Land O’Lakes is member of the Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA). The VEGA Alliance runs a Leader with Associate agreement with USAID. As a member of VEGA, USAID can negotiate an Associate Award with Land O’Lakes through the VEGA mechanism.
Associate Awards are cooperative agreements or grants that USAID Missions or regional bureaus develop with the “leader." The leader is the lead organization that successfully competed for the Leader with Associate agreement and is primarily responsible for implementation of the project under the agreement. Since the leader has already secured the grant or cooperative agreement via a competitive process, USAID missions can create their own agreements with the leader without going through a competitive (or sole source justification) process. Moreover, the USAID mission has full control over the development and management of the Associate Award.
What is VEGA?
The
Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA) is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit, founded in 2004 through a Leader with Associate (LWA) cooperative agreement, as a vehicle to allow USAID Economic Growth Officers to reach out to organizations providing technical experts in private, public and NGO sector development. VEGA is the world’s largest consortium of economic growth volunteer organizations that collectively have assisted 140 developing and transitional countries by sending out more than 25,000 experts/advisers to help promote economic growth activities over the last 40 years. VEGA has a credible track record of delivering economic development programs with sustainable solutions throughout the developing world. Since its inception in 2004, USAID funding of $4 million for VEGA has resulted in global programs worth more than $140 million.
The VEGA LWA Advantage:
- The VEGA LWA has been extended until 2014.
- There is no award ceiling.
- Programs awarded under the VEGA LWA can continue for 5 years beyond the 2014 LWA end-date.
- The VEGA LWA requires an internal competition among the member organizations, a unique asset compared to other LWA mechanisms.
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City-to-City Leader with Associates Award
Land O'Lakes is one of six global partners implementing the City-to-City (C2C) Partnership Program, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). This five-year, Leader with Associates (LWA) program with the International/County Management Association (ICMA) will provide sustainable, short and long-term technical assistance and capacity building support for developing country cities worldwide. Land O'Lakes will lead initiatives related to food security.
The C2C Program will tackle many of the challenges facing the urban poor, including climate change, food insecurity, and poor water and sanitation infrastructure, by:
- Enhancing climate-related governance and systems;
- Increasing resilience of vulnerable communities;
- Improving water supply and sanitation access;
- Engaging the urban poor;
- Enabling cities to govern; and,
- Producing sustainable results by creating community-wide, city-to-city partnerships.
Click here for a fact sheet on the C2C Program.
For more information on the C2C program, please contact:
In the U.S.:
Mara Russell
Chief of Party
Practice Manager, Food Security and Livelihoods
Telephone: +1-202-370-1660
E-mail: MARussell@landolakes.com