The U.S. Agency for International Development awarded SEGURA IP3 Partners LLC a three-year contract in June 2007 to implement the Knowledge Sharing and Analysis (KSA) project, managed through its Africa Bureau in Washington, in support of African policymakers in advancing trade-led economic growth.

KSA supports USAID’s $200-million African Global Competitiveness Initiative (AGCI) and is the Africa Bureau’s knowledge sharing and performance monitoring project. KSA includes five major tasks:

1. 1)Evaluating USAID/Africa’s knowledge sharing strategy, practices, and tools in order to identify opportunities for improvement and to make recommendations for change, for the benefit of practitioners and other stakeholders. KSA assists the USAID Africa Bureau in updating and maintaining the AGCI Web site, within the USAID Web domain (http://www.usaid.gov keyword: AGCI).
   

2. 2)Analyzing and synthesizing USAID and other donor program activities and best practices in trade development, overcoming infrastructure constraints, enabling environment policy reform, and enterprise development.
   

3. 3)Disseminating best practice information, including through KSA publications and briefs, summaries of applied best practices, conferences, trainings, and presentations. (Visit: http://www.usaid.gov/locations/sub-saharan_africa/initiatives/publications.html).
   

4. 4)Supporting USAID in the development, presentation, and execution of the annual Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum. To date, KSA has assisted USAID with the AGOA Fora in Washington (2008) and in Nairobi (2009). The annual Forum brings together officials of the African nations with representatives of the international donor and the African and U.S. private sector, as well as representatives of the African civil society.
   

5. 5)Monitoring the implementation and performance of the overall AGCI program across Sub-Saharan Africa and preparing annual reports on AGCI. KSA initially developed the AGCI performance monitoring plan and has been implementing it throughout the project. In 2009, KSA carried out a full-scale AGCI assessment.
   

Each year, KSA develops and presents Africa Trade Hub workshops to bring together USAID and government officials, as well as contractors and implementing partners from the four regional trade hubs, to discuss best practices and lessons learned that may be applicable throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. KSA has organized these annual AGCI meetings/workshops in Ghana (2008), Nairobi (2009), and Pretoria (2010).

For additional information, please visit the AGCI/KSA Web site: http://www.usaid.gov Keyword: AGCI.