, compilation of frequently asked questions, documents describing and clarifying changes from the old ADS, blogs that facilitated understanding on new or specific topics mentioned in the ADS, and support for various training and capacity building efforts.

• ADS 201 Additional Help– PCSC staff continued to support the management and production of the ADS Additional Help documents. This support included identifying and prioritizing Additional Help documents in an Additional Help tracker, drafting the guidance documents, and finalizing the documents for PPL Leadership for review. PCSC staff also worked with the ProgramNet team post the documents to the ProgramNet. PCSC staff members developed or contributed to:

o Additional Help: Logic Models; o Additional Help: Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning for Government-to-Government; o Additional Help: Monitoring Indicator Disaggregation; o Additional Help: Implementing Mechanism (IM) Matrix; o How-To Note: Developing a Performance Management Plan; o How-To Note: Conduct a Data Quality Assessment (DQA); o How-To Note: Project Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Plan; o Supplementary Guidance: DQA Checklist; o Discussion Note: Co-Creation Approaches; o Program Cycle Documents Publication and Sharing Matrix.

Other Cross-Office Initiatives • Streamlining Study– PSCS submitted an internal final report on the 2016 Streamlining Study to

PPL leadership. • Adaptive Management– PCSC staff analyzed Adaptive Management (AM) materials, interviewed

targeted technical bureau staff, and developed recommendations on deepening the practice of Adaptive Management for PPL consideration. PCSC staff also worked to integrate adaptive management into the designs of IPC and PADI.

• PPL Partner Missions– PCSC discussed the status of the USAID/Uganda and USAID/Haiti partner programs with LAC, SPP, and LER, and discussed next steps with LER and SPP leadership. PCSC reviewed the draft plan prepared by the PPL Client Managers for USAID/Uganda and USAID/Haiti and drafted a note for SPP/LER leadership on its status.


9

Significant Activities and Achievements: Strategic Planning, Project Design, and Capacity Building • Introduction to Program Cycle (IPC)– PCSC staff continued to work with the SPP/LER Capacity

Building team and the RTI International (RTI) World Wide Training (WWT) course developers to complete the course curriculum and to deliver a pilot training to gather participant and observer feedback. Based on this feedback, PCSC collaborated with the RTI course developers to revise the course sequence and content for a subsequent pilot delivery scheduled for May 2017.

• Program Cycle Overview Module (PCO)– PCSC staff worked with the SPP/LER technical teams and RTI module developers to create a 30-minute graphic and narrative online presentation of key Program Cycle guidance.

• Project & Activity Design & Implementation (PADI) Course– Building on work conducted in Q1 of 2017, PCSC staff continued to coordinate and develop content for the new PADI course, drawing upon current and newly developed resources. PCSC also collaborated with the PADI working group and RTI curriculum developers to test new approaches in the delivery of the course content.

• Third Party Program Cycle Training Inventory– To facilitate the alignment of third party training courses to the revised ADS 201, PCSC developed an inventory of third party training courses that contain Program Cycle content.

• ADS 201 Training for Trainers– PCSC drafted a capacity building presentation for inclusion in the new ProgramNet Capacity Building page.

• Country Case Study for Program Cycle Courses– PCSC assisted PPL in finalizing country case study materials for the hypothetical country “Tambou,” to be used for exercises in Program Cycle courses, including IPC and PADI. PCSC coordinated with the Office of Global Climate Change (GCC), the Bureau for Economic Growth, Education, and Environment (E3), the Bureau for Food Security (BFS), and the GeoCenter in developing the country case study materials.

• Program Cycle Tool Development Matrix– PCSC continued to update this tracker it created in Q1 FY2017 to track progress toward completing ADS Additional Help documents.

Significant Activities and Achievements: Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning • Monitoring Toolkit– PCSC continued to work toward the launch of the Monitoring Toolkit by

contributing to the development of ADS 201 Additional Help that are featured in the Toolkit. • Program Cycle Longitudinal Study– PCSC staff revised the Program Cycle longitudinal study

concept paper for PPL/SPP and PPL/LER leadership review.


12

PCSC Plans for the Next Quarter (April to June 2017)

Result 1: Mission & Bureau Support Delivered PCSC will continue to support missions and bureaus on Program Cycle topics as requested by SPP and LER. PPL has envisioned field support (TDY) in the quarter, as depicted in the below table. Table 1: Planned TDYs for PCSC Staff

Location Type Time Period Description of Assistance

Afghanistan M&E May (dates TBD) Conduct Monitoring and Evaluation training for USAID/Afghanistan staff.

Other support by type of assistance to missions will continue in response to requests, including virtual support, as outlined below.

Cross-cutting

• Support PPL’s efforts to build staff capacity on the Program Cycle through training and mentoring.

• Facilitate the PPL and Program Cycle session of the new employee orientation for new USAID civil service and contract employees, as requested.

• Collaborate, mentor, and work closely with Foreign Service National (FSN) Fellows slated to fill positions within LER and SPP.

Strategic Planning and Project Design

• Participate in intra-agency working groups that are relevant to project design, such as the Global Climate Change Working Group.

• Facilitate trainings for MECAP fellows and for other bureaus as requested. • Facilitate “ad hoc” non-PPL trainings Project Design trainings developed by bureaus (e.g., E3,

Bureau of Food for Peace (FFP), BFS, as requested. • Serve as a lead coordinator to answer strategy, project, and activity design questions from

missions and bureaus that are received via the [email protected] e-mail address. • Support BRM in the development of budget courses (e.g., online introductory course; basic

classroom course). Monitoring and Evaluation

• Serve as a lead responder to answer monitoring questions from missions and bureaus that are received via the [email protected] e-mail address.

