Accra, Ghana – The U.S. Agency for International Development, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service, the University of Rhode Island, Delaware State University, and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology,  today launched the Analytical Support Services and Evaluations for Sustainable Systems (ASSESS) Project.  Through independent evaluations, analysis and the sharing of best practices, ASSESS will promote creativity, innovation and learning by USAID and its development partners, with the ultimate goal of increasing the effectiveness of their programs.

“Through ASSESS, technical experts will provide evaluations and assessments to bolster our development efforts in agriculture, environment, trade and energy,” said U.S. Ambassador to Ghana, Gene A. Cretz. “Lessons learned from these endeavors can be shared across the region with public and private sector actors to improve and increase crop yields and production, thus effectively ‘scaling-up’ our developmental impact.”

The ASSESS Project encompasses four components:

• Evaluations – to improve programmatic interventions
• Learning Agenda – to promote experimentation, innovation and measured risk-taking
• Capacity Building – of local and regional evaluation organizations
• Management of the Accra Center of Excellence (ACE) – center of learning

The launch included the ribbon-cutting of the new ACE facility—a training and conference center in Accra that will stimulate networking, knowledge sharing and partnership building to further strengthen development programs and improve their outcomes across the region.