The Local Capacity Strengthening (LCS) Policy establishes an Agency-wide vision for local capacity strengthening that is based on a set of principles that guide all relevant USAID humanitarian assistance and development programming. Through this policy, USAID envisions local capacity strengthening that builds upon consensus across the development landscape, feedback from local actors and partners, and years of implementation experience and evidence.
As a part of that Agency-wide effort, this DRG Bureau LCS Implementation guidance is intended to outline plans for the sector to advance LCS implementation, and to assist Missions and other USAID staff in implementing the policy within the DRG sector. It should be seen as a helpful reference and not mandatory. The guidance provides a current snapshot of where DRG is on its path to improved capacity strengthening, highlights why capacity strengthening is central to DRG programming, examines gaps and challenges, and lays out a five-year action plan with recommendations for measuring success.