Kivu provided advice to Prospero, an FCDO business environment programme, on policy influencing. This was a new departure for Prospero, which was previously largely focused on direct support for businesses. However, it wanted to increase impact by also engaging with policy makers. Kivu’s support included practical advice and mentoring for Prospero’s local team on live policy influencing goals. Kivu also provided new ideas for the future expansion of the programme’s policy influencing work. To provide effective advice, Kivu worked to understand the context. This meant understanding the policy and political barriers to SME growth, including political intelligence gathering through a series of interviews with senior Zambian policy makers and discussions with businesses and other private sector stakeholders.