WASHINGTON — For the U.S. government, investments in global development require a range of tough choices. How to spend scarce foreign assistance dollars — and with whom — is one of the toughest.
Procurement can be a thorny issue inside an industry built on partnership and cooperation. Questions about who should receive government funding, and what form that funding should take, still tend to pit different constituencies within the U.S. development community against each other.
For-profit contractors, not surprisingly, argue the U.S. Agency for International Development should channel more of its funding through contracts. Not-for-profit nongovernmental organizations tend to favor grants. How the balance between those two primary funding vehicles is struck is an issue under constant negotiation — and not infrequently, litigation.