QUESTION 5:  What is the sustainability of the results of science, technology, innovation, and partnership (STIP) programming?

This Evidence Brief was produced as part of a series of outputs from the U.S. Global Development Lab’s Evaluation, Research, and Learning (ERL) Plan - a utilization-focused learning agenda supporting evidence-informed decision making in Lab operations and science, technology, innovation, and partnerships (STIP) programming. A process and set of products, the ERL Plan facilitated Lab learning and adaptation around four bureau-wide areas of inquiry: uptake of products, services, and approaches; adaptive management tools and practices; support to awardees and partners; and sustainability of results.

Insights from the ERL Plan are shared here as a record of emerging opportunities for evidence-based adaptation that could be acted on by USAID and other development actors. This work also contributes to the evidence base for the Agency-wide Self-Reliance Learning Agenda - an effort to support USAID as it reorients its strategies, partnership models, and program practices to achieve greater development outcomes and foster self-reliance with host country governments and our partners. 

Introduction

Providing development assistance that fosters sustained benefits epitomizes our purpose as development professionals and how to achieve g USAID’s mission to “promote a path to recipient self-reliance.” USAID aims to promote sustainability by implementing programming that strengthens the capacity of local systems to produce development outcomes; but how much do we know about whether—and if so, how, and why—results continue to be sustained? With “few evidence-based models or indicators to assess sustainability” (Lee 2017), our ability to design and implement strategies, programs, and associated monitoring and evaluation efforts that can help us to better understand and adapt toward greater sustainability is greatly restrained. This brief summarizes select findings, conclusions, and recommendations from academic literature, program assessments, and evaluation and learning outputs, based on which the USAID US Global Development Lab (the Lab) has committed to priority actions to strengthen the potential for sustained results in its programming