This document outlines USAID's Open Government Plan. It discusses increasing transparency through inventorying and publishing high-value agency data, fostering public use of information, and participating in initiatives like Data.gov and Recovery.gov. USAID aims to share its development knowledge and experiences to further its mission and empower beneficiaries. The plan also covers improving public participation and collaboration with partners.
This document provides an overview of financing trends and opportunities for achieving the 2030 Agenda. It discusses that meeting development needs will require unprecedented investments across many areas. While financing needs are high, opportunities exist to mobilize more public and private domestic and international financing sources. The development financing landscape is dynamic with many countries able to mobilize more domestic resources. New partners are emerging alongside traditional donors. Financing is also being used in more sophisticated ways through blended finance, green bonds, local currency lending, and innovative instruments. Overall, a diversity of approaches can leverage different sources of expertise and finance to support sustainable development.
Accelerating progress on transparency at the gpedc high level meeting in mex...Dr Lendy Spires
This letter asks the Administrator of USAID to support accelerating commitments to transparency at an upcoming international development meeting. It notes that while some progress has been made in publishing aid data through the International Aid Transparency Initiative, overall progress remains modest and most information is not fully transparent. The letter calls on the Administrator to improve the timely publication of comprehensive US development data according to IATI standards and ensure information is aligned with partner country systems to benefit all stakeholders. Supporting transparency commitments is important for global progress on development goals.
Final Report on Capacity Building in Monitoring and Evaluation for the Namibi...HFG Project
The technical assistance aimed to develop an M&E framework and plan for Namibia's Social Security Commission Development Fund. Key activities included:
1. Developing a matrix of indicators to measure the impact of grants and bursaries.
2. Creating a structured M&E plan with processes and timelines for data collection, roles of staff, and reporting.
3. Revising and structuring data collection tools, templates, and the Development Fund's database to systematically capture grantee information.
4. Developing an M&E training curriculum and conducting regional trainings to build capacity of project managers and accountants to monitor programs.
The assistance strengthened M&E systems, but staff
Dispatches from the Frontline: Using Pro-Poor Foresight to Influence Decision...The Rockefeller Foundation
Four of the organizations in The Rockefeller Foundation Searchlight Network—the Centre for Democracy and Development in West Africa, FORO Nacional Internacional in Peru, Noviscape in Thailand, and the South African Node of the Millennium Project in Southern Africa—were recently interviewed to reflect on their work and explore the question, "how has foresight influenced policy?" Their reflections are captured in this report.
The Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage (JLN) underwent a strategic review to assess its achievements and develop a future vision. A survey of JLN members found that the majority agreed the JLN increased their knowledge and skills, and many have applied this knowledge to accelerate progress on universal health coverage in their countries. In March 2013, representatives from JLN member countries and partner organizations met to discuss the review findings and strengthen country ownership over the JLN by revising its governance and management structures. The goal is to build on the JLN's successes and ensure its sustainability in supporting countries' efforts to expand access to quality healthcare.
In the broader context of impact investing, Program-Related Investments (PRIs) enable foundations to make investments that generate both financial return and social impact. Although PRIs have existed for more than 40 years, they are underutilized as a means of achieving development outcomes at scale. After decades of declining aid resources, there is a growing consensus among funders, philanthropists and the development community that PRIs hold great potential to significantly augment and expand the funding available to achieve more and better development outcomes for the world’s poor and vulnerable populations.
Recognizing that PRIs are a powerful tool to complement grantmaking in reaching program goals, The Rockefeller Foundation formally launched its PRI portfolio in the 1990s. Today the $25 million portfolio contains international and domestic investments in the form of loans, equity investments and guarantees. Through this growing portfolio, the Foundation enables investees to support poor and vulnerable people – by improving asset ownership, expanding access to services and creating or preserving jobs.
Recognizing the need to develop an evidence base of what does and does not work in PRIs, and as part of the Foundation’s commitment to learning and accountability, the Foundation’s Evaluation Office in collaboration with the Foundation’s PRI Team asked Arabella Advisors to evaluate the relevance, effectiveness and impact of the Foundation’s PRI Portfolio. This independent evaluation’s results draw on extensive research, field visits to investees in Asia, Africa and the US, and in-depth interviews
with experts and peer investors that have provided valuable insights, observations and recommendations aimed at strengthening the Foundation’s use of PRIs to achieve social impact.
