Despite the wide variety of projects proposed by the learning circles, all have a series of characteristics in common. In the first place, they all require broad-based participation by all stakeholders, including government, civil society, and private enterprise at all levels, both national and local. Secondly, they start off with a small set of target groups and are strongly supported by monitoring, impact evaluation, and dissemination of results, to permit broader implementation and/or replication of experiences in future phases.

The projects fundamentally seek to demonstrate the feasibility of generating new learning dynamics based on the creation, use, dissemination, application, and systematization of information and knowledge, in ways that produce changes in traditional development styles in their respective sectors. Therefore, the processes of learning and change generated by the projects are more important than concrete products which result from any particular stage of the projects; at the same time, it is essential to produce tangible evidence that the processes are taking place.

In each project, it would be useful to reflect on the advisability of implementing initial efforts in one or two geographic regions, in order to maximize the impact of the few resource centers that will be available, as well as to promote more coherent results, before moving on to another phase of replication or broader implementation among more disparate target groups.

It would also be interesting to build relationships of interchange and efforts at securing consistency among projects in various sectors, for example education together with local and rural development. This type of experiment could produce a greater impact and more sustainable results if learning synergies are forged among sectors, and results are used by the same or similar institutions.

Preparatory phase: approx. 6 months

1. Design an organizational framework which will operate throughout the entire period of the project (see Diagram below).
2. Identify champion organizations and institutions among stakeholders in the corresponding sector, and set up a permanent advisory board made up of representatives of these groups.
3. Set up an external administrative structure to avoid overlap of functions with the advisory board. This structure could be common to all the projects in the strategy program.
4. The advisory board appoints one or more project managers to oversee daily activities and serve as a liaison between the technical team(s), target groups, and advisory board.
5. Set up a technical team to work directly with the target groups in daily tasks. Depending on the type of project, this team could be made up of individuals or an ad hoc group of personnel of a consortium of organizations and institutions related to the project. The selection of the technical team should be made on the basis of merit and public bidding.
6. Prepare the necessary methodology and tools to support the target groups and to monitor and evaluate the impact of their activities.
7. Conduct the training necessary for the technical team to meet its goals, using external resources if necessary.
8. Set up a team of external evaluators and train them, selected using same criteria as technical team (#5 above, see also Appendix on Monitoring and Evaluation).
9. Identify those institutions which will serve as resource centers for information and support material, probably from among the same groups which provided the technical team, or among members of the advisory board.
10. Design criteria for the selection of target groups for the project, and help them write their own proposals for participation (for example, the goals they expect to attain, available local resources, internal participatory relationships, etc.).
11. Evaluate proposals from potential target groups and select an initial set, not to exceed the capacity of the technical team to assist them adequately.

First phase of action: approximately 18 months

1. Reach agreement among advisory board, technical team, and target groups on criteria and variables to monitor.
2. Together with the monitoring and evaluation team, establish an initial "snapshot" of each target group and of control groups, related to the goals of the project.
3. In each target group, promote the selection or election of a project leader and a broader team which can represent the group; create a coordinating committee among representatives of target groups, who will work with the advisory board in the overall direction of the project.
4. Carry out the main activities of the project.
5. Maintain constant monitoring of target groups based on jointly established criteria and variables.
6. Based on the monitoring and evaluation process, make adjustments in the activities without undermining progress toward goals.
7. Conduct periodic evaluations according to need (usually semi-annually).
8. Approximately three months before the end of this period, conduct an overall evaluation, for each group and the project as a whole, based on the proposed goals and established evaluation criteria.

Second phase of action: Dissemination of first results: approximately 3 months

1. Identify potential additional target groups.
2. Promote interactions among participating groups and others interested in joining the project in the future, in order to transmit experiences and dynamics achieved during the project.

Preparation of second stage: approximately 3 months

1. Review and adjust decision-making, consultation, technical support, and participatory mechanisms, incorporating lessons learned in the first stage of the project.
2. Conduct a new selection process, more rapidly than before based on prior experience, and ensure preparation of technical teams and new target groups.

Carry out activities similar to first stage, taking into account the broader universe of experience, participation, and learning generated by the first stage.

Conduct a detailed evaluation of the overall and individual experience, in order to propose ways for lessons to be entirely appropriated, and for project to become sustainable based on participants’ interest and resources.