At its first in-person meeting, held in Stockholm, Sweden in September 2018 and hosted by Sida, the MDLP defined its objectives as follows:

• Share with each other how we apply evidence, learn from ongoing operations and use knowledge to change what we do over time for improved results.

• Develop a shared articulation of the MDLP’s purpose.

• Amplify the effectiveness of the learning tools and techniques used by member organisations and others to improve the adaptive management capacity of their organisations and their initiatives, and to catalyse learning that supports local ownership of development agendas.

• Implement innovations and experiments in organisational learning to enhance learning practice to improve the collective impact of each organisation.

• Support each other in building the business case and evidence base for investment in organisational learning.

• Provide a shared source of advice and evidence about what works for actors in the international development sector.

The partnership is now directly applying knowledge management, organisational learning, research and evidence to thematic issues, with Covid response as the theme for 2023, funded by USAID.