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This article explores adaptive learning strategies to enhance impact in complex initiatives, focused on funders and evaluators.
This article explores the evolution of the authors’ strategic learning partnership during their work together with the MacArthur Foundation’s Big Bet On Nigeria. The authors share practical insights into how foundations can cultivate learning relationships grounded in trust, aligned with priorities of program staff and grantees, and calibrated to generate timely, actionable insights. The authors highlight the key principles that enabled them to help the program and grantees identify and adapt to emerging challenges, lessons, and needs, both within the programming context and in the foundation. In doing so, they offer a roadmap for funders and evaluators seeking to embed strategic learning into complex, portfolio- level, systems-focused initiatives and explore how adaptive learning partnerships can enhance strategic decision-making and amplify impact.
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Williams et al. (2026) studied this question.
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