The Foundation has learned a great deal from this evaluation. While it has been gratifying to see evidence of the benefits of many of the individual PRIs, it is sobering to see the impact limitations of a PRI portfolio that operates without an overarching strategy.
Danish multilateral development cooperation analysisDr Lendy Spires
This document analyzes Denmark's multilateral development cooperation in light of its strategy for development cooperation. It assesses 17 multilateral organizations based on their organizational effectiveness and strategic relevance to Danish priorities. Overall, the organizations are seen as both effective and relevant to Danish priorities. However, perceptions from the country level are more mixed, with some organizations performing better than others. Denmark provides most of its funding as core contributions but earmarked funding increased in recent years. The analysis informs Denmark's approach to "New Multilateralism," which aims to strengthen multilateral systems and promote Danish policy objectives through focused engagement in priority areas using a strategic toolbox. The ultimate goals are to reduce poverty and promote human rights.
This document proposes establishing a Women, Peace and Security Global Acceleration Instrument (WPS-GAI) to accelerate implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and promote coherence in peace and security efforts. It would provide flexible funding and technical assistance to support: 1) women's participation in conflict resolution and post-conflict processes, 2) innovative local practices, and 3) capacity building for women's organizations. A steering committee with UN, donor, and civil society representatives would oversee the WPS-GAI to directly fund government and civil society initiatives focused on gender equality and women's empowerment in peace and security.
This document provides an overview of financing trends and opportunities for achieving the 2030 Agenda. It discusses that meeting development needs will require unprecedented investments across many areas. While financing needs are high, opportunities exist to mobilize more public and private domestic and international financing sources. The development financing landscape is dynamic with many countries able to mobilize more domestic resources. New partners are emerging alongside traditional donors. Financing is also being used in more sophisticated ways through blended finance, green bonds, local currency lending, and innovative instruments. Overall, a diversity of approaches can leverage different sources of expertise and finance to support sustainable development.
Accelerating progress on transparency at the gpedc high level meeting in mex...Dr Lendy Spires
This letter asks the Administrator of USAID to support accelerating commitments to transparency at an upcoming international development meeting. It notes that while some progress has been made in publishing aid data through the International Aid Transparency Initiative, overall progress remains modest and most information is not fully transparent. The letter calls on the Administrator to improve the timely publication of comprehensive US development data according to IATI standards and ensure information is aligned with partner country systems to benefit all stakeholders. Supporting transparency commitments is important for global progress on development goals.
Final Report on Capacity Building in Monitoring and Evaluation for the Namibi...HFG Project
The technical assistance aimed to develop an M&E framework and plan for Namibia's Social Security Commission Development Fund. Key activities included:
1. Developing a matrix of indicators to measure the impact of grants and bursaries.
2. Creating a structured M&E plan with processes and timelines for data collection, roles of staff, and reporting.
3. Revising and structuring data collection tools, templates, and the Development Fund's database to systematically capture grantee information.
4. Developing an M&E training curriculum and conducting regional trainings to build capacity of project managers and accountants to monitor programs.
The assistance strengthened M&E systems, but staff
Dispatches from the Frontline: Using Pro-Poor Foresight to Influence Decision...The Rockefeller Foundation
Four of the organizations in The Rockefeller Foundation Searchlight Network—the Centre for Democracy and Development in West Africa, FORO Nacional Internacional in Peru, Noviscape in Thailand, and the South African Node of the Millennium Project in Southern Africa—were recently interviewed to reflect on their work and explore the question, "how has foresight influenced policy?" Their reflections are captured in this report.
The Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage (JLN) underwent a strategic review to assess its achievements and develop a future vision. A survey of JLN members found that the majority agreed the JLN increased their knowledge and skills, and many have applied this knowledge to accelerate progress on universal health coverage in their countries. In March 2013, representatives from JLN member countries and partner organizations met to discuss the review findings and strengthen country ownership over the JLN by revising its governance and management structures. The goal is to build on the JLN's successes and ensure its sustainability in supporting countries' efforts to expand access to quality healthcare.
