Improving PSE in the MENA Region: CLA Through A Monthly Webinar Series

The Agency’s first Private Sector Engagement (PSE) Policy, issued in December 2018, provides a road map to a new vision of development—rooted in increased focus on engaging the private sector for greater scale, sustainability, and effectiveness. Recognizing the private sector, together with USAID, as co-creators of development solutions will allow far-reaching impact that would never be achieved by working alone.

Under LEAP III, Integra has worked with the USAID Middle East Bureau since 2019, supporting the uptake and implementation of the Agency’s PSE Policy by both D.C.-based and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Mission staff. One of the initial challenges with implementation was adoption of the policy and a lack of understanding of how it applies to staff across every technical and support team. The Bureau’s 2020 PSE Action Plan stated three CLA priorities to address this challenge including 1) establishing and supporting an internal regional PSE community of practice, 2) promoting peer learning on PSE, and 3) building PSE skills and expertise within the Bureau.

An important component of this effort has been Integra’s monthly virtual PSE training series, which creates a recurring space for staff to build awareness of the PSE efforts within the Bureau, learn best practices from their peers, increase their PSE skills, and continually brainstorm ways to implement PSE. This series employs the concepts of internal and external collaboration, pause & reflect, openness, relationships & networks, continuous learning & improvement, knowledge management, institutional memory, and Mission resources from the CLA Framework to help Bureau and MENA Mission staff improve their PSE work moving forward.