In October 2022, Khulisa received a five-year contract from the U.S. Agency for International Development in West Africa (USAID/WA) to implement the second phase of the Peace Through Evaluation, Learning and Adaptation Activity, thus the acronym PELA II. PELA II’s main objective is to strengthen USAID/WA’s effectiveness to implement projects, coordinate activities, learn from evidence-based experiences, and design programs that enhance democracy, peace, and stability in West Africa in line with the 2020-2025 Regional Development and Cooperation Strategy’s Development Objective 1. At $18.5 million, PELA II is Khulisa’s largest current project.
The PELA II team is working to achieve this objective by facilitating improved monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and collaboration, learning, and adaptation (CLA) across the U.S. government portfolios in West Africa, with a special focus on the Coastal West Africa region, including Guinea, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, and Benin.
PELA II supports the USAID/WA mission to be a more effective, efficient, and adaptable operating unit, and increases USAID/WA’s effectiveness in implementing projects, coordinating activities, and learning from experiences. PELA II also assists USAID/WA to be an information, communication, and thought leader in preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE), promoting peacebuilding, and strengthening democracy in the region.
The First Year of PELA II
The Khulisa team is proud of our accomplishments on the PELA II activity in 2023:
- Acquiring and using knowledge: In close collaboration with the Regional Peace and Governance Office of USAID/WA, PELA II is working to acquire and disseminate knowledge through research studies, evaluations, assessments and capacity-building support for USAID program implementers, such as the Community Resilience Support Program in Cameroon (PARC-Cameroon).
- Learning: PELA II is organizing a learning tour to gather learning priorities from U.S missions and implementing partners in West Africa. PELA II is also making learning widely accessible to P/CVE and peacebuilding practitioners operating in West Africa via its learning circles. Recent learning circles have focused on:
- Early warning signs of violent extremism (VE) in the northern border regions of Côte d’Ivoire;
- Impact of civic values training for informal educators on students’ vulnerability to violent extremism in the Lake Chad region; and
- Strategies for VE organizations’ expansion into Coastal West African states.
- Knowledge management platform: PELA II is leveraging science and technology to establish an online knowledge management platform (KMP). The PELA II KMP will soon include the West Africa Regional Community of Practice, which will serve as a collaborative learning space for stakeholders to exchange ideas, information, opinions, and viewpoints on specific topics. This initiative is expected to lead to innovative approaches and inform stakeholders’ decision-making, thereby fostering advancements in strategies and practices in peacebuilding and P/CVE initiatives in the region.
- Baseline study: One of the most important aspects of the PELA II activity is active participation in the regional monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) groups and subgroups, which develop M&E plans for the Global Fragility Act and the Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability (SPCPS) implementation. PELA II is currently implementing a baseline study, which will serve as the starting point for further measuring success and lessons learned during the SPCPS implementation. Khulisa is leading this baseline study, which will be a comprehensive undertaking in close collaboration with USAID/WA, the U.S. Department of State, and the U.S. Department of Defense.
In response to the USAID localization agenda, Khulisa is working with local organizations and capacities in the region to achieve the PELA II objectives. PELA employs a full team of local specialists operating from our office in Accra, Ghana. Khulisa works closely with two subcontractors, Dexis and Itad.
The Khulisa team looks forward to building upon our work during the first year of PELA II over the next four years. Keep an eye on the Khulisa website for more updates about our work in West Africa on PELA II.