In the broader context of impact investing, Program-Related Investments (PRIs) enable foundations to make investments that generate both financial return and social impact. Although PRIs have existed for more than 40 years, they are underutilized as a means of achieving development outcomes at scale. After decades of declining aid resources, there is a growing consensus among funders, philanthropists and the development community that PRIs hold great potential to significantly augment and expand the funding available to achieve more and better development outcomes for the world’s poor and vulnerable populations.
Recognizing that PRIs are a powerful tool to complement grantmaking in reaching program goals, The Rockefeller Foundation formally launched its PRI portfolio in the 1990s. Today the $25 million portfolio contains international and domestic investments in the form of loans, equity investments and guarantees. Through this growing portfolio, the Foundation enables investees to support poor and vulnerable people – by improving asset ownership, expanding access to services and creating or preserving jobs.
Recognizing the need to develop an evidence base of what does and does not work in PRIs, and as part of the Foundation’s commitment to learning and accountability, the Foundation’s Evaluation Office in collaboration with the Foundation’s PRI Team asked Arabella Advisors to evaluate the relevance, effectiveness and impact of the Foundation’s PRI Portfolio. This independent evaluation’s results draw on extensive research, field visits to investees in Asia, Africa and the US, and in-depth interviews
with experts and peer investors that have provided valuable insights, observations and recommendations aimed at strengthening the Foundation’s use of PRIs to achieve social impact.
The Foundation has learned a great deal from this evaluation. While it has been gratifying to see evidence of the benefits of many of the individual PRIs, it is sobering to see the impact limitations of a PRI portfolio that operates without an overarching strategy.
Danish multilateral development cooperation analysisDr Lendy Spires
This document analyzes Denmark's multilateral development cooperation in light of its strategy for development cooperation. It assesses 17 multilateral organizations based on their organizational effectiveness and strategic relevance to Danish priorities. Overall, the organizations are seen as both effective and relevant to Danish priorities. However, perceptions from the country level are more mixed, with some organizations performing better than others. Denmark provides most of its funding as core contributions but earmarked funding increased in recent years. The analysis informs Denmark's approach to "New Multilateralism," which aims to strengthen multilateral systems and promote Danish policy objectives through focused engagement in priority areas using a strategic toolbox. The ultimate goals are to reduce poverty and promote human rights.
This document proposes establishing a Women, Peace and Security Global Acceleration Instrument (WPS-GAI) to accelerate implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and promote coherence in peace and security efforts. It would provide flexible funding and technical assistance to support: 1) women's participation in conflict resolution and post-conflict processes, 2) innovative local practices, and 3) capacity building for women's organizations. A steering committee with UN, donor, and civil society representatives would oversee the WPS-GAI to directly fund government and civil society initiatives focused on gender equality and women's empowerment in peace and security.
This report presents the findings of an evaluation commissioned by the Evaluation Office of the Rockefeller Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation Initiative on Equitable and Sustainable Transportation (TRA). The evaluation, conducted by TCC Group from October 2011 to April 2012, focused principally on efforts to build state capacity and attain state and regional policy changes. An evaluation of Foundation efforts focused on federal transportation reform was completed in early 2012.
This report touches on the relationship between some of the state strategy work and its relationship to federal reform.
The transportation initiative team articulated four key evaluation questions:
• What is working in the state strategy?
• What are promising practices that have evolved from the state grants?
• What should next steps be for the state evaluation?
• What has been missed by our grantmaking strategy?
Rebuild by Design has established a small global working group on the design and politics of resiliency. This group is looking at—and assisting in shaping—how cities and regions around the world incorporate design into resiliency approaches, initiatives, and policy. Its first collective task is a collection of essays addressing two questions: First, identifying how design thinking is being incorporated and translated into political processes and understanding the obstacles that prevent design insights from informing policy practices. Second, collecting ideas for improving these processes, so that design and politics might be better integrated.
This initial group will form the core of a larger network that we aim to build over the long run. Meanwhile, are engaging directly with existing programs and initiatives. We will not duplicate efforts, but instead use this global working group to ignite broader discussions and further collaborations.
