The first six organizations are well underway in Durability Academy’s two-year program to advance their capabilities in measuring, analyzing, and acting on Durability data.
Durability Academy welcomed its first cohort this summer, and they are now well underway. The Academy is a two-year program that helps organizations advance their data capabilities in designing, measuring, and delivering lasting impact. It is run by Generation, an inaugural member of The Durability Collective.
The first Academy cohort consists of six organizations working in Eastern Africa and focusing on livelihood impacts. The organizations are: The African Christian Health Association Platform (ACHAP), AkiraChix, Emerging Leaders, Hatua Network, RestoringVision, and Solar Sister. This group has collectively served millions of beneficiaries to date, and seeks to deepen their ability to achieve change that lasts.
By engaging in the Academy to advance their ‘Durability’ outcomes, they will be deepening their medium- and long-term outcomes measurement in a way that is both feasible and cost-effective. This will enable them to further demonstrate proven long-term impact for their programs and focus on the activities that most advance employment, income, and well-being over time.
Durability Academy is a new two-year program that is the first initiative of The Durability Collective. It will utilize a combination of group and individual learning techniques:
- Monthly plenary sessions: The Generation team and expert advisors from the Durability Collective will conduct workshops via video conference to explore each unit and to provide all relevant materials.
- Custom workshops: These plenaries will be followed by 1:1 workshops, also conducted remotely, tailored to each organization
- Annual convening: The Academy community will also have an annual in-person convening for all participants to connect with peer organizations and to discuss their experiences and innovations over the course of the program.
Over the course of the two-year program, organizations will complete six modules:
- Foundations for Durability: Strengthen impact framework, people, and systems; define target durable outcomes
- Durability Measurement: Craft an end-to-end strategy for measuring and communicating about durability
- Implementation Design: Create and test a data collection instrument and plan
- Launch and Track: Collect data
- Putting Durability Data to Work: Analyze data; act on it internally and strategically share it with partners
- The Practice of Durability: Embed durability measurement in ongoing work
The first Academy cohort members shared their thoughts:
Simon Ssentongo, Knowledge Management and Learning Advisor, ACHAP, said: “Durability Academy resonates deeply with ACHAP because we’re not just measuring reach—we’re measuring lasting impact. We want to know what changes a year after a person receives a health service and care. This is our moment to build smarter systems, co-create with peers, and make long-term resilience part of how we serve Africa’s most underserved communities.”
Lydia Oduor, Communications and Partnerships Lead, AkiraChix, said: “Durability Academy presents a valuable opportunity for AkiraChix to better understand the depth of our impact through data. We’re at a pivotal moment in the growth of our program, and tapping into the insights offered by the Academy could help us build on this momentum.”
Steve Miles, CEO, Emerging Leaders, said: “Emerging Leaders are thrilled to be part of Durability Academy over the next two years. Working, not only with the Generation team, but alongside other great organisations will enable us as a team to learn, grow, contribute and sharpen our skills in this space so we can be even more effective in what we do. We believe the insights we will gain, and share, will enable us and others to better adapt what we do, how we do it and enable us to amplify the impact and stories of the heroes we have the privilege of working alongside every day.”
Gabrielle Fondiller, Director, Hatua Network, said: “At Hatua Network, we are committed to creating deep, multi-generational impact that transforms not only individual lives but also the economic futures of entire families. We are excited to join Durability Academy because we know it will strengthen our ability to track long-term change and ensure our work breaks the cycle of poverty for generations to come.”
Jacob Gomez, Director, Monitoring, Evaluation, Evidence & Learning, RestoringVision said: “At RestoringVision, we are committed to scaling access to near-vision eyeglasses for all who need them. Studies have shown that when adult workers’ vision is restored with corrective eyeglasses, their productivity increases. Our participation in Durability Academy will enable us to strengthen how we measure impact, increase our knowledge of how these gains are sustained, and work toward a long-term solution to solving the global vision crisis.”
Sinead Maharrey, Monitoring Evaluation and Learning Manager, Solar Sister, said: “At Solar Sister, we are excited to join Durability Academy to strengthen our ability to measure the long-term impact of our work on women, their families, and their communities. We look forward to building on our current data and evaluation systems to better capture how clean energy entrepreneurship shapes lives over time and use those insights to deepen our impact.”
Future Academy cohorts will also have geographical and topical focus areas, with Latin America and Europe likely to be the next cohort locations. If you are interested in future Durability Academy cohorts, joining The Durability Collective, or learning more, you can visit durability.net.
About The Durability Collective
The Durability Collective is a global community of funders, practitioners, and researchers who are building our collective capability to measure social impact and create change that lasts. Contrary to conventional wisdom, we believe medium and long-term outcomes measurement can be feasible and cost effective. For more, visit durability.net.
