Key takeaways from USAID's new multibillion-dollar A&A strategy

The United States Agency for International Development, the world’s largest aid agency, has finally released its long-awaited new acquisition and assistance strategy, which drives how it allocates 85% of its multibillion-dollar funding pot. The acquisition and assistance strategy — commonly known as the A&A strategy — shapes the way the agency gives grants and awards contracts. The strategy lays out three main organizational priorities: strengthening the workforce, cutting red tape, and making it easier for new organizations to become USAID partners. The move is a significant moment for USAID and the leadership of Samantha Power. It puts her concrete stamp on the agency and how she believes the $49 billion organization should be run. The success or failure of this strategy will shape whether USAID is able to deliver on Power’s vision for localization — the move to transfer a quarter of the agency’s spending towards local organizations by 2025 and 50% of projects be led by local communities by 2030. The strategy’s release comes at a time when there are questions about whether USAID will be able to meet that goal over the next two years. There are also questions about whether there is a real appetite for reforms at the agency to truly transfer development to local communities. USAID is hoping that the new A&A strategy is a pathway towards realizing Power's ambition for localization. “If we are to help our partner countries make the kind of sustainable development gains we seek, then we need to change how our work here at USAID gets done and who we do it with,” Power said on Tuesday, in an introduction to the strategy, released alongside the launch. We took a look at the strategy and the way the agency plans to execute it. Staffing Power and the agency have spent the last two years warning everyone, including the U.S. Congress, that the agency is facing a “staffing crisis.” USAID said that an individual contracting officer at the agency has seen their work grow by 38% from 2015 while the hiring for the role has decreased. It’s no surprise that a big ticket item in the new strategy is on how the agency plans to hire and retain its staff. In her Tuesday speech, Power used the word “depleted” to describe the current state of the agency’s workforce. The agency says it will go on a hiring spree. “With congressional support, we will continue ramping up our hiring of A&A professionals in the years to come,” Power said. The agency, for example, said that it plans to hire more contracting and agreement officers, especially those with the authority to deal with contracts on behalf of the U.S. government, to 195 people from the current 132. These officers tend to be at the front line of the awarding of funds. The agency also said it will work to improve the number of local staff with the authority to administer contracts from 19 currently to 38 by the end of the year. Cutting red tape The agency also said that it will work to reduce the amount of time it takes its officers to process large contracts that are worth more than $25 million. Reducing the reviews of contracts from three to two will cut down the amount of time it takes to award a contract by at least 10 days and save a staffer 200 hours they spend on a contract, USAID said. And then there was a signal that the agency will look to deploy artificial intelligence to work faster. The world is abuzz with how artificial intelligence is going to change the future of work. USAID is another agency that says it wants to incorporate A.I. to help it power its future and reduce staff time spent on bureaucratic paperwork. The agency said that it was currently working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to incorporate the use of A.I. technology into its A&A work, in addition to automating some of its tasks to relieve the burden on its workforce from menial tasks. The agency said it has been piloting the automated creation of negotiation memos. “Once rolled out, this automation could save the Agency $1.5 million in staff time,” it said in the strategy. Localization Development experts have been keenly awaiting what the new A&A approach will say on localization. Some told Devex last month that they were hoping the new strategy would lay out a path to deliver development over to local people. The agency, in its strategy, tried to simplify the definition of what makes an organization local. When it comes to the 25% target, USAID said that will be measured by the dollars committed “directly to local entities.” They then went on to say that on the 50% target, the measurement will be on how the practice of having communities lead USAID’s work has been achieved. “This metric counts activities in which these good practices are used, not dollars,” the agency said. The goal, USAID said, is to see how involved local communities are in the execution of projects in their countries. On attracting new partners, the agency promised to scale its WorkwithUSAID.org platform, to include more new organizations and showcase areas they can go to win USAID work. The agency said it will work to translate its documents and application materials into languages other than English and work to limit contracts awards competition to local partners. Power acknowledged that working with USAID can be “tough” and comes with its share of red tape, particularly for new organizations that want to work with the agency. The agency said that it will work to reduce the time it takes to be a partner of USAID. “Rather than requiring interested parties to fill out full-blown applications upfront, we are instead asking them to submit brief concept notes,” Power said. In an intriguing shift, the agency said it wants to institutionalize and scale up its work with private companies rather than the current “one-offs” that have characterized the relationship. The agency said it will work to train its staff to prepare them to look for opportunities to work with the private sector. “The Agency must become more nimble and strategic in partnering with businesses around the world,” USAID said. As part of this effort, the agency said that it was creating what it calls a Private Sector Engagement Consultation Desk for its staff around the world to use to help them to better work with businesses. Implementation One criticism of the process leading up to the release of the strategy was that there was a lack of enough public consultation in its development. This time, USAID shared a detailed implementation plan that it said it wants help in executing. The agency wants the development community to know that the plan is a live document open to edits as the agency works to bring to life its new approach. “This plan is focused on the work to be done during the first year of the A&A Strategy,” the agency said. USAID went on to say that at the end of the year, it will “pause and reflect” on whether its effort to hire and empower more staff has worked, it has been able to lift barriers to localization and executed on its commitment on “sustainable lasting development.” And based on that, they may change things. “Feel free to share your insights,” the agency said. “The Implementation Plan will be updated on a rolling basis.”