This quarter marks a new chapter for InnovATE. Moving into year three, consortium partners are prioritizing the “Train” objective of the “Learn, Design, Train” framework, by planning training activities for agricultural education stakeholders. Starting the year off strong, the team collaborated with FHI 360 and USAID to offer a three-day training on workforce development programming for rural economies.
At the USAID Washington Learning Center in Crystal City, Virginia, InnovATE’s Kurt Richter and Sandra Russo presented to a room of USAID Mission and Bureau personnel on opportunities and challenges inherent to rapidly transforming food and agriculture sectors. Training participants broke into teams to tackle case studies focused on real world development challenges. Based on these case studies, teams worked through various exercises to analyze theories of change and ultimately develop a final project appraisal document.
A theory of change is a development hypothesis that is connected to a project outcome. “When you develop a theory of change you start by defining the development challenge, which leads to the desired outcome or intended impact you wish to achieve,” explained Rachel Blum, of USAID E3, “From there, you work backwards to understand who is involved in this outcome, and what changes in behaviors, knowledge, and attitude are needed in order to achieve it.”
This theory of change framework prompted participants to look at the big picture dynamics of rural economies and think outside of the box to design workforce development programs. To inspire their designs, participants also reviewed program examples from countries such as Nepal, Haiti and Senegal. Daniel Sherrard, Provost of EARTH University in Costa Rica, presented some of the innovative ways his school is engaging students, including providing them opportunities to design and manage their own businesses.
As a part of this training, InnovATE was able to work directly with USAID representatives from country missions around the world including those in Nicaragua, Nigeria, Serbia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Jamaica. Connecting with these individuals allowed the team to expand knowledge of InnovATE within USAID, which may lead to new opportunities. The materials developed for the training will also be used to enhance InnovATE programming in the coming year.