USAID Catalytic Action through Localized Policy Solutions (CATALYST)
The USAID- funded Catalytic Action through Localized Policy Solutions (CATALYST) is a global program that supports partner country priorities to build policy and institutional frameworks that enable greater investment in sustainability, resilience, and security at the national and sub-national levels. CATALYST supports countries in strengthening policy, planning, and investment solutions across sectors, such as agriculture, energy, water, health, and biodiversity to address climate risks while also growing local economies.
Working directly with local partners, CATALYST provides upstream support in policy and planning that paves the way for downstream investment and implementation of resilient and sustainable development measures.
CATALYST partners with local experts and organizations, private sector actors, researchers, and governments to support countries in defining and achieving sustainable development outcomes. Engaging regional and local actors is critical to defining priorities, designing projects, driving implementation, and measuring and evaluating results, thereby ensuring ownership and sustainability of interventions. In doing so, CATALYST aims to advance women and youth’s economic empowerment by addressing critical gaps in understanding and supporting their unique economic needs across policy and investment landscapes.
SERVICES
CATALYST strengthens enabling environments that promote sustainable and resilient development through three key objectives: strengthening policy and institutional frameworks; accelerating private sector innovation and investment; and enhancing communication, monitoring, and reporting systems.
- Strengthen Policy and Institutional Frameworks. Strengthening national, subnational, and sector policy and planning integration, including support for:
- Integrating national priorities, including mitigation and adaptation, into subnational and sector planning and budgeting.
- Harmonizing policy, regulatory, and legislative frameworks to incentivize investment.
- Embedding advisors to strengthen institutional capacity to support longer-term mitigation and adaptation planning.
- Accelerate Public and Private Investment. Identifying and addressing barriers to support sustainable and resilient investments in key sectors, including support for:
- Developing investment plans and bankable project pipelines aligned with Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) that meet criteria for impact funds, blended finance, and other innovative financing mechanisms.
- Developing business cases to incentivize investment in nature-based solutions.
- Aligning public and private sector investment taxonomies.
- Engaging women and youth entrepreneurs in investment forums.
- Facilitating private sector investment in climate resilient, low emission technologies via the Partnership for Catalytic Action (PCA).
- Enhance Communication, Monitoring, and Reporting Systems. Developing effective communication strategies and creating and strengthening systems to track, monitor, and report on progress, including support for:
- Developing accessible multimedia content to explain complex policies and investment opportunities.
- Developing use cases to support scale-up of innovative policy, regulatory, technological, and financial innovations.
- Leveraging digital platforms and social media to broaden reach and impact.
- Applying metrics and monitoring and evaluation frameworks to track progress.
HOW WE WORK
CATALYST is a flexible Leader with Associate awards activity designed to be used by U.S. Government Agencies like USAID, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Departments of State, Agriculture, and Defense. CATALYST is implemented by Abt Global in collaboration with the International Institute for Sustainable Development, Purdue Applied Research Institute, and the World Resources Institute.
CATALYST is available for both buy-ins and for associate awards.
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Recent CATALYST Updates and Resources
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CATALYST and Food Systems
To enhance food security, countries must implement comprehensive policy reforms, plans, and investments that promote resilient and sustainable food systems. CATALYST supports USAID's efforts to transform the food and agriculture sector as called for in the ‘U.S. Government Global Food Security Strategy.' At present, CATALYST focuses on supporting the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future initiative to boost agriculture-led growth, resilience, and nutrition through facilitating partnerships across sectors, supporting ambitious national policies, building technical capacity, and mobilizing private sector investment.
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CATALYST and Health Systems
CATALYST supports countries’ ambitions towards resilient and sustainable health systems by facilitating partnerships across sectors, supporting ambitious national policies and plans, building technical capacity, and mobilizing private sector investment.
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CATALYST's Partnership for Climate Action
CATALYST’s Partnership for Catalytic Action (PCA) engages USAID, local governments, and private sector partners. The PCA enables partners to embed resilience and adaptation into business operations and strategies, identify and invest in critical projects to decarbonize economies, leverage innovation capabilities for resilience, and shape policies to enable sustainable investments and financial flows.
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