Enhancing Thinking and Working Politically (TWP) When Practicing the Conservation Standards at USAID
This supplemental guide offers practical advice for thinking and working politically (TWP) when practicing the Conservation Standards at USAID. The Conservation Standards are a widely used, systematic approach for planning, monitoring, and adapting programs aiming to conserve biodiversity. TWP is an approach to international development that brings greater attunement to the political dynamics of the local programming context in order to enhance development results. Given strong evidence that political factors overwhelmingly drive the loss of biodiversity, this guide is based on the premise that conservation programs will be more effective when they skillfully integrate TWP.
This supplemental guide unpacks areas of alignment and divergence between the Conservation Standards and TWP as they are practiced at USAID, and it offers recommendations for drawing on the strengths of both approaches to enhance biodiversity programming. It builds on existing experiences in thinking and working politically when practicing the Conservation Standards at USAID. The goal is to clarify nuanced, but important attributes of TWP and their implications for how the Conservation Standards are practiced. The theory of change is that offering an explicit vision for enhancing TWP in the practice of the Conservation Standards at USAID will strengthen dialogues and experimentation that will ultimately bring these practices together more effectively and systematically.
