Political Economy Analyses Improving Local Knowledge and Context

While USAID/Colombia has a solid understanding of national-level issues, each of Colombia’s regions have a distinct context and list of influential actors. Without this regional knowledge, the Mission felt it was at risk of erroneously applying national-level assumptions to localized context and/ or missing opportunities to have greater programmatic impact. The Mission therefore began conducting political economy analysis (PEA) in seven priority regions of the country to provide staff with a systematic way of filling critical knowledge gaps that would better inform policy decisions.

This case study was submitted as part of USAID's CLA Case Competition, held in August 2015. This collection of examples illustrate the diversity of ways collaborating, learning, and adapting approaches are being operationalized in the field. To view more CLA cases like this one, visit the CLA Case Competition page.