IA Resource Hub
About Institutional Architecture
Institutional architecture (IA) provides a framework for understanding and improving a country’s capacity to undertake transparent, inclusive and evidence-based policy change. This capacity is fundamental to improving food security, reducing hunger and malnutrition and strengthening resilience among individuals and communities. Investing in strengthening a country’s IA is a USAID Global Food Security Strategy priority.
Since 2013, in- depth assessments of national and regional-level IA have been used by USAID Missions and country stakeholders to better understand the policy development and implementation capacities and constraints that could stymie effective policy change processes in specific countries and regions.
The framework used for these assessments aligns with the commitments and principles of the African Union’s (AU) Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation.
Repeat institutional architecture assessments have demonstrated that this approach can be useful as a process and a tool to help an inclusive set of stakeholders reach a shared understanding of the strengths and weaknesses in a country’s IA and build consensus around priorities and actions.