The U.S. Agency for International Development and other foreign aid donors have made procurement reform a top priority.
With so much of the work that official aid donors support being channeled through contracts, grants, and other procurement mechanisms that allow NGOs and consulting firms to implement projects, the relationship between donors and USAID on procurement is critical to achieving strategic development goals.
At the same time, communication between donors and implementing partners breaks down, and despite the reform and internal capacity building effort, the average agency procurement cycle still lasts over 500 days.
We asked Jan Auman, president of Tetra Tech International Development Services and former tri-chair of the Council of International Development Companies, about the current state of the relationship between USAID and its implementing partners.
This is the second of three excerpt from our conversation with the Tetra Tech executive. Stay tuned for more clips — and the full interview — in coming days.
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About the author
Michael Igoe@AlterIgoe
Michael Igoe is a Senior Reporter with Devex, based in Washington, D.C. He covers U.S. foreign aid, global health, climate change, and development finance. Prior to joining Devex, Michael researched water management and climate change adaptation in post-Soviet Central Asia, where he also wrote for EurasiaNet. Michael earned his bachelor's degree from Bowdoin College, where he majored in Russian, and his master’s degree from the University of Montana, where he studied international conservation and development.