This synthesis review, prepared with financial support from the Rockefeller Foundation,
is a companion report to the evaluation of the Foundation’s work on African
Agriculture Resilience (AAR) and Carbon for Poverty Reduction (CPR). The synthesis
review seeks to identify lessons from a broad range of efforts to build climate resilient
agriculture and reduce poverty through carbon markets in Africa. The Rockefeller
Foundation and its grantees and partners are interested in learning not only from the
Foundation’s work but from the work of others, in order to gain a better understanding
of what constitutes successful activities for building climate resilient agriculture
and what works and does not work in carbon projects for poverty reduction in the
agricultural sector.
Agriculture continues to play a key role in the formal economies and in sustaining
local livelihoods in Africa. Climate change, in combination with widespread levels of
poverty and food insecurity, could potentially have large impacts on the well-being of
smallholder farmers and economic growth in the region. Climate resilient agricultural
development and carbon markets for poverty reduction are rapidly emerging as key
issues for development policy and practice. In ensuring that African agriculture is
resilient to the changing climate, it has become imperative to protect livelihoods and
to reduce food insecurity. At the same time, the emerging market for carbon may offer
new possibilities for agriculture to benefit from land use management practices that
sequester carbon, which could, in turn, contribute to poverty reduction.
The report first briefly introduces current debates surrounding AAR and CPR. In spite
of wide agreement about the need for AAR and CPR efforts in the region, determining
the best ways to approach them remains a contentious and uncertain challenge. The
report also examines ongoing AAR- and CPR-type work in the region, based on a rapid
desk-based screening of existing programs and projects, and on analyses available in
the public domain. Tables 1 and 2 summarize reviewed practices, key findings and
early lessons for reviewed adaptation and carbon activities, respectively.
This document provides an overview of the Promoting Active Citizen Engagement (PACE) grants program. It summarizes the following key points:
1) PACE is a USAID-funded program aimed at strengthening civil society in Lebanon through civic advocacy, participation, and developing policy alternatives in response to citizen concerns. It provides grants and technical assistance to Lebanese civil society organizations.
2) There are three main types of grants available through PACE: Fixed Obligation Grants, Simplified Grants, and In-Kind Grants. Grant amounts range from $5,000 to $150,000 depending on the type.
3) To be eligible for a PACE grant, organizations must be
The official report of the Expert Group Meeting (EGM) "Developing Institutional Capacities of Public Administration for the Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in Post Conflict and Crisis Situations: Challenges, Best Practices, and Lessons Learned in Preparedness, Prevention, and Reconstruction " is now available for viewing and download. The EGM was held in June 2010 at
United Nations Headquarters, New York.
Peterborough Social Impact Bond Reduces Reoffending by 8.4%; Investors on Cou...The Rockefeller Foundation
Through a program related investment (PRI), The Rockefeller Foundation supported the Peterborough social impact bond (SIB) pilot aimed at reducing prisoner recidivism—and now, four years later, we can point to tangible success for this new innovative finance mechanism. The first ever SIB project reduced reoffending by 8.4 percent when compared to a control group. While a reduction of 10 percent was needed to trigger immediate repayment to investors, the performance of this first group indicates that investors are on track to receive positive returns in 2016. If the reduction in reoffending remains above 7.5 percent, the Ministry of Justice will make payments to investors.
This document provides an overview of approaches to quantifying media development and measuring the health of the media sector. It discusses several types of indicators used: indexes based on expert assessment of the legal, political, and economic environment for media; composite indexes measuring infrastructure, accessibility, and pluralism; quantitative data on metrics like press circulation or internet usage; and data on donor funding of media development projects. It notes some gaps in existing measures, particularly around assessing the effectiveness of media reach and quality. The document serves as an introduction to data available on the Media Map Project website for analyzing relationships between media and development.
This document provides guidance on planning projects through the project cycle. It discusses conducting a baseline study and situational analysis to understand the context and identify resources. A needs assessment follows to determine what issues to address. The design phase involves setting goals and objectives, feasibility studies, and planning activities. Implementation includes monitoring progress. Evaluation assesses the project outcomes and impact. Gender considerations, environmental impacts, and sustainability are important to integrate at all stages of the project cycle.
