We recommended that the core team documents lessons learned throughout the procurement process and following completion of the project, capturing these insights to inform future projects. This is particularly important to accelerate learning cycles and to ensure institutional knowledge and capabilities are developed in case of staff turnover. Our recommendations include:

• Iterating and updating work plans based on actual hours and timelines required to achieve specific milestones.
• Developing templates for future projects (e.g., for RFPs).
• Documenting key criteria for decision-making, approval processes, and key issues that arose during the project.
• Developing an after-action report based on debriefs of team members and critical stakeholders on what worked, what didn’t, what they would do differently next time, and lessons learned.