Written by: Adriana Abreu Combs

We are thrilled to bring you stories from our country teams around the world to help you learn about their work and achievements—and hear their insights about how they have become a trusted partner to their clients and stakeholders. As trusted advisors, they have the ability to surface evidence and ensure that it is used to inform important decisions. Our country teams also focus on shedding light on issues affecting marginalized populations by applying EnCompass values to their work. Becoming a trusted advisor is a science as well as an art and we are excited to share how our country teams master this delicate and critical role. 

This edition of #CountrySpotlight is on USAID’s Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Activity in El Salvador, implemented by EnCompass LLC, with partner Management Systems International, and servicing USAID/El Salvador and Central America & Mexico (ES-CAM) Regional Mission; bilateral Missions in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Mexico; as well as USAID/Washington-based Bureaus and Offices in Central America and activities in Belize, Costa Rica, and Panama. This is a five-year (2022–2027), $18.5 million activity. To learn more, visit the project page. 

Kudos to the Chief of Party, Adriana Abreu-Combs, for this insightful write-up. 

Evaluations have long played a key role in helping donors, partners, and other stakeholders understand what is working well, what might need to be improved, and how wider contexts influence change. Over the years, evaluation methodologies and processes have evolved significantly as evaluators continually strive to ensure the evidence gathered is positioned for use. 

USAID’s regional Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Activity—based in El Salvador and serving eight countries in the Central America region—has been making waves in the evaluation space. The activity just celebrated its first year of implementation, and within that year has seven evaluations and assessments underway (all at different stages). This EnCompass–led activity has incorporated some of the industry’s latest thinking in evaluation work, with notable results. 

This has included processes to effectively gather and analyze data, with an eye toward use. From ensuring methods and tools are robust and ethically sound through EnCompass Institutional Review Board reviews, to rigorously transcribing and intentionally coding qualitative data for analysis. From developing upfront quantitative data analysis plans and using proper statistical analysis methods, to bringing an evidence-based narrative together through inclusive data analysis, integration, and synthesis (DAIS) workshops across all data sources for more effective evaluation and useful findings and recommendations for stakeholders. The DAIS is a unique EnCompass approach involving facilitated internal evaluation team workshops to collectively translate early themes emerging from analysis into a robust narrative. These efforts produce highly traceable, contextualized, and supportable evidence-based findings and user-appropriate recommendations.  

But it does not stop here. In the past, evaluations have fallen short for not arriving at practical and implementable recommendations, grounded in evidence. The MEL Activity has brought EnCompass’ co-creation approaches to life by engaging stakeholders, including USAID and implementing partner staff, in a facilitated workshop to co-create practical recommendations from independently drawn evaluation findings and conclusions. The result is a strong set of recommendations grounded in evidence that are actionable among those on the frontlines of implementation. In our experience, co-creation is the best path to robust and useful recommendations. 

While the USAID’s regional Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Activity team is proud of its accomplishments and innovations in the evaluation space thus far, the team will continue to identify and implement approaches to ensure that its evaluation work is useful and used. After all, this is a fundamental goal that all evaluators must strive for.   

“Thank you for inviting us to be part of this process and to contribute to shaping our project evaluation recommendations, we are humbled.” – Implementing Partner who participated in a recommendations co-creation workshop in San Salvador, October 2023

More importantly, by carrying EnCompass’ signature Appreciative Inquiry lens across evaluations, the MEL Activity has effectively helped stakeholders see not “what’s wrong, what’s missing, and why” but rather see “what has worked and what the wishes for the best outcomes are.” This shift in framing has led to an important change in how people see and receive evaluations. Starting from assets and strengths does not mean only staying in the positive; it means that what did not work well and can be improved will emerge naturally. It is powerful.

It has been a wonderful journey, and we can’t wait to continue to see the results of these transformational evaluative efforts.