• Continue to provide virtual and in-person technical assistance to missions and Washington bureaus on performance monitoring and evaluation, as requested.


13

Result 2: Program Cycle Tools and Learning Resources Developed and Sustained Capacity building training courses

• Contribute to the development and launch of Project Design 120 online training course. • Continue to contribute to the development and launch of the Introduction to the Program Cycle

(IPC) course. • Continue to develop and finalize a country case study to be used in all PPL-sponsored Program

Cycle training courses. • Continue to design and develop the Project & Activity Design and Implementation (PADI)

course. • Continue to facilitate the preliminary scope and design of new Program Cycle training courses. • Continue to manage the Trainers’ Corner to disseminate and share Program Cycle tools and

resources with trainers of the new Program Cycle courses. • Continue to liaise with other bureaus and offices on updating the Program Cycle content in any

third party trainings to align with ADS 201. Cross-cutting support to PPL Bureau

• Continue to manage the development and clearance process for supplementary materials to ADS 200 series.

Strategic Planning and Project Design

• Develop Additional Help Guidance on Acquisition and Assistance (A&A) Design Considerations.

• Develop blogs and other resources that aid implementation of the project and activity design guidance.

• Continue to finalize Mandatory Reference and Additional Help guidance on how Missions and Regional Bureaus provide Mission concurrence for Washington activities.

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Launch the Monitoring Toolkit and contribute to the development of resources featured in it. • Support a LEARN consultant on the design of the longitudinal study of Program Cycle

implementation. • Develop a plan for monitoring implementation of the revised Program Cycle.

Result 3: Knowledge Management Supported Online Platforms


14

• Serve as page owner of the ProgramNet Monitoring page and co-owner of the Program Cycle Overview page.

• Contribute to the development of Program Cycle FAQs on ProgramNet. Events and Webinars

• Support the development of new webinars on selected topics related to the rollout of the Program Cycle, as requested.

Other Knowledge Management Support

• Conduct After-Action Reviews of Program Cycle work processes.


16

Quarterly Communication Newsletter: The PCSC team will prepare and disseminate to missions, USAID/W and post on ProgramNet a quarterly on-line newsletter approved by the COR drawing on lessons learned, best practices and tools developed in the course of its responses to requests for services. The PCSC team will solicit expressions of interest and compile a listserv of USAID staff interested in receiving the newsletter.

This Deliverable was eliminated by the COR on April 8, 2013. PCSC produces and disseminates a weekly e-mail to inform USAID/PPL and PCSC contract members of events and activities.

ProgramNet newsletter and Policy Pulse newsletter coordination: PCSC will assist PPL in creating and disseminating a ProgramNet-dedicated newsletter. In the meantime, PCSC and PPL will continue to coordinate with the Policy Pulse (PPL’s Newsletter) to announce ProgramNet activities.

In the first quarter of 2013, the main responsibilities for creating and sending the ProgramNet Update (newsletter) were transferred to another contract.

Monthly Logs on Call Center Activity: The PCSC team will keep an up-to-date log of Call Center inquiries and responses, including documentation on timeliness of response and information provided to the users. On a quarterly basis along with other reporting, PCSC will summarize activities and submit this report to the COR according to a COR-approved format and schedule for delivery.

To date, all requests are channeled through USAID/PPL. PCSC maintains a tracker of all virtual assistance being provided.

Summary of ProgramNet Discussions, Inquiries and Statistics: The PCSC team will keep an up-to-date log of ProgramNet, discussions and inquiries, for PCSC support. On a monthly basis, the team will summarize the month’s activity and submit this report to the COR according to a COR-approved format and schedule for delivery. The PCC team maintains a tracker of comments and questions posted on ProgramNet as well as received in the ProgramNet email boxes. PCSC staff contributes to these documents, which are delivered to the Program Cycle Capacity contract COR/Activity Manager.

In the first quarter of 2013, the main responsibilities for Program Net were transferred to another contract. In the first quarter of 2016, PCSC began to resume a portion of ProgramNet responsibilities, on a temporary basis.

DLI Tracking: The PCSC team will keep an up-to-date database on DLI participation in the STTA TDY teams that undertake strategic planning, project design and evaluation tasks including on-the-job training and mentoring for DLI participants. All funding for DLI participants will be segregated to permit appropriate accounting within the contract. This database will also include the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the DLIs and the STTA advisors that spell out mutually agreed learning objectives, performance measures and deliverables produced during the training experiences.

The DLI program was eliminated in FY2014 and PCSC stopped receiving funding from this operating expense (OE) funding source. While we still train USAID new hires through other hiring mechanisms, we no longer track this information.

Interim Report due at End of Month 54: PCSC will submit an Interim Report to the COR in a format approved by the COR to document the overall achievements of the Service Center in terms of skills transferred to USAID staff including DLIs; improvements in the quality of strategies, project designs, evaluations and knowledge management systems attributable to the work of PCSC; actual use of each category of services; lessons learned, best practices, remaining issues and recommendations for any proposed revisions of services, staffing and other activities. USAID/PPL will use this report to

This deliverable was submitted on March 31, 2016


17

decide on whether to exercise the option for year three of the contract and to determine any changes to staff, other labor and direct costs for that option year, if accepted.

Final Close-out report due within 60 days after contract completion, including the agreed disposition of USAID property: PCSC will submit this report to the COR in a format approved by the COR to document the overall final achievements of the Service Center in terms of skills transferred to USAID staff including DLIs; improvements in the quality of strategies, project designs, evaluations, knowledge management systems, and other contract achievements attributable to the work of the Service Center; actual use of each category of services; lessons learned and best practices. The disposition of remaining non-consumable government property according to approvals received from the Contracting Officer will be documented by the contractor.

This deliverable is due no later than September 8, 2017.


22

This page is intentionally left blank.