Accountability and Research Team (ART)

Project Type: Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL)

Location: Syria

Date: 2020-2025

ART was a five-year project through which Proximity provided the USAID Bureau for the Middle East (MEB) with rigorous MERL support to improve the accountability and learning of USAID/MEB’s Syria implementing partners.

Drawing on our expansive team of field researchers across Syria, we independently monitored, verified, and analyzed the results of USAID/MEB’s resilience and stabilization assistance. We also delivered high-quality research and analysis to inform strategic planning and activity implementation, as well as strengthen the capacity of USAID/MEB and its partners to improve performance monitoring and data analysis. ART therefore helped to increase USAID’s understanding of the outputs, progress, challenges, successes, and lessons learned from its assistance efforts in Syria.

ART involved five key components:

• Third-party monitoring of USAID/MEB’s activities in Syria.

• Research and analysis for USAID/MEB, covering current activities in Syria and other USAID needs.

• Support services to conduct MEL activities and codify MEL tools for USAID/MEB’s programmatic portfolio.

• High-quality, timely, and useful performance evaluations of USAID/MEB programs.

• Capacity building for USAID/MEB and its partners to monitor, evaluate, and learn from their work in Syria.