LocalWorks: Local Systems Practice
Applying systems tools to complex, local challenges can enhance the sustainability of programming, resulting in better-informed, measurable interventions that will complement and reinforce the community systems they seek to strengthen. With this in mind, USAID funded LocalWorks: an activity which aimed to train multiple USAID missions and local partners to design, deliver, and manage systems-based programs using ethnography and social network analysis. The training was designed to help missions and partners to overcome four specific barriers to effective local systems practice:
- Listening
- Engagement
- Discovery
- Adaptation
During this three-year program, the University of Notre Dame provided technical support to the USAID mission in the Philippines around ethnography and social network analysis. The team, lead by Research Associate Professor of Anthropology and Global Affairs Dr. Rahul Oka, co-created and co-facilitated a training module in Thailand and Mexico focused on social network analysis and actor mapping. Throughout the project, Notre Dame contributed to LSP learning materials, including training guides and project reports.