U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Rajiv Shah praised for-profit and non-profit development firms for their work at a town-hall meeting the Global Leadership Coalition sponsored in yesterday in Washington, D.C. That was right before he told those gathered he plans to insource much of the program design, monitoring and evaluation work many contractors have diligently completed for USAID for decades.
“Our current contracting systems exist for a reason. They enable our employees to get work done in an environment where they don’t always have the internal resources to do that work. And we depend greatly on many of our partners in this room to get that work done and to be a part of that system,” Shah said. “We have to insource program design, monitoring and evaluation. We simply can’t write contracts anymore that include and outsource all of that in a singular effort.”
PSC responded to Shah’s comments today with a letter urging him to keep industry in the loop during his strategic human capital planning. In the letter PSC President and CEO Stan Soloway also urged Shah to keep that strategic planning strategic.
“Because the competition for the talent USAID seeks is so strong, it is essential that the agency strategically target its precious resources to the highest priority functions and positions,” Soloway said. The priority functions should be inherently governmental functions and the managerial positions needed to ensure agencies maintain control over commercial functions some refer to as “closely associated with inherently governmental” activities, Soloway wrote.
The anticipated insourcing is part of a larger set of “procurement reforms” Shah plans to announce in June. During his speech he said that some contracting must also invest more in local, in-country institutions and organizations, rather than U.S. firms.
In taking these steps to insource and limit U.S. private sector involvement in development, Shah appears to be responding to pressure from lawmakers calling for reform of USAID. He admitted as much when he told GLC meeting attendees:
“Some of you may have heard what Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said at the hearing where I presented USAID's budget request. He didn't mince words. He said that USAID was not living up to its potential. And he said, quote: ‘USAID needs to change its culture, and change the way it does business.’ One of our biggest champions, someone who has supported this agency throughout its history, someone deeply committed to development made matters clear: either USAID reforms itself, or USAID ceases to exist. So it's been made pretty clear to me -- our time to change is now, and our time to change is short.”
The change, however, could put several development firms, including PSC members, out of business, and hundreds of development specialists out of work, during difficult financial times.
“Our current contracting systems exist for a reason. They enable our employees to get work done in an environment where they don’t always have the internal resources to do that work. And we depend greatly on many of our partners in this room to get that work done and to be a part of that system,” Shah said. “We have to insource program design, monitoring and evaluation. We simply can’t write contracts anymore that include and outsource all of that in a singular effort.”
PSC responded to Shah’s comments today with a letter urging him to keep industry in the loop during his strategic human capital planning. In the letter PSC President and CEO Stan Soloway also urged Shah to keep that strategic planning strategic.
“Because the competition for the talent USAID seeks is so strong, it is essential that the agency strategically target its precious resources to the highest priority functions and positions,” Soloway said. The priority functions should be inherently governmental functions and the managerial positions needed to ensure agencies maintain control over commercial functions some refer to as “closely associated with inherently governmental” activities, Soloway wrote.
The anticipated insourcing is part of a larger set of “procurement reforms” Shah plans to announce in June. During his speech he said that some contracting must also invest more in local, in-country institutions and organizations, rather than U.S. firms.
In taking these steps to insource and limit U.S. private sector involvement in development, Shah appears to be responding to pressure from lawmakers calling for reform of USAID. He admitted as much when he told GLC meeting attendees:
“Some of you may have heard what Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said at the hearing where I presented USAID's budget request. He didn't mince words. He said that USAID was not living up to its potential. And he said, quote: ‘USAID needs to change its culture, and change the way it does business.’ One of our biggest champions, someone who has supported this agency throughout its history, someone deeply committed to development made matters clear: either USAID reforms itself, or USAID ceases to exist. So it's been made pretty clear to me -- our time to change is now, and our time to change is short.”
The change, however, could put several development firms, including PSC members, out of business, and hundreds of development specialists out of work, during difficult financial times.
