Attachment J.18 -Regional Integration Strategy Glossary.pdf

Regional Integration Strategy Glossary

Country Strategy 2020-2025

This document reflects USAID/Colombia’s priorities, development objectives, and expected results for the period 2020-2025. It is known by its acronym CDCS (Country Development Cooperation Strategy).

Strategy (RIS)

The RIS aims to achieve the development objectives outlined in the CDCS 2020-2025 in the regions, and to generate greater impact and transformation in prioritized geographic areas through the identification and development of Regional Integration Opportunities (OIR). It is based on five pillars:

1. Intra and inter-regional collaboration

2. Monitoring of development goals

3. Sequenced and organized activities

4. Adaptive management model based on evidence

5. Prioritized geography

Prioritized Regions

Sub-national zones prioritized by the RIS. They are understood as a fluid system made up of diverse territories, actors (stakeholders), dynamics, and relationships where Mission Activities are designed and executed.

Stakeholders

Communities, public, and private interested actors who interact and intervene in the regional development process. These actors maintain relationships with the implementing partners, the Activities, and the Mission.

Regional Change Theory

USAID/Colombia’s strategic vision for change over five years (2020-2025) in a Prioritized Region, based on the development objectives defined in the Country Strategy. It is built with the Stakeholders and guides the processes of design, planning, execution, and the measurement of Activities through the Basket of Targets.

Basket of Targets (BoT)

A set of outcome indicators that are aligned with the Mission’s Country Strategy, development objectives, and cross-cutting priorities. These indicators are aspirational and seek to guide USAID/ Colombia’s staff, partners, regions, and resources toward a common goal at the regional level.

Regional Integration Action

A strategic attribute of the Mission and the management of its activities that is accomplished through the adequate implementation of the RIS in the process of achieving the results set in the BoT and within the framework of the Country Strategy.

A Regional Integration action may be materialized as part of a coordination, collaboration or articulation action, either between activities of one or more USAID Technical Offices and/or between USAID activities and activities or projects of other U.S.

Government Agencies. It may also occur between USAID Activities and other Interested Stakeholders.

Regional Coordination Action

A strategic attribute of the Mission and the management of its activities that aims to organize a series of actions to avoid portfolio inefficiencies and duplications. This type of action maintains the independence of each of the Activities involved and aims to achieve their objectives efficiently and effectively. Its key feature is the fluid and orderly exchange of information between Stakeholders, Activities, Technical Offices, implementing partners, and other public and private stakeholders of the prioritized region through formal and recurring coordination spaces.

Example The Cáceres Comprehensive Action Table is a coordination space created and formalized in the action plan agreed by the University, Business, State, and Society Committee (CUEES Bajo Cauca), with support from USAID. The Cáceres Mayor’s Office leads this Roundtable, which gathers local and national institutions, USAID and other donors.

This Board has a roadmap to implement projects identified in the Municipal Development Plan, and which are linked to PDET initiatives, as priorities for the local administration.

At the Table, information is shared among the participants, who identify the tasks, level of contributions, and the sequencing of interventions in support of the projects.

In each Table session, the Mayor’s Office shows how the actions have advanced, while promoting further information exchange and identifying new needs and the sequencing of interventions.

This is an example of a Regional Coordination Action because different Mission Activities and Technical Offices exchange information in a fluid and orderly manner with Interested Stakeholders to generate greater regional impact.

Regional Collaboration Action

A strategic attribute of the Mission and the management of its Activities that aims to ensure that interested Stakeholders within a prioritized region complement each other and learn to maximize the impacts of regional development in line with the BoT.

This type of action maintains the independence of each Activity and seeks to achieve the objectives efficiently and effectively. Its key feature is the identification and achievement of common objectives through initiatives involving Activities of one or more Technical Offices, Activities, or Projects of other Agencies of the United States Government, and/or between public and private actors in the region.

The programming of four USAID Activities includes the institutional strengthening of local governments in the Macarena-Guaviare region, each one supporting a different local entity. The first Activity strengthens government agencies working in the provision of local justice and the protection of human rights. The second Activity strengthens the public health sector and health insurance; the third Activity strengthens the education sector to improve the coverage and quality of rural education; and, finally, the fourth Activity aims to strengthen the local Agriculture departments. All four USAID Activities provide technical

Example assistance for the design and implementation of Municipal Development Plans. There is an opportunity for regional collaboration between the Activities to jointly support local administrations and provide complementary and cohesive technical assistance to mayors and cross-cutting departments such as Finance and Planning.

This improves the relationship with government agencies, reduces unnecessary efforts for officials, and above all, it allows for a comprehensive analysis of the municipality’s needs while maintaining the independence and autonomy of each Activity in meeting its objectives.

Regional Articulation Action

A strategic attribute of the Mission and the management of its Activities that aims to ensure that interested Stakeholders within a Prioritized Region complement each other and learn to maximize the impacts of regional development in line with the BoT. This type of action promotes the integration of development objectives and manages sequential and organized interventions to achieve the objectives efficiently and effectively. Its key feature is the creation of Regional Action Roadmap between Activities in one or more Technical Offices, different Activities of the United States Government Agencies, and/or between public and private stakeholders of a Prioritized Region.