Sustaining the HIV and AIDS Response in Grenada: Investment Case BriefHFG Project
The HIV/AIDS program in Grenada is at a turning point, facing both opportunities to expand and target its efforts and threats of decreasing funding. As its National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan awaits ratification, the country must consider whether and how to implement strategic priorities related to controlling and mitigating the effects of the epidemic. Critical decisions must be made about programming and budgeting for the HIV response in the coming years.
This brief provides analytic inputs to help Grenada develop an “investment case” for its HIV/AIDS program. The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) have encouraged the small-island countries of the eastern Caribbean to develop HIV investment cases, which are reports that aim to help program leaders target investments on the interventions and populations where they will have maximum impact, given limited resources (UNAIDS 2012). The priorities and analysis outlined in this brief will also inform a multi-country regional application to the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria.
UNOPS provides concise summaries of its work in Latin America and the Caribbean in 3 sentences or less:
UNOPS supports public sector partners in the region through project management and procurement services, helping to strengthen governance and ensure resources are used efficiently and transparently to reduce inequalities. Examples of recent projects include modernizing procurement systems in Honduras and Jalisco, Mexico; constructing hospitals in Nicaragua and Haiti; and making infrastructure projects in countries like Uruguay, Peru, El Salvador, and Costa Rica more resilient. UNOPS focuses on sustainability, transparency, and building local capacity to support countries' development goals.
Freshwater mussel shells were studied to determine if their chemistry could serve as a proxy for past river conditions. Monitoring experiments showed that the δ18O and δ13C levels in freshwater mussel shells precipitated in equilibrium with ambient river water. Comparison of predicted and measured δ18O values in shells indicated mussel growth began at 9.5°C and ceased at 14.6°C. While δ18O in shells tracked river water values, more research is needed to model intra-seasonal δ13C patterns. Freshwater mussel shells thus preserve a record of past river chemistry and temperature variations.
This recipe is for Lobster Rice, which includes lobster, squid, mussels, clams, tomatoes, onion, garlic, rice, and parsley. The squid and lobster are sautéed in olive oil before adding the rice. Mussel and clam water is used to cook the rice for 20 minutes, along with the shellfish. Before serving, mussels and parsley are stirred into the rice. The finished dish has the taste of the sea in every bite.
Hexion Specialty Chemicals reported financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2007. Revenue increased 13% in the fourth quarter and 12% for the fiscal year. Operating income was $21 million for the quarter, impacted by $40 million of asset impairments and manufacturing issues, and $302 million for the fiscal year, up 22% excluding gains. Segment EBITDA increased 2% for the quarter to $125 million and 17% for the fiscal year to $611 million. Hexion remains on track to achieve $175 million in targeted synergies and had a strong liquidity position at year-end.
Primex Conference: Integrating Mobile and PrintMobileAnthem
The document discusses integrating mobile and print marketing. It provides background on mobile marketing and insights about consumer mobile usage. The agenda includes introducing mobile marketing strategies and frameworks. It discusses various mobile technologies that can be integrated with print, such as texting, 2D codes, GPS, and augmented reality. Example campaigns are described that integrated print with mobile technologies like texting, video, and games. The goal is to generate ideas for combining mobile and print marketing effectively.
This document provides guidance for developing wastewater discharge permits under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program. It was developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Water to address NPDES permit development requirements under the Clean Water Act (CWA) and EPA regulations. The guidance is intended to assist NPDES permitting authorities but does not substitute for or modify CWA or regulatory requirements.
Century longmai m card cpk contactless pki white paper deploy contactless d...Century Longmai Technology
The document summarizes mCard CPK, a contactless smart card that functions as both a contactless MIFARE card and a smartcard-based USB token. It has applications in public transport for fare payment, secure electronic healthcare for identity authentication and access control, and eCampus solutions for campus payments and access management. The card offers features like digital signatures, encryption, and secure online transactions. It is lightweight, portable, and supports Windows, Linux and Mac environments.
