# Enabling a policy type
<a name="enable-policy-type"></a>

Before you can create and attach a policy to your organization, you must enable that policy type for use. Enabling a policy type is a one-time task on the organization root. You can enable a policy type from only the organization's management account or a member account designated as a delegated administrator.

**Minimum permissions**  
To enable a policy type, you need permission to run the following actions:  
`organizations:EnablePolicyType`
`organizations:DescribeOrganization` – required only when using the Organizations console
`organizations:ListRoots` – required only when using the Organizations console

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#### [ AWS Management Console ]

**To enable a policy type**

1. Sign in to the [AWS Organizations console](https://console.aws.amazon.com/organizations/v2). You must sign in as an IAM user, assume an IAM role, or sign in as the root user ([not recommended](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/best-practices.html#lock-away-credentials)) in the organization’s management account.

1. On the **[Policies](https://console.aws.amazon.com/organizations/v2/home/policies)** page, choose the name of the policy type that you want to enable.

1. On the policy type page, choose **Enable *policy type***.

   The page is replaced by a list of the available policies of the specified type.

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#### [ AWS CLI & AWS SDKs ]

**To enable a policy type**  
You can use one of the following commands to enable a policy type:
+ AWS CLI: [enable-policy-type](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/organizations/enable-policy-type.html)

  The following example shows how to enable backup policies for your organization. Note that you must specify the ID of your organization's root.

  ```
  $ aws organizations enable-policy-type \
      --root-id r-a1b2 \
      --policy-type BACKUP_POLICY
  {
      "Root": {
          "Id": "r-a1b2",
          "Arn": "arn:aws:organizations::123456789012:root/o-aa111bb222/r-a1b2",
          "Name": "Root",
          "PolicyTypes": [
              {
                  "Type": "BACKUP_POLICY",
                  "Status": "ENABLED"
              }
          ]
      }
  }
  ```

  The list of `PolicyTypes` in the output now includes the specified policy type with the `Status` of `ENABLED`.
+ AWS SDKs: [EnablePolicyType](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/organizations/latest/APIReference/API_EnablePolicyType.html)

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