Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning Innovations Program (MERLIN) is a USAID endeavor originally led by the U.S. Global Development Lab in partnership with the Bureau for Policy, Planning and Learning (PPL), and the Bureau for Global Health. MERLIN is a radically different approach to program design for USAID and its partners that allows users to source, co-create, and co-design development solutions that innovate on traditional approaches to monitoring, evaluation, research and learning (MERL).
While standard approaches to Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) work well for many USAID projects, when specific outputs and outcomes are not as easily identifiable up front, and where change might happen in a non-linear manner, these standard tools can fall short.
MERLIN Mechanisms
To learn more about individual MERLIN Mechanisms, see the following program descriptions. The period of performance for these is through September 2024, except for Expanding the Reach of Impact Evaluation which runs through September 2025.