In 2019 USAID / Colombia implemented an 11-month regional integration pilot in the Ciudadela San Antonio de Buenaventura, one of the most unsafe neighborhoods in Buenaventura, due to the presence of drug trafficking and criminal groups. A total of 1,268 Afro-Colombians live in vulnerable conditions: 73% live below the poverty line and 20% are illiterate. The pilot articulated seven USAID Activities (VISP, PAR, IPA, ACOPLE, RPR, LABS, and C-AME) that worked together to promote cultural changes in order to modify the negative perception of security conditions, prevent violence, take ownership of public space, strengthen local governance and generate income. As a result of this exercise, final surveys showed a positive increase in the perception of security by 10% and an 8% increase in the perception of peaceful coexistence among the members of this community. The Mission

Example also provided recommendations to the Government of Colombia with regard to current housing programs that have strengthened the community’s social fabric and resilience to violence. The Mission implemented this pilot under a Collaboration, Learning and Adaptation (CLA) approach, which allowed important lessons from this experience to be obtained*. It represents an Action of Regional Articulation because different Activities from different Mission Technical Offices agreed on a joint work plan, with shared objectives and a monitoring system to generate greater regional impact.

* This pilot was selected as a finalist in the 2021 CLA case contest of the Office of Learning, Evaluation, and Research, which is part of USAID’s Bureau for Policy, Planning, and Learning.

Opportunity

The identification of programmatic and/or population coincidences in a Prioritized Region to carry out a coordination, collaboration, or articulation action to implement the RIS, and avoid duplications or inefficiencies where possible. Regional Integration Opportunities contribute to achieve the assumptions raised in the Regional Theories of Change and the Development Goals set in Mission’s Country Strategy, as measured in terms of the BoT. These opportunities can occur between Activities of one or more Technical Offices either at a thematic level (area of intervention) and/or at actor/ beneficiary community level.

Regional Action Roadmap

An operational tool that lays out the steps and sequences to manage Regional Integration Opportunities and Regional Theories of Change. The Regional Action Roadmap also identifies the roles and responsibilities of the actors involved in the regional integration process. Actors can be USAID Activities of one or more technical offices, Activities, and projects of different United States Government Agencies, and/ or public and private actors in the region.

Thematic Regional Integration Opportunity

It occurs when one or several USAID Technical Offices identify common elements, or potentially complementary ones, in their Activity portfolio, or potentially complementary ones, that can be managed through coordination, collaboration, or articulation and thus generate greater impact and transformation in the prioritized regions.

Two USAID Activities are working on economic development in Cantagallo and Morales, located in the South of Bolívar. The first Activity aims to improve the productivity and income of rice, cocoa, and cassava producers. The second Activity is responsible for the construction and improvement of tertiary roads and productive infrastructure (warehouses and drying facilities). Each Activity was contracted by a different USAID

Example office. The opportunity for thematic integration lies in the alignment of complementary actions which aim to revitalize the local economies in selected villages. This translates into a greater impact from the interventions as beneficiaries of the interventions can increase their productivity, improve their access to processing centers and marketing skills, while benefiting from tertiary roads.

Opportunity by Strategic Partner/Beneficiary Community

It occurs when one or more USAID Technical Offices identify common or potentially complementary elements in their Activity portfolio that target the same set of Strategic Partners/ Beneficiary Communities. The integration opportunity by Strategic Partner/Beneficiary Community can be managed through coordination, collaboration, or articulation actions in order to have a greater impact and transformation in the prioritized regions.

The new USAID Activity that works to protect the rights of indigenous populations, Afro-Colombian communities, and access to State services in Chocó, Cauca, and Valle del Cauca, also works to strengthen Community Councils and Indigenous Reservations. The Governance Activity, in turn, operates in the same departments and aims to generate local capacities in governments and municipalities for the provision of health and education

Example services. This Activity also supports the structuring of projects, including PDET initiatives, for funding via royalties. The opportunity for integration lies in the alignment of complementing actions to strengthen Governments, Mayors, and ethnic authorities to improve the provision of services and facilitate access to other sources of public resources for indigenous populations and Afro-Colombian communities.

Portfolio Duplicity

It occurs when two or more Mission Activities in the same prioritized region target the same population group and aim to achieve the same development objectives (or similar ones). Portfolio duplications create internal inefficiencies that negatively affect both the beneficiary communities and the relationship with Stakeholders.

The Ministry of Agriculture of Castilla la Nueva, Meta, wants to strengthen the poultry chain. Three USAID Activities working in that municipality decided to support the chain following their programmatic objectives: economic reactivation, generating income opportunities for youth, and ensuring a sustainable production. The Activity managers and implementing partners were unaware of each other’s interventions, so they each focused on the production process, the provision of technical assistance and the delivery of productive assets on their own. As a result, there was a duplication of the portfolio, as the same group of beneficiaries had several training sessions with differing technical approaches, while other beneficiaries received the same productive assets twice.

Example* Furthermore, neither of the Activities focused on the commercialization link of the chain and, consequently, the newly trained poultry farmers ended up selling their production to intermediaries who paid them lower prices than expected. The lack of articulation in the programming of the activities resulted in the beneficiaries not meeting their income expectations, which in turn had a negative impact on the relationship of USAID Activities with the communities and the Ministry of Agriculture.

* This hypothetical example shows how the duplication of actions and lack of coordination between Mission Activities can result in an inefficient use of resources that, in the long term, can harm the

Activity beneficiaries and relationship with stakeholders.