Conflict and Violence Prevention (CVP) Learning Agenda

Project Information

Title of Project: Conflict and Violence Prevention Learning Agenda Implementation Team (CVP LAIT)

Sector: Working in Crises & Conflict

Country: Global

Lead Institution: Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED)

Co-PI Institution: American Institutes for Research, Alliance for Peacebuilding

Final Budget: $1,500,000

Project Length: 2 years

Research Objective:
The Conflict and Violence Prevention Learning Agenda Implementation Team (CVP LAIT) has been tasked with co-creating and implementing a bureau-wide learning agenda that establishes the evidence base for effective approaches to armed conflict and violence prevention, identifies opportunities for CVP investments that would produce new knowledge to fill gaps in the existing literature, provides USAID staff with events, tools, resources, and/or guidance to incorporate learning agenda findings into their work, and conducts original research into armed conflict and violence prevention.

Project Description:

In the first phase the LAIT Team will aim to better understand the needs and priorities of USAID and its external partners in their conflict and violence prevention programs across countries, programs, and institutions. This understanding will contribute towards the establishment of a common framework of conflict and violence prevention terms and definitions based on priorities identified by the stakeholders. Overall, engagement with, and information from, stakeholders will further our ability to design and implement a learning agenda that includes products and processes for coordinating evaluation, research, and learning activities, and further incentivizes use of evidence.

During Phase 2, the LAIT Team will aim to address conflict concepts and questions which arose during the engagement phase, identify near-term analyses to conduct using existing data, and conduct evidence reviews to identify gaps in the evidence on peacebuilding, conflict prevention, and crime and violence interventions. The deliverables produced during this phase will allow CVP to leverage existing data to inform learning and understand the current state of evidence to better inform its programs, operations, and strategies. The learning focus during this stage is to allow the participants (e.g. CVP, CPS, peacebuilding cadre) to use dissemination tools and resources to apply the most relevant research to their work. It will also allow the external peacebuilding community to increase its understanding of existing research to align programming with evidence-based approaches. Some activities will proceed concurrently during this phase (e.g., evidence reviews and extant data analyses) and may even begin towards the end of Phase 1, such as the analyses of existing data identified during stakeholder interviews.

In Phases 1-2, the LAIT Team will gather, identify, evaluate, summarize, and address questions of conflict and violence forms, measures, and mitigation practices within USAID and the larger practitioner and research communities. We will also undertake near-term research activities that analyze existing data of relevance to CVP and Mission conflict/violence priorities. Following the work undertaken as part of the Learning Agenda, the LAIT Team will be able to leverage data, identify gaps and areas of potential collaboration for future research activities. In Phase 3, the LAIT Team will reflect on the results from near-term research activities and the state of evidence identified during Phases 1 and 2 and identify future areas for original research where there is insufficient knowledge that could be fulfilled via the HESN-LASER mechanism. The LAIT Team will further make recommendations as to how to align USAID research with evidence identified through the learning agenda. The direct intention of this phase is for CPS/CVP and the broader Agency to understand where gaps in the evidence base exist to inform future investments in research and learning. It is also designed to highlight where new knowledge can be produced by research activities to inform strategies, programs, and operations to be more effective.