Portfolio-Level Impact Strategy for USAID’s Exploratory Programs and Innovation Competitions

Client: Innovation Design Services/US Agency for International Development (USAID)

Need: Take a more strategic approach to decision making on Exploratory Programs and Innovation Competitions (EPIC), USAID’s open innovation programs.

Response: Embed impact into USAID’s open innovation programming:

  • Facilitate multiple co-creation workshops to update EPIC’s monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) strategy using participatory approaches to ensure uptake
  • Design and oversee meta-evaluation of Grand Challenges (GCs) for Development
  • Develop overarching results framework and portfolio-level indicators for GCs through co-creation sessions with GC stakeholders, including GC participants
  • Develop a MEL plan that provides a framework for performance monitoring and adaptive management for use across USAID’s GCs that can be used as a guiding document to develop each specific GC plan and meet the needs of future GC programs
  • Develop guidance on conducting cost analyses for GCs