USAID General Publications

USAID Disability Policy - Nothing Without Us

There are more than 1.3 billion persons with disabilities globally—or approximately 16 percent of the global population—with nearly 80 percent of persons with disabilities living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and 240 million children with disabilities worldwide. In 1997, USAID became one of the first bilateral development agencies in the world to adopt a policy on disability to guide the Agency’s efforts toward disability inclusion. Now, USAID has convened stakeholders, development practitioners, and community members around the world to inform an updated policy aimed at further advancing disability-inclusive development. This 2024 “Nothing Without Us: USAID Disability Policy” responds to stakeholder feedback, updates promising practices, places the Agency’s work within the current global context, and situates USAID to fulfill its long-standing commitment to nondiscrimination and inclusion of persons with disabilities in society on an equitable basis with others. The policy also positions USAID to partner with persons with disabilities in meeting the myriad challenges and  opportunities of the 21st century.

USAID ME capacity assessment toolkit

The Monitoring and Evaluation Capacity Assessment Toolkit (MECAT) is a set of tools that guide organizations through a process to assess their current monitoring and evaluation (M&E) capacity, identify gaps, and plan ways to strengthen their M&E systems.

MECAT uses four methods and supporting tools in the assessment process: (1) a group assessment, (2) an individual assessment, (3) key informant interviews, and (4) a desk review. With this approach, organizations, national health programs, and subnational health teams can accurately assess program strengths and weaknesses and plan the steps needed to strengthen the M&E functions.

Participatory MEL in Complex Adaptive Environments

This volume is the last in a series of papers about systems approaches in complex environments, which includes the use of the collective impact model to address large-scale social problems, and the application of participant-driven MEL techniques across 17 networks of civil society organizations. It is based on the experiences of Root Change and Chemonics, two development partners working on a USAID civic engagement project in Nigeria (2013-2018), as well as hundreds of civil society organization partners. This is the final paper in the series and aims to highlight how the adaptation of participatory monitoring, evaluation, and learning techniques (e.g., most significant change, outcome mapping, and outcome harvesting) evolved and ultimately empowered cluster members. The first paper in the series presented a brief introduction to systems approaches in advocacy settings, the SACE theory of change, and the scope of Root Change’s work as technical lead on capacity building and measurement. The second volume aims to address the innovative use of the advocacy strategy matrix, adapted from work by the Center for Evaluation Innovation, for collective impact and the Collective Impact Model, an approach that engages multiple players in working together to solve complex social problems.

Monitoring Guidance for Cash Transfer Programming in Emergency Contexts

Linking monitoring and accountability: This guidance aims to highlight the inherent links between monitoring and accountability. That is, monitoring enables evidence-based decision-making, which contributes to accountable practices. For example, if monitoring activities identify a problem with the security of the cash transfer, a solution is found to protect those receiving the cash transfer. Changing the project in this way, based on what is happening, demonstrates accountability. Information collected through accountability mechanisms, for example complaints and feedback, is a crucial source of monitoring data. This guidance integrates accountability considerations that are linked to different aspects of monitoring.

Monitoring and Evaluation Capacity Assessment Toolkit - User Guide

The Monitoring and Evaluation Capacity Assessment Toolkit (MECAT) is a set of tools that guide organizations1 through a process to assess their current monitoring and evaluation (M&E) capacity, identify gaps, and plan ways to strengthen their M&E systems.

MECAT uses four methods and supporting tools in the assessment process: (1) a group assessment, (2) an individual assessment, (3) key informant interviews, and (4) a desk review. With this approach, organizations, national health programs, and subnational health teams can accurately assess program strengths and weaknesses and plan the steps needed to strengthen the M&E functions.

From Principle to Practice: Implementing the Principles for Digital Development

For over a decade, the international development community has been exploring how the use of digital technologies, including tools like the mobile phone, can extend the reach of development. At the same time, development organizations have grappled with how to use these technologies to make their own work more participatory, sustainable, and effective.

