Policy LINK Supports USAID Implementing Partner Meeting
As one of the USAID’s flagship programs, Policy LINK led three of the eight sessions at the three-day gathering.
Policy LINK was a key facilitator and presenter at this week’s meeting of Implementing Partners supporting the USAID Bureau for Resilience and Food Security (RFS) Policy Division. Charged with coordinating across interagency and external partners, the Policy Division works to “set and adjust strategic and policy priorities, generate evidence, and disseminate learning.”
As one of the division’s flagship programs, Policy LINK led three of the eight sessions at the three-day gathering, which included senior United Nations and African Union officials as well as the heads of prominent, Africa-based research and capacity-building organizations and USAID six Implementing Partners.
Two of the Policy LINK-led sessions focused on building the evidence base for the “Institutional Architecture Framework”—a USAID-developed mechanism for assessing capacity to undertake transparent, inclusive, predictable, and evidence-based policy change.
Building on these sessions, Policy LINK also moderated and participated in a panel discussion on how to strengthen local policy systems through programmatic and measurement approaches. With an eye to promoting resilience and food security, participants explored ways to help prioritize food systems agendas and their implementation at the community, national, and regional levels.
Through its regional work with the African Union and, nationally, with the governments of Bangladesh, Kenya, and South Sudan, Policy LINK is USAID’s frontline mechanism for facilitating policy dialogues. The five-year Cooperative Agreement recently secured a buy-in from USAID/Ethiopia to extend its work there. A similar buy-in, from USAID/Ghana, is expected soon.