Evidence Summits
Integral to the agency's reform efforts is a renewed emphasis on the application of research and evaluation to inform strategic thinking about development. An evidence-based approach to development must underpin business processes at all levels of USAID, from project design to strategic planning to policy development.
To that end, the Office of Learning, Evaluation, and Research (PPL/LER) is hosting a series of evidence summits. The purpose of these summits is to deliberately bring together the academic community and the community of development practitioners around particular development challenges.
What distinguishes these summits from traditional conferences is their focus on mutual exchange and actionable outcomes; their purpose is to provide USAID with some evidence-based guidance on how to achieve some of the world's most difficult development goals.
On September 7-8, 2010, USAID hosted its first evidence summit on "Development to Counter Insurgency." The summit marshaled evidence around what has and has not been effective in countering insurgency and violent extremism throughout the world. In attendance were not only members of the research community and USAID staff, but also a significant contingent of interagency colleagues.
On December 9-10, 2010, USAID hosted its second evidence summit on "Promoting Broad-Based Growth." Specifically emphasized in the Presidential Policy Directive on Development and in the President's speech to the UN General Assembly, broad-based growth is a topic of renewed interest and enthusiasm throughout the agency. Specifically, this summit focused on three key questions: (1) What patterns or trends have distinguished countries that have achieved broad-based growth from those that have not? (2) What policies and interventions have successfully contributed to broad-based growth? (3) How can USAID integrate these findings into its core business practices? The summit was attended by an extremely diverse group, including USAID field staff, implementing partners, prominent economists, and interagency colleagues.
The next evidence summit, currently scheduled for spring 2011, will focus on the question of agricultural technology adoption. In recent decades, significant improvements in agricultural technology have enabled huge gains in productivity. Yet in much of the developing world, many formal and informal barriers prevent these technologies from being adopted on a wide scale. This evidence summit will explore some of the reasons behind these barriers, and begin to address ways that they might be overcome.
Several other evidence summits will be organized in 2011, many of which are already in the inception stage. As the summits develop and mature as a normal business process within the agency, responsibility for organizing them will transition from PPL to individual bureaus.
Content and outcomes from all evidence summits will be made publicly available on the internet.
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