The results have been mixed. Some projects have succeeded, enabling improved and sustained access to information and services that previously were out of reach for marginalized populations. Other projects have failed, often due to preventable reasons, resulting in hundreds, if not thousands, of projects being unable to scale.

In the late 2000s, several donors and multilateral organizations began talking about the failure in using digital tools to support development. Soon, sets of principles, lessons, and best practices started emerging, beginning with the UNICEF Innovation Principles in 2009. One year later, a group of mHealth implementers and donors independently developed a different set of principles known as the Greentree Principles. The Principles for Digital Development (Principles) were created through the integration and refinement of these two previous sets of principles.

Months of Adequate Household Food Provisioning (MAHFP) for Measurement of Household Food Access: Indicator Guide (Version 4)

All Title II programs have improvements in food security as their core objective. As defined by USAID, food security has three components - availability, access and utilization.1 Title II programs focus on the access and utilization components. Utilization, in the context of food security, refers to the individual’s biological capacity to make use of food for a productive life. Consensus on the measurement of the utilization component has centered on various measures of nutritional status (anthropometric measurement) of children. Household food access is defined as the ability to acquire sufficient quality and quantity of food to meet all household members’ nutritional requirements for productive lives. Given the variety of activities implemented by implementing partners (IPs) to improve household food access and the significant challenges most IPs face in measuring household food access for reporting purposes, there is a need to build consensus on appropriate household food access impact indicators. This guide provides an approach to measuring household food provisioning as a proxy measure of household food access.

Qualitative Toolkit: Qualitative Methods for Monitoring Food Security Activities Funded by the USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance

Donors, like the USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) and implementing partners, rely on evidence collected through robust qualitative and quantitative methods to monitor and evaluate emergency and food security activities—for documentation, learning, decision-making, and adaptive management. While quantitative data allow for the measurement and tracking of a range of indicators, they cannot tell the whole story.

Qualitative data are critical to contextualize and explain quantitative findings, to provide key insights into less quantifiable aspects of activity interventions, and to ensure we are asking the right questions in our quantitative work. Qualitative methods are crucial for the development of context-appropriate quantitative indicators and to conduct meaningful, formative research that informs appropriate and effective intervention design. Importantly, qualitative approaches help reveal why an intervention does or does not work, how, and for whom. By engaging activity participants, qualitative methods of inquiry can also help ensure Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP).

Qualitative Toolkit Workbook

This workbook is a companion to the Qualitative Toolkit: Qualitative Methods for Monitoring Food Security Activities Funded by the USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance. As you read through the toolkit, there will be activities where you are prompted to write answers in this workbook as well as in the Qualitative Inquiry Planning Sheet (QuIPS), also included in this workbook (see page 5). After completing the exercises, you will have a step-by-step plan to conduct a robust qualitative inquiry. An editable daily debrief template, qualitative data entry matrix templates, and qualitative data analysis templates are available at the end of the document. 

Bureau for Resilience and Food Security Digital Strategy Action Plan (Public Version)

The Bureau for Resilience and Food Security Digital Strategy Action Plan (DSAP) follows the launch of USAID’s Digital Strategy 2020-2024. Our priorities for the Bureau align with the broader objectives of the Digital Strategy, as follows:

• Improve measurable development and humanitarian assistance outcomes through the responsible use of digital technology in our programming; and
• Strengthen the openness, inclusiveness, and security of country digital ecosystems.

The Action Plan seeks to guide RFS’s work in digital, which includes RFS support to USAID Missions on this topic, although it is not an action plan for Missions.

This document aims to share the issues and initiatives that RFS will prioritize during the course of the Agency’s current Digital Strategy. The priorities are grounded in an understanding of the Bureau’s current digital programming, its existing priorities and initiatives, as well as the broader context beyond USAID. The priorities serve as a starting point for strategic planning to facilitate greater coherence in our programming across countries, as well as engender collaboration across the technical sub areas of RFS.

The RFS Digital Strategy Action Plan is a three-year plan covering the same time frame as the Agency’s Digital Strategy (through 2024). It may be revisited and updated periodically in the interim as appropriate.