Demystifying Private Sector Engagement at USAID’s Higher Education Global Evidence Summit

The researcher-USAID team consisting of Dr. Priyanka Brunese and Dr. Yuehwern Yih from Purdue University and Tatiana Pulido from USAID presented at USAID’s Higher Education Global Evidence Summit (HEGES) on May 17th, 2022 on “Demystifying Private Sector Engagement: Lessons learned from USAID’s partnering processes.” You can watch the presentation video from HEGES 2022 here. 

This presentation discussed research findings from a three year study of USAID’s private sector partnering process commissioned by the Private Sector Engagement Hub and carried out by Purdue University.  

Using systems engineering and multi-stakeholder perspective approaches, the research examined the end-to-end private sector engagement process USAID employed including problem definition, partner selection, engagement negotiation, implementation, and closeout. 

Research findings mapped out the private sector engagement processes and different operational models; identified bottlenecks and root causes that affect PSE formation, operations, relationships, and partnership health; and identified best practices to address these challenges. 

The presentation highlighted a case studied in the Higher Education sector, and discussed timing of interactions, the nature of shared information, evaluative criteria used in partner selection, and contextual variables of PSE that affected activity outcome. The session ended with actionable recommendations such as utilization of different tools developed as part of the study to better design and monitor PSE processes. 

For more information about the research, please visit LASER PULSE or email Dr. Brunese (pshah@purdue) and Dr. Yih (yih@purdue.edu).