The U.S. development agency has undergone a ‘major shift in thinking’ about partnerships, according to Chris Jurgens, head of the Global Partnerships division at USAID.
“It used to be that we thought of partnerships as an innovation or a new add-on,” said Jurgens, speaking with Devex Impact on the sidelines of the Business Civic Leadership Center’s 2012 global conference. “We did core programming with our traditional development partners and we thought about how to add the private sector into that existing equation.”
Today, said Jurgens, USAID perceives private-sector companies as a “core partner” that deserves “a seat at the table from the very beginning.”
Watch as Jurgens describes how the agency is partnering with corporations and why corporations are increasingly interested in tackling development priorities.
See also
Part two of our conversation with Chris Jurgens: ‘What companies should know about bilateral donors’
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