Locally Led Development Innovation | BAA OAA LLDI 2019

Opportunity Information: Apply for BAA OAA LLDI 2019

The Locally Led Development Innovation opportunity is a USAID Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) designed to attract and support new ideas, partnerships, and investments that help shift development leadership and ownership to local actors in developing countries. Rather than funding one narrow project type, this BAA functions as an open innovation channel where USAID can work with applicants to co-create and co-design solutions, co-invest alongside partners, and collaboratively move promising approaches through the full pathway of research and development, piloting, testing, and ultimately scaling. The central goal is to identify practical, cost-effective interventions that make locally led development real in day-to-day decision-making and service delivery, while also producing durable, sustainable development outcomes.

The announcement is run by USAID's Office of Local Sustainability within the Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and Environment (E3/LS). Its purpose is to expand USAID's efforts to empower local organizations, communities, and institutions to set priorities, make key decisions, mobilize and manage resources, and measure results for their own development agendas. In other words, the focus is not only on improving outcomes in sectors like health, agriculture, education, energy, environment, or community development, but also on strengthening the systems and incentives that let local stakeholders lead those efforts over time. USAID signals that it is looking for approaches that may be unconventional or involve nontraditional partners if they can produce sustainable results.

Eligibility is broadly open, meaning organizations of many types can participate, including companies, academic and research institutions, non-profits, and investors, with the understanding that any additional eligibility details would be clarified in the full announcement text or in later addenda. The wide range of activity categories listed (from science and technology research and development to regional development, disaster relief, food and nutrition, housing, governance-related services, and more) shows that USAID is intentionally leaving room for cross-sector solutions and innovations that address locally led development as a core constraint across multiple fields.

A key operational detail is that specific opportunities are expected to be released through addenda under the umbrella of the BAA. That means the main announcement sets the overall framework and invites engagement, while the concrete topics, focus areas, and collaboration pathways may be defined later in separate addenda. This structure allows USAID to respond to emerging needs and to shape collaborations iteratively, rather than relying on a single fixed solicitation. The source information lists the opportunity as discretionary and using an "Other" funding instrument type, which is consistent with flexible innovation-style programming where USAID may use varied mechanisms to support co-creation, piloting, and scaling depending on what is being proposed and what is negotiated.

Administrative details in the source data indicate the BAA was created on May 31, 2019, with an original closing date of May 30, 2021. The listed award ceiling and expected number of awards are shown as zero in the source record, which typically signals that funding amounts, award sizes, and the number of awards are not predetermined at the master-announcement level and may instead be determined through addenda or negotiated arrangements tied to particular concepts or activities. Overall, this opportunity is best understood as a standing invitation for innovators and partners to bring forward ideas that increase local leadership in development, supported by USAID through collaborative design, shared investment, and evidence-driven scaling.

• The Agency for International Development in the agriculture, business and commerce, community development, consumer protection, disaster prevention and relief, education, employment, labor and training, energy, environment, food and nutrition, health, housing, information and statistics, income security and social services, law, justice and legal services, natural resources, regional development, science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Locally Led Development Innovation" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 98.001.
• This funding opportunity was created on May 31, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 30, 2021. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

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