Community-Led Resilience Programming in South Sudan Earns ‘Special Mention’

Policy LINK’s case study stood out because it demonstrated “how CLA approaches can help put local communities in the driver’s seat after decades of donor dependence.”

Policy LINK is pleased to have received a special mention for its submission to USAID’s 2022 Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) Case Competition. Policy LINK’s case study, Toward a Community-Led Approach to Building Resilience in South Sudan, was selected from more than 120 submissions from across the international development community. The case study details how Policy LINK facilitated community efforts to set and address their own resilience priorities. In its announcement, USAID said that Policy LINK’s case study stood out because it demonstrated “how CLA approaches can help put local communities in the driver’s seat after decades of donor dependence.” It also showed how community engagement and CLA can enable learning and rapid adaptation even in a challenging environment such as South Sudan.

Every year, USAID’s CLA Case Competition draws more than a hundred submissions from all types of organizations working with USAID around the world. It showcases the development community’s innovation, creativity, and learning. This year marked the first time that USAID highlighted additional cases (beyond the winners and finalists) for special mention. USAID attributed this decision to the “quality of submissions” as well as the “growing strength of CLA practices within development and the insight, honesty, and clarity with which these practices have been documented and shared in the cases this year.”

Policy LINK is proud to have its important work in South Sudan recognized. The approaches laid out in our case study—bringing together community, government, the private sector, and civil society to define and act on resilience priorities—offer implementing partners a model for putting localization and CLA into practice to begin reversing decades of donor-driven assistance in South Sudan.

Since 2020, Policy LINK has been engaging directly with communities in South Sudan’s hardest-hit counties, building trust and laying the foundation for other USAID Implementing Partners to work in these areas. To assist them as they expand their programming, especially within USAID’s Resilience Focus Zone, Policy LINK developed a Resource Portal that catalogs the activity’s experience, sharing Resource Guides, technical reports, and other material as a public good.

Learn more about Policy LINK’s South Sudan work here.