United States Agency For International Development

USAID Forward

Under Dr. Rajiv Shah's leadership, the agency has embarked on an ambitious reform agenda called USAID Forward. The reform agenda aims to change the way the Agency does business-with new partnerships, an emphasis on innovation and a relentless focus on results. It provides USAID the opportunity to transform its agency and unleash its full potential to achieve high-impact development. The USAID Forward package includes the following reforms in key areas: implementation and procurement reform, talent management, rebuilding policy capacity, strengthening monitoring and evaluation, rebuilding budget management, science and technology, and innovation.

Implementation and Procurement Reform:
- USAID will alter its business processes by contracting with and providing grants to more and diverse local partners.
- Sets out to create partnerships and lasting conditions where aid is no longer necessary in the countries where USAID operates.
- In order to achieve this, USAID is streamlining its processes, increasing the use of small businesses, building metrics into its implementation agreements in order to achieve capacity building goals.
- Utilizes host country systems where appropriate to do so.
Talent Management:
- USAID will explore ways to leverage the enormous talent that lies within the broader USAID family of foreign and civil service officers, and Foreign Service Nationals.
- To solve the world's biggest development challenges, it will improve and streamline processes so it can quickly align its resources to support the Agency's strategic initiatives.
- Will enhance hiring and training tools, as well as provide better incentives.
- USAID must attract and retain the appropriate and best individuals who reflect global diversity and are innovative problem-solvers.
Rebuilding Policy Capacity:
- To make smart, informed decisions, USAID has created a new Bureau of Policy, Planning and Learning (PPL) that will serve as the intellectual nerve center for the Agency.
- PPL will promulgate cutting-edge creative and evidence-based development policies, which will leverage USAID's relationships with other donors.
- Utilize its strength in science and technology, and reintroduce a culture of research, knowledge-sharing and evaluation.
Strengthening Monitoring and Evaluation:
- USAID believes that learning by measuring progress is critical for high impact, sustainable development and therefore has incorporated this as an integral part of USAID's thought process from the onset of its activities.
- USAID is required to do a much better job of systematically monitoring its progress and evaluating its impact.
- This new monitoring and evaluating process will be part of these reform efforts, and USAID will be introducing it.
Rebuilding Budget Management:
- USAID is rebuilding its budget capacity to allow for increased responsibilities and capacity to manage constrained budget resources and ensure the Agency will be able to align resources against country strategies, make difficult trade-offs, and re-deploy resources toward programs that are demonstrating meaningful results.
- In consultation with the Department of State, USAID has created an Office of Budget and Resource Management in the Office of the Administrator that will provide increased responsibilities over execution of its budget.
- With these increased responsibilities, USAID will have to propose difficult funding tradeoffs in order to continue robust funding of key operational and program priorities.
Science and Technology:
- USAID has a history of transforming development through science & technology (S&T), from the successful use of oral rehydration therapies to the green revolution.
- As part of these reform efforts, USAID will upgrade its internal S&T capabilities, supporting the expansion of technical expertise and improving access to analytical tools like Geospatial Information Systems.
- It will also develop a set of Grand Challenges for Development, a framework to focus the Agency and development community on key scientific and technical barriers that limit breakthrough development progress.
- USAID will build Science and Technology capacity in developing countries through cooperative research grants, improved access to scientific knowledge, and higher education and training opportunities.
Innovation:
- USAID is putting into place a structure for fostering innovative development solutions that have a broad impact on people, wherever they may arise.
- As part of these reform efforts, USAID is creating opportunities to connect its staff to leading innovators in the private sector and academia.
- USAID has created Development Innovation Ventures, where creative solutions can be funded, piloted and brought to scale.