Report of the ARA’s TLS process

This report provide overarching insights from the 'tracking' component of the ARA's Tracking, Learning and Sharing (TLS) acitivites during the first phase of action.
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  • June 6, 2023
  • 2 min read
ARA activities Case study Learning & implementation

The Adaptation Research Alliance (ARA), in consultation with its members, adopted the framing of Tracking, Learning and Sharing (TLS) as a light-touch approach for soliciting member engagement in a sensemaking exercise to determine progress being made towards the Adaptation Research for Impact Principles and the Outcomes laid out in the ARA’s Theory of Change.

As part of this, the ARA Secretariat provided the tools, platforms and systems to enable members to track progress easily and effectively, without an unfeasible level of effort beyond what they were already investing in to monitor the progress of various initiatives being undertaken by their organisation.

This report explores how this process catalysed reflection and action for ARA members, nudging them to alter some ways of functioning. However, this is the first phase of the ARA’s LTS agenda, and has been firmly focussed on baselining existing levels of alignment. The next phase of activity should be oriented towards tracking how the ARA (as well as its Principles and outcomes) are influencing changes in the ways of functioning of member organisations.

Methodology

Throughout 2022, the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), as part of the ARA Secretariat, guided ARA members through a process to track how their activities aligned with the ARA’s Theory of Change (ToC) and the Adaptation Research for Impact Principles, as part of TLS activities.

All ARA members were invited to participate in the TLS process, and participation was voluntary. The process was split into two phases (or steps), with workshops held from June 2022 to December 2022.

In the first phase, ARA members came together to better understand the TLS tracking process and why it is important, and began deciding how they would contribute to the Outcomes and apply the Principles by writing up actions and goals. In the second phase, members were given the opportunity to share their reflections, learning and progress through online discussions and a detailed questionnaire.

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