Communications and Outreach Plan: Enhancing Development and Growth through Energy Regional Support Hub (USAID Southeast Asia EDGE Hub)

The Asia EDGE initiative aims to strengthen the energy security of regional partners, create open and transparent energy markets, improve free, fair, and reciprocal energy trading relationships, and expand access to affordable, reliable energy. The Southeast Asia EDGE Hub's Communications and Outreach Plan is designed to cohesively coordinate and amplify the impact of current and planned Asia EDGE programming in Contract Year 3. The plan aims to explain what Asia EDGE is and why it was launched, target audiences using consistent and cohesive messaging, share the successes of USAID energy programming in Southeast Asia, and serve as a repository of trends, best practices, and impacts of these activities. The key messages to be communicated by the EDGE Hub include how USAID energy programming in Southeast Asia contributes to the Asia EDGE initiative and the Biden-Harris Administration's climate efforts. These messages will focus on the four pillars of Asia EDGE: utility modernization through digitization and performance enhancement, regional energy trade and integration, transparent, best-value procurement, and increased deployment of advanced energy systems. The EDGE Hub has identified two primary audience categories: primary and secondary. The primary audience consists of relevant U.S. and host government agencies, development partners, and funding agencies, as well as private sector actors engaged in Southeast Asia's energy sector. The secondary audience includes multilateral organizations and research and financial institutions with operations in Southeast Asia, as well as the general public. To engage the primary audience, the EDGE Hub will use targeted messaging focused on specific Asia EDGE activities in the region and potential areas of collaboration or coordination. Communications activities will publicize the best practices, key activities, and learning opportunities of USAID energy programming in Southeast Asia, demonstrate the EDGE Hub's role as a repository of trends, best practices, and impacts of Southeast Asia EDGE activities, and demonstrate how USAID energy programming in Southeast Asia leverages U.S. expertise to modernize utilities, drives private sector investment, and accelerates the adoption of regional and bilateral competitive energy markets. The EDGE Hub will use a range of communication tools to engage its primary and secondary audiences, including regular coordination calls, sharing of program-specific technical information, coordination on participation at conferences and other forums, site visits, and regular newsletter and other resource material delivery. The plan will be updated yearly to ensure that it remains relevant and effective in achieving the goals of the Asia EDGE initiative.