The three destinations that rank among the author's favorites in Kazakhstan are:
1. The Altai Mountains in the far northeast of the country, known for their forests, villages, and scenic beauty.
2. Astana's Pyramid of Peace and modern buildings celebrating the city's new status as capital.
3. Lake Korgalzhyn, over 1,500m above sea level, home to herds of goats and deer and the basis for an intriguing spa treatment program.
The world’s deepest hydrothermal vents: An analog for Europa?Emma Versteegh
The document discusses the deepest known hydrothermal vents located at the Mid-Cayman Rise as an analog for possible vents on Europa. Life can exist without sunlight by using chemosynthesis rather than photosynthesis, as seen at deep sea vents. Stable isotopes of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur can be used to study the food web around hydrothermal vents and determine what organisms eat. Ongoing work includes using stable isotopes to study whether vent organisms on Earth rely on photosynthetic carbon and to help understand what type of life may exist on Europa's ocean.
This document summarizes research on hydrothermal vent ecosystems and the shrimp species Rimicaris hybisae. Stable isotope analyses found that dense and sparse populations of R. hybisae rely on different food sources. Dense shrimp mainly eat chemoautotrophic bacteria hosted on their gills, while sparse shrimp supplement their diet with scavenging of other crustaceans and grazing of microbes. Fatty acid signatures also indicate that the shrimp derive most of their carbon from chemoautotrophic bacteria, with a minor contribution from photosynthetic sources during their pelagic larval stage. This research improves understanding of carbon cycling and food webs in vent ecosystems.
This document outlines the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Open Government Plan. The plan details initiatives to increase transparency, encourage public engagement, and drive collaboration through open government. Key initiatives include establishing an innovation lab, utilizing predictive analytics to combat homelessness, creating a business practices exchange for housing providers, and making regulations and data more accessible online. The plan aims to strengthen HUD's mission and better serve the public through openness, participation, and cooperation.
2015 09-wioa-playbook-for-creating-effective-state-plans - copyRob Wilson
This document provides recommendations for states to create effective state plans under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). It recommends that states use broad stakeholder engagement throughout the planning process to develop plans that are supported by those implementing and benefiting from the plans. The document focuses on how state plans can establish strategies for sector partnerships, career pathways, cross-agency data and measurement, and job-driven investments as emphasized by WIOA. States are encouraged to clearly describe their vision, goals, and action steps for closing skill gaps and meeting business needs through an integrated workforce system.
This report presents the findings of an evaluation commissioned by the Evaluation Office of the Rockefeller Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation Initiative on Equitable and Sustainable Transportation (TRA). The evaluation, conducted by TCC Group from October 2011 to April 2012, focused principally on efforts to build state capacity and attain state and regional policy changes. An evaluation of Foundation efforts focused on federal transportation reform was completed in early 2012.
This report touches on the relationship between some of the state strategy work and its relationship to federal reform.
The transportation initiative team articulated four key evaluation questions:
• What is working in the state strategy?
• What are promising practices that have evolved from the state grants?
• What should next steps be for the state evaluation?
• What has been missed by our grantmaking strategy?
Rebuild by Design has established a small global working group on the design and politics of resiliency. This group is looking at—and assisting in shaping—how cities and regions around the world incorporate design into resiliency approaches, initiatives, and policy. Its first collective task is a collection of essays addressing two questions: First, identifying how design thinking is being incorporated and translated into political processes and understanding the obstacles that prevent design insights from informing policy practices. Second, collecting ideas for improving these processes, so that design and politics might be better integrated.
This initial group will form the core of a larger network that we aim to build over the long run. Meanwhile, are engaging directly with existing programs and initiatives. We will not duplicate efforts, but instead use this global working group to ignite broader discussions and further collaborations.
This synthesis review, prepared with financial support from the Rockefeller Foundation,
is a companion report to the evaluation of the Foundation’s work on African
Agriculture Resilience (AAR) and Carbon for Poverty Reduction (CPR). The synthesis
review seeks to identify lessons from a broad range of efforts to build climate resilient
agriculture and reduce poverty through carbon markets in Africa. The Rockefeller
Foundation and its grantees and partners are interested in learning not only from the
Foundation’s work but from the work of others, in order to gain a better understanding
of what constitutes successful activities for building climate resilient agriculture
and what works and does not work in carbon projects for poverty reduction in the
agricultural sector.
