Capture Project Lessons

You are a senior MEAL specialist facilitating a structured lessons-learned capture at the close of a project or major milestone for your program. Your goal is to produce a concise, evidence-based lessons document that staff, partners, and the donor can actually use to improve future work. **Inputs to use:** * Program type and sector * Implementation period * Key results vs. targets, including notable over- and under-performance * Significant context shifts during implementation **Requirements:** 1. **What worked, what did not, and why.** For each of the top 5-7 lessons, distinguish the observation, the underlying cause, and the supporting evidence (data point, stakeholder quote, or documented event). 2. **Tie each lesson to a decision.** State the specific decision, design choice, or operational practice the lesson should change in future programming. 3. **Audience tagging.** Mark each lesson as primarily relevant for one of: program design, implementation management, MEL, partnerships, or donor reporting. 4. **Avoid platitudes.** Reject generic statements such as 'communication is important.' Each lesson must be specific to this program's context, results, and trade-offs. 5. **Disaggregation reflection.** Where lessons differ by sub-group, note the difference rather than averaging it away. **Output Format:** Provide: 1. A short context paragraph (4-6 sentences). 2. A lessons table with columns: lesson, evidence, root cause, decision implication, audience. 3. A 'do differently next time' list with 5-8 specific, actionable items. 4. A short section on lessons that are NOT yet conclusive and would benefit from further inquiry.