DOC has several policies, programs and initiatives with a focus on community engagement, particularly in communities facing unfavorable outcomes. For example, through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), DOC collaborates with low-income and minority communities to address the impacts of climate change, pollution, and environmental challenges that disproportionately affect these groups. In many cases, Build Back Better Regional Challenge grants fund the creation of regional governance structures that explicitly invest in community representation and public education and engagement. DOC’s Equity Action Plan, published in January 2024, advances racial equity and support for underserved communities in agency operations and programs. Development of this plan, which focuses on making commerce-related opportunities more accessible to address historical and structural inequities, involved various community engagement activities.

The department also gathered input for its learning agenda priorities through meetings and site visits nationwide, virtual and community-based “listening sessions,” and a free, virtual public event focused on expanding opportunity and discovery through data. Senior staff from organizations representing minority communities, women, the disabled and LGBT+ groups provided insights on research topics for improving service delivery. Additionally, each bureau within the department conducts external stakeholder engagement to improve program and policy delivery. For example, in 2023, NOAA sought public comment to inform more equitable climate service delivery and incorporated that input into its Equitable Climate Services Action Plan.

Further, DOC’s Evaluation Plan outlines that projects funded by the Economic Development Administration (EDA) must align with one or more of EDA’s investment priorities, such as the Equity Investment Priority, which requires ensuring benefits for underserved populations and areas. The plan development process also outlines the role of community engagement for the evaluation questions identified.

ED proactively engages and empowers residents and community partners to inform policy development, program design and delivery processes, emphasizing historically underserved communities. The department is pleased to host four White House Initiatives (WHI) for community engagement, each involving ED staff and an external advisory board. The WHIs advance educational equity, excellence and economic opportunity for Black Americans and Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanics and Hispanic-serving institutions, and Native Americans and Tribal colleges and universities.

Separately, ED hosts the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Finally, under the Biden-Harris Administration, ED launched its Office of Strategic Partnerships (OSP). In addition to engaging the communities listed above, OSP is ED’s primary liaison to the philanthropic and business communities. Contemporaneously with the development of the Strategic Plan, the department published a Request for Information in the Federal Register to solicit feedback on the learning agenda’s six focus areas. The department received more than 30 comments, including from individuals, universities, university-based researchers, philanthropies, advocates and advocacy organizations. Those organizations included, but were not limited to, those representing students historically underserved by education systems. Finally, consistent with ED’s Agency Evaluation Policy, its Institute for Education Sciences’ National Center for Education Evaluation, which conducts the agency’s significant evaluations, engages a wide range of stakeholders in evaluation design via study-specific Technical Working Groups that include ED program staff, highly-qualified researchers, subject matter expert, educators, education policymakers and representatives of beneficiary communities.

DOL has practices for proactively engaging and empowering residents and community partners to inform policy development, program design and delivery processes, with an emphasis on historically underserved communities. For example, the agency supports the Native American Employment and Training Council, which includes representatives from Native American programs and organizations. The Council provides guidance on the overall operation and administration of Native American programs administered by the agency’s Employment and Training Administration, and on matters that promote the employment and training needs of Native Americans. The agency has conducted extensive outreach to stakeholders to inform the development of its Enterprise Data Strategy and Open Data Plan. This included running a Request for Information to ensure it could understand what the public sought in terms of data, data services, and modes of access. DOL’s FY 2022-26 Evidence-Building Plan describes stakeholder engagement activities to identify research needs and inform the development of the plan. Activities included targeted engagement with stakeholders in the public workforce system, including state and local agencies, worker organizations and employer representatives. Additional activities included outreach to the public on the priority learning areas included in the plan.

Additionally, the agency’s program evaluations engage groups served by the program, implementing partners and other stakeholders in evaluation design and the interpretation of findings, emphasizing communities experiencing unfavorable outcomes. For example, the Pathway Home Reentry Evaluation was designed with an expert panel of individuals with lived experience in the justice system to inform data collection plans and help interpret and understand research findings. The Strengthening Community Colleges (SCC) evaluation includes a proposed student advisory group composed of college students served by previous rounds of SCC grant programs. In addition, the Partners for Reentry Opportunities in Workforce Development (PROWD) Evaluation includes a proposed reentry expert group to include members with direct or familial experience with incarceration, with priority to those who have experienced the federal prison system.

Launched in 2022, DOT’s Thriving Communities Program provides technical assistance and capacity-building support to underserved communities, focusing on place-based projects that advance transformative transportation infrastructure. In 2023, DOT established the Advisory Committee for Transportation Equity (ACTE) to advise the Secretary of Transportation on issues of civil rights and transportation equity across planning, policy and research. ACTE members include transportation equity experts and community leaders and hold public meetings nationwide, addressing specific policy concerns. The Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program was established to help fund community-led projects that mitigate physical barriers to mobility and access, such as train tracks or highways. DOT also partnered with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to expand technical support for community engagement and capacity-building.