Agriculture continues to play a key role in the formal economies and in sustaining
local livelihoods in Africa. Climate change, in combination with widespread levels of
poverty and food insecurity, could potentially have large impacts on the well-being of
smallholder farmers and economic growth in the region. Climate resilient agricultural
development and carbon markets for poverty reduction are rapidly emerging as key
issues for development policy and practice. In ensuring that African agriculture is
resilient to the changing climate, it has become imperative to protect livelihoods and
to reduce food insecurity. At the same time, the emerging market for carbon may offer
new possibilities for agriculture to benefit from land use management practices that
sequester carbon, which could, in turn, contribute to poverty reduction.
The report first briefly introduces current debates surrounding AAR and CPR. In spite
of wide agreement about the need for AAR and CPR efforts in the region, determining
the best ways to approach them remains a contentious and uncertain challenge. The
report also examines ongoing AAR- and CPR-type work in the region, based on a rapid
desk-based screening of existing programs and projects, and on analyses available in
the public domain. Tables 1 and 2 summarize reviewed practices, key findings and
early lessons for reviewed adaptation and carbon activities, respectively.
This document provides an overview of the Promoting Active Citizen Engagement (PACE) grants program. It summarizes the following key points:
1) PACE is a USAID-funded program aimed at strengthening civil society in Lebanon through civic advocacy, participation, and developing policy alternatives in response to citizen concerns. It provides grants and technical assistance to Lebanese civil society organizations.
2) There are three main types of grants available through PACE: Fixed Obligation Grants, Simplified Grants, and In-Kind Grants. Grant amounts range from $5,000 to $150,000 depending on the type.
3) To be eligible for a PACE grant, organizations must be
The official report of the Expert Group Meeting (EGM) "Developing Institutional Capacities of Public Administration for the Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in Post Conflict and Crisis Situations: Challenges, Best Practices, and Lessons Learned in Preparedness, Prevention, and Reconstruction " is now available for viewing and download. The EGM was held in June 2010 at
United Nations Headquarters, New York.
Peterborough Social Impact Bond Reduces Reoffending by 8.4%; Investors on Cou...The Rockefeller Foundation
Through a program related investment (PRI), The Rockefeller Foundation supported the Peterborough social impact bond (SIB) pilot aimed at reducing prisoner recidivism—and now, four years later, we can point to tangible success for this new innovative finance mechanism. The first ever SIB project reduced reoffending by 8.4 percent when compared to a control group. While a reduction of 10 percent was needed to trigger immediate repayment to investors, the performance of this first group indicates that investors are on track to receive positive returns in 2016. If the reduction in reoffending remains above 7.5 percent, the Ministry of Justice will make payments to investors.
This document provides an overview of approaches to quantifying media development and measuring the health of the media sector. It discusses several types of indicators used: indexes based on expert assessment of the legal, political, and economic environment for media; composite indexes measuring infrastructure, accessibility, and pluralism; quantitative data on metrics like press circulation or internet usage; and data on donor funding of media development projects. It notes some gaps in existing measures, particularly around assessing the effectiveness of media reach and quality. The document serves as an introduction to data available on the Media Map Project website for analyzing relationships between media and development.
This document provides guidance on planning projects through the project cycle. It discusses conducting a baseline study and situational analysis to understand the context and identify resources. A needs assessment follows to determine what issues to address. The design phase involves setting goals and objectives, feasibility studies, and planning activities. Implementation includes monitoring progress. Evaluation assesses the project outcomes and impact. Gender considerations, environmental impacts, and sustainability are important to integrate at all stages of the project cycle.
Sustaining the HIV and AIDS Response in Grenada: Investment Case BriefHFG Project
The HIV/AIDS program in Grenada is at a turning point, facing both opportunities to expand and target its efforts and threats of decreasing funding. As its National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan awaits ratification, the country must consider whether and how to implement strategic priorities related to controlling and mitigating the effects of the epidemic. Critical decisions must be made about programming and budgeting for the HIV response in the coming years.
