U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Rajiv Shah on Thursday (Jan. 19) unveiled several new procurement reform initiatives — some of them effective immediately — that are meant to boost the monitoring and evaluation of field projects and more closely scrutinize especially the government’s larger implementing partners.
The move is part of the Obama administration’s ongoing quest to win public and congressional support for turning USAID, an agency that has been widely criticized for being overstretched and underfunded, into an innovative enterprise that leverages more investment from partner countries and the private sector than it relies on outside contractors and consultants.
“That’s why our reforms are not trying to build an updated version of a traditional aid agency,” Shah proclaimed in a speech hosted by the Center for Global Development in Washington. “We are seeking to build something greater: a modern development enterprise.”