DOT emphasizes community engagement in its evaluations, especially for initiatives supporting underserved areas. For example, the Federal Transit Administration will involve local stakeholders in evaluating the Low or No Emissions Grant Program, collaborating to build a logic model, involving regional program experts in documenting program factors that contribute to outcomes, and leveraging inter-office data collection opportunities to answer evaluation questions aligned with program goals. DOT’s outreach for the Equity Action Plan included public dialogues, Requests for Information, and direct engagement with underserved communities. In October 2022, DOT released the guide Promising Practices for Meaningful Public Involvement in Transportation Decision-Making to help recipients strengthen community engagement. DOT’s Annual Evaluation Plan and learning agenda were developed through engaging groups served by the agency, implementation partners and other stakeholders, emphasizing communities experiencing unfavorable outcomes. As one example, for the study of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Weather Camera Program, DOT engaged operators and flight services operating in rural communities that rely on flight service to reach critical services in an emergency, including lifesaving medical treatment.

There are multiple ways in which MCC engages communities and stakeholders to inform policy development, program design and delivery processes. First, project development requires robust consultations with numerous groups and beneficiaries in each partner country. As a part of project development for any MCC program, investment criteria also require significant partner country stakeholder engagement and consultation with program participants, with a particular emphasis on vulnerable populations. These consultations are undertaken jointly by MCC and the partner country to ensure local ownership of project development. Second, the local implementing agency has dedicated outreach and stakeholder engagement staff to ensure that there is continuous feedback during implementation. Third, MCC engaged external stakeholders in developing its Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) Policy. Fourth, within each country, MCC’s M&E plan is developed in consultation with the local implementing entity, partner country stakeholders, the MCC Resident Country Mission and other relevant actors. These partners continue to work together to perform systematic data collection throughout the duration of the program. After program closeout, MCC requires that every evaluation be disseminated in each partner country to local stakeholders to ensure engagement on findings and lessons.

Finally, all MCC projects must undergo an independent evaluation, which engages project beneficiaries, stakeholders and other actors to measure results and identify learning that can inform future projects’ decisions and expected results. Most MCC evaluation activities include qualitative data collections through Key Informant Interviews (KIIs); Focus Group Discussions (FGDs); and In-Depth Interviews with government representatives, implementation team members and staff, project beneficiaries, and other informants selected for their firsthand experience relevant to the project. For example, the Sierra Leone Threshold Water Sector Reform Project conducted KIIs and FGDs with sector stakeholders and project beneficiaries.

USAID engages communities, particularly those that are historically underserved, in various ways. First, USAID’s Policy on Promoting the Rights of Indigenous Peoples aims to strengthen the agency’s engagement with indigenous communities to improve the impact and sustainability of our development programs. Second, USAID’s Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning (KMOL) Policy, which was updated in 2024, emphasizes community engagement and locally-led development. Third, Section III of USAID’s Learning Agenda, “Consulting Stakeholders to Define New Learning Questions,” describes how stakeholders are engaged to develop the Learning Agenda. For example, through a series of over 20 consultative sessions and subsequent question validation discussions, internal stakeholders provided input on learning priorities and critical evidence needs representing views from across the sectors and geographies in which USAID works. Finally, the agency has developed a guide for collecting feedback from beneficiaries of USAID programs.

Another way in which the agency has engaged communities is through its technology and data plans. USAID has an Information Technology Strategic Plan (ITSP) that was developed with a variety of stakeholders, including NGOs serving communities “on the ground” who have experienced unfavorable outcomes. The ITSP describes the process of including stakeholders in the development of the plan. In addition, USAID recently revised its Public Access Plan (PAP), which supports open data through public access to federally funded research. Throughout the revision process, USAID participated in the National Science Technology Council’s Subcommittee on Open Science to incorporate indigenous knowledge and tribal sovereignty considerations into PAP and other plans and policies related to open science and open data. Finally, USAID seeks to engage groups served by the program, implementing partners and other stakeholders in evaluation designs. To aid in this process, the agency has developed a resource operating units can use for identifying and engaging stakeholders in the evaluation process. USAID also uses Developmental Evaluation (DE) as one of its performance evaluation approaches. DE includes the sustained inclusion, participation and investment of a broad cross-section of stakeholders affected by an intervention. For example, USAID used DE to evaluate Jalin, an activity in Indonesia designed to catalyze local solutions to improve maternal and newborn health outcomes.