This brief provides analytic inputs to help Grenada develop an “investment case” for its HIV/AIDS program. The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) have encouraged the small-island countries of the eastern Caribbean to develop HIV investment cases, which are reports that aim to help program leaders target investments on the interventions and populations where they will have maximum impact, given limited resources (UNAIDS 2012). The priorities and analysis outlined in this brief will also inform a multi-country regional application to the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria.
UNOPS provides concise summaries of its work in Latin America and the Caribbean in 3 sentences or less:
UNOPS supports public sector partners in the region through project management and procurement services, helping to strengthen governance and ensure resources are used efficiently and transparently to reduce inequalities. Examples of recent projects include modernizing procurement systems in Honduras and Jalisco, Mexico; constructing hospitals in Nicaragua and Haiti; and making infrastructure projects in countries like Uruguay, Peru, El Salvador, and Costa Rica more resilient. UNOPS focuses on sustainability, transparency, and building local capacity to support countries' development goals.
Freshwater mussel shells were studied to determine if their chemistry could serve as a proxy for past river conditions. Monitoring experiments showed that the δ18O and δ13C levels in freshwater mussel shells precipitated in equilibrium with ambient river water. Comparison of predicted and measured δ18O values in shells indicated mussel growth began at 9.5°C and ceased at 14.6°C. While δ18O in shells tracked river water values, more research is needed to model intra-seasonal δ13C patterns. Freshwater mussel shells thus preserve a record of past river chemistry and temperature variations.
This recipe is for Lobster Rice, which includes lobster, squid, mussels, clams, tomatoes, onion, garlic, rice, and parsley. The squid and lobster are sautéed in olive oil before adding the rice. Mussel and clam water is used to cook the rice for 20 minutes, along with the shellfish. Before serving, mussels and parsley are stirred into the rice. The finished dish has the taste of the sea in every bite.
Hexion Specialty Chemicals reported financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2007. Revenue increased 13% in the fourth quarter and 12% for the fiscal year. Operating income was $21 million for the quarter, impacted by $40 million of asset impairments and manufacturing issues, and $302 million for the fiscal year, up 22% excluding gains. Segment EBITDA increased 2% for the quarter to $125 million and 17% for the fiscal year to $611 million. Hexion remains on track to achieve $175 million in targeted synergies and had a strong liquidity position at year-end.
Primex Conference: Integrating Mobile and PrintMobileAnthem
The document discusses integrating mobile and print marketing. It provides background on mobile marketing and insights about consumer mobile usage. The agenda includes introducing mobile marketing strategies and frameworks. It discusses various mobile technologies that can be integrated with print, such as texting, 2D codes, GPS, and augmented reality. Example campaigns are described that integrated print with mobile technologies like texting, video, and games. The goal is to generate ideas for combining mobile and print marketing effectively.
This document provides guidance for developing wastewater discharge permits under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program. It was developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Water to address NPDES permit development requirements under the Clean Water Act (CWA) and EPA regulations. The guidance is intended to assist NPDES permitting authorities but does not substitute for or modify CWA or regulatory requirements.
Century longmai m card cpk contactless pki white paper deploy contactless d...Century Longmai Technology
The document summarizes mCard CPK, a contactless smart card that functions as both a contactless MIFARE card and a smartcard-based USB token. It has applications in public transport for fare payment, secure electronic healthcare for identity authentication and access control, and eCampus solutions for campus payments and access management. The card offers features like digital signatures, encryption, and secure online transactions. It is lightweight, portable, and supports Windows, Linux and Mac environments.
The three destinations that rank among the author's favorites in Kazakhstan are:
1. The Altai Mountains in the far northeast of the country, known for their forests, villages, and scenic beauty.
2. Astana's Pyramid of Peace and modern buildings celebrating the city's new status as capital.
3. Lake Korgalzhyn, over 1,500m above sea level, home to herds of goats and deer and the basis for an intriguing spa treatment program.
The world’s deepest hydrothermal vents: An analog for Europa?Emma Versteegh
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This document summarizes research on hydrothermal vent ecosystems and the shrimp species Rimicaris hybisae. Stable isotope analyses found that dense and sparse populations of R. hybisae rely on different food sources. Dense shrimp mainly eat chemoautotrophic bacