EDC to Lead Implementation of USAID’s Inclusive Development and Equitable Assistance, Leader with Associate Award
EDC has been selected to lead implementation of USAID’s new five-year global Leader with Associate award, the Inclusive Development and Equitable Assistance (IDEA) activity. The award, which commenced in October 2023, is intended to strengthen USAID programming and inclusive development by strengthening the capacity of local organizations headed by or representing marginalized and underrepresented groups and/or people in vulnerable situations as they advance their own development goals.
Through IDEA, EDC will convene a consortium of partners composed of and representing marginalized and underrepresented groups, including Root Change, WI-HER, Christian Blind Mission, CLEAR Global, Minority Rights Group International, Global Changemakers, HelpAge International, ILGA World, the International Rescue Committee, Keystone Human Services International, and the World Institute on Disability.
“EDC is thrilled by the opportunity to work with a talented and diverse consortium of partners to promote inclusive development and localization around the globe where USAID works,” says Nancy Devine, senior vice president and director of EDC’s International Development Division. “USAID IDEA’s objectives match EDC’s long-standing commitment to equity to bring opportunity to excluded persons and groups. With IDEA comes the ability to expand programming to address the dimensions and systems of inequality faced by many individuals and communities in Africa, Asia, Europe and Eurasia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East.”
IDEA will work with consortium partners and USAID Missions globally to implement the following activities:
- Mapping diverse groups representing marginalized and underrepresented populations in the regions and countries that USAID serves and learning about their needs and priorities
- Supporting these groups to develop regional and subregional communities of practice
- Working with the USAID Inclusive Development Hub and the range of inclusive development stakeholders within and outside USAID to better understand and support inclusive development ecosystems in the regions where USAID works
- Analyzing barriers and opportunities for marginalized and underrepresented groups related to international development in general and to USAID development support in particular
- Issuing small grants for organizational strengthening and technical support of groups supporting marginalized and underrepresented populations
- Facilitating calls for proposals to develop broadly accessible tools, knowledge products, professional development, and stakeholder engagement opportunities related to inclusive development
- Supporting platforms through which to share emerging evidence and promising practices related to inclusive development
“This activity is part of an important effort by USAID to realign the design and delivery of development assistance to meaningfully and purposely involve and fund authentic representatives of historically marginalized and underserved communities in ways that advance their inclusion and their own development,” says Jerry Mindes, IDEA senior inclusive development advisor. “EDC is proud to have been selected by USAID for this important and potentially transformational assignment, and to advance the twin tenets of inclusive development and inclusive localization: ‘nothing about us without us,’ and ‘do no harm.’”
EDC anticipates that additional activities will be designed and implemented as part of USAID buy-in and associate awards to expand on IDEA programming.