A New Effort to Embed Systems Thinking in USAID (Event Resources)

USAID’s release of Local Systems: A Framework for Supporting Sustained Development reaffirms sustained development as a central USAID goal. The Framework argues that fostering sustained development requires sustained engagement with local systems, which include the constellations of local actors—public and private, national and grassroots, organizations and individuals—whose interactions produce the development outcomes we care about. To support engagement with local systems, the paper identifies four areas that need priority attention: (1) identifying and assessing local systems; (2) designing multi-faceted projects that address identified weaknesses in those systems; (3) deepening and consolidating risk considerations in our decision-making process; and (4) developing monitoring and evaluation tools that can accurately chart progress in strengthening local systems and the sustainability of their results.

The goal of this seminar is to kick-off a conversation about how to make best use of this new receptivity to systems thinking. To provide some grounding, Senior Policy Advisor for Local Systems, Dr. Tjip Walker, of USAID’s Bureau for Policy, Planning, and Learning traces the origins and objectives of this effort and lays out the key features of the local systems approach. The seminar concludes by eliciting ideas from participants about how to maximize the impact of this effort.