Join Us for a Webinar on May 16: Shifting the Locus of Learning
| Shifting the Locus of Learning: Catalyzing Private Sector Learning to Drive Systemic Change Webinar (Part 1 of 2)
Date: Tuesday, May 16, 2023 |
The first in a two-part webinar series, this event will make the case for why USAID is increasingly sharpening its focus on strengthening learning capacities not only within USAID staff and its implementing partners, but also within stakeholder partners and the systems in which USAID engages. Co-hosted jointly by USAID’s Bureau for Policy, Planning, and Learning and the Feed the Future Market Systems and Partnerships Activity, the webinar will explore insights from a new paper, Shifting the Locus of Learning: Catalyzing Private Sector Learning to Drive Systemic Change.
The webinar will discuss why programs can and should shift the locus of learning from being only program-focused to system-focused. This implies a shift in agency away from a program directing the learning process to strengthening the capacity of market actors (e.g., firms, other organizations) and the system itself to better learn and adapt on their own. It represents an evolution in the focus and purpose of learning from being oriented primarily towards funder reporting (i.e., “prove”) and program improvement (i.e., “improve”) to also focusing on system transformation (i.e., “transform”)—a shift in the ‘locus’ of learning.
Through an engaging ‘talk show’ format, representatives from multiple perspectives will unpack why USAID sees this as central to its programming. The discussion will feature USAID influencers in the Agency’s new Local Capacity Strengthening Policy and PSE Modernize, as well as a Mission overseeing innovative programming in this space.
The second webinar in the series—planned for June—will take a more practitioner-level focus and dive into several of the 10 intervention strategies featured in the paper which are anchored by specific examples from 13 programs doing this work across 11 countries. Be sure to register for this webinar to be notified of the sign-up for the second session!
FEATURED SPEAKERS:
Lane Pollack
Senior Learning Advisor
USAID’s Bureau for Policy, Planning and Learning (PPL)
Mandeep Jangi
Acting Managing Director, External Influence Team
USAID’s Private Sector Engagement Hub
Jorge Reyes Reina
Project Management Specialist (Food Security and Energy)
USAID/Honduras
Jessica Bagdonis (PhD)
Human and Institutional Capacity Development Advisor
Bureau for Resilience and Food Security
Ben Fowler
Co-Founder and CEO
MarketShare Associates
