What is a learning partner?
A learning partner provides support in terms of strategic management and continuous improvement to those responsible for implementing a project or programme. This can include analysing practices and contexts, the production of knowledge, and helping to integrate lessons learned. The central objective of this support is to guarantee the quality and relevance of actions in the field.
Above all, a learning partner is committed to and shares accountability for the success of projects and the achievement of objectives. They specialise in evaluation, operational research and capacity reinforcement and bring complementary added value to a consortium or between different consortiums.
Ideally, the learning partner is present at the key stages of a project to highlight priority issues and to make the work of project partners easier.
Groupe URD, a learning partner for international aid organisations
By occupying this central role, Groupe URD can provide support on several levels to facilitate the implementation of operations, lighten the workload of actors and allow them to concentrate on operational issues:
- Quality management: helping to develop and implement a quality management mechanism based on a robust MEAL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning) system that is adapted to the project;
- Agile management: helping to establish structured and iterative processes that allow decisions to be made in the face of uncertainty;
- Relevance: reinforcing the capacity of the project and actors to take a step back, question their decisions and practices to ensure that they are technically and methodologically relevant;
- Integrating cross-cutting issues: helping actors to adapt the project and reinforce their capacities in relation to issues such as localisation, climate, environment and gender.
Our experience
Groupe URD has many years of experience as a learning partner in different contexts, such as the Lake Chad Basin, Mali, Haiti, Lebanon and Burkina Faso. Below are a few examples:
- The PASFASS project (Project to socially empower Chadian women via access to health services and addressing gender-based violence) in Chad, with CARE and BASE (bureau d’appui Santé et Environnement), from March 2019 to October 2023.
- The Nex’Eau project (Burkina Faso), to reinforce the resilience of drinking water services in crisis contexts, with Solidarités International and the Gret, from May 2021 to October 2023.
- The RESILAC project, Inclusive Economic and Social Recovery Around Lake Chad (Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria and Chad), with Action Contre la Faim and Care, from June 2018 to May 2023.
- The Vil Nou Pi Bèl project, to reinforce the resilience of the inhabitants of Jérémie (Haïti), with Care France and Care Haiti, from May 2019 to December 2022.