USAID finds procurement practices inhibit diversity

Officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development are promising to support organizations from marginalized communities in winning contracts, after finding that current practices act as a barrier to their inclusion. In research conducted last year, USAID found that its current acquisition and assistance mechanisms were acting as a barrier to partners from underserved communities, said Luis Rivera, the acting director of the Office of Acquisition and Assistance at the agency’s Bureau for Management, during the agency’s quarterly business forecast call Tuesday. “One procurement-related finding reported that potential partners from marginalized communities find the agency’s conventional proposal submission and evaluation practices to be cost-prohibitive, diminishing their ability to contend for our acquisition and assistance opportunities,” he said. “In recognizing our A&A [acquisition and assistance] processes — that they are creating this barrier to extend our partner base and advance DEIA [diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility] within our procurements, action to address this barrier has been established within USAID’s DEIA agency priority goal.” Partly as a result of the same findings, Rivera said, the agency had identified a need to hire more foreign service contracting officers. “We have identified … that we need 195 foreign service contracting officers,” he said. “As of today, we only have 125, approximately, who are fully operational. … We have been able to recently hire an additional 36 new contracting officers, but as many of you are aware, it will take several years of training and experience before they will become fully operational. … Even with these new hires, we are still facing a shortage of COs.” Mandeep Jangi, senior director of private sector partner experience, said during the call that the agency was taking steps to make it easier for private sector partners to engage. He said that in a recent survey, partners “reported their concerns with delays in decision-making, burdensome bureaucratic processes, and weak external communication and outreach by USAID to the private sector.” “We hear you,” he said. “These findings are being taken into consideration in the design of a new agency ‘front door’ web portal for private sector companies, both new and existing partners, as well as our broader private sector engagement efforts.” Chanel Adikuono, director of partner experience, said USAID was also working on a “whole-of-agency” system to manage relationships with partners more effectively. The call also included James Hope, director of the USAID mission in Ukraine, who outlined the steps that the agency has so far taken to deliver aid to the country. He outlined that in addition to $4 billion in humanitarian aid for Ukraine, approved by U.S. President Joe Biden last week, USAID spending in Ukraine will “increase substantially.”