Worldwide—USAID Policy LINK

Policy LINK strengthens the leadership capacity of public, private, and civil society actors and fosters collective action among them to transform policy systems. Building on the successes of Africa Lead’s nearly decade of programming, Policy LINK does this through a range of core services, including:

Sample Activities

• Offer a range of leadership training programs to develop the “soft skills” of public, private, and civil society actors, including a five-day Champions for Change course and a six-month executive leadership program as well as bespoke options.
• Support participatory stakeholder and network mapping to improve decision making and resource allocation. Policy LINK uses a variety of participatory mapping techniques, both for systems and stakeholder mapping, to catalyze, scale and sustain organizational and institutional change.
• Facilitate a common vision and actions from all parties for a mutually beneficial solution. Policy LINK uses a facilitative leadership approach and a set of resources to catalyze and strengthen multi-stakeholder coordination and inclusive dialogue among actors at all levels.
• Support joint work planning at local and community levels. Policy LINK offers participatory tools and approaches to strengthen the local systems to increase community and private sector participation in policy discussions, improve collaboration, communication, enhance the coherence of policy implementation, and ensure donors’ work aligns with and advances national, regional, and other partnership goals.
• Coordinate with other USAID implementing partners. Where implementing partners are working in isolation, Policy LINK can apply USAID’s collaborating, learning, and adapting (CLA) methodology and get them to work together more efficiently and effectively.
• Build platforms for knowledge sharing and learning. Through peer-to-peer networks, virtual and in-person dialogue, and online learning and collaboration tools, Policy LINK facilitates global learning and knowledge management for policy.
• Publish LINK Cast—a podcast centering the voices and stories of Policy LINK’s partners and stakeholders working in policy spaces around the world. Episodes run 20 minutes and feature a rotating roster of co-hosts from among the program’s own experts as well as guest hosts from other organizations.

Select Results

• Partnered with the Bangladesh Safe Agro and Food Efforts Foundation to generate evidence and address food safety issues by enhancing policy instruments and processes. The team distilled 13 recommendations for establishing safe, nutritious food systems in Bangladesh, including improving inter-government coordination, encouraging private sector involvement, integrating food safety and nutrition policies, and promoting Good Agricultural Practices.
• Collaborated with the National Insurance Commission to structure and operationalize Ghana’s Agriculture Insurance Fund, mandated to subsidize agricultural insurance premiums, develop agricultural insurance products, and enhance industry knowledge to promote wider adoption of agricultural insurance policies.
• Helped establish the Consortium of African Youth in Agriculture and Climate Change, which marked a milestone in African youth organizations’ efforts to unite around agriculture and climate change issues.
• Created a five-step participatory planning process for USAID in South Sudan that has improved communities’ collective understanding of the shocks affecting them—like conflict, floods, and food insecurity—while empowering them to prioritize and articulate their needs to government and donor representatives.
• Trained 380 individuals across Ethiopia’s three regions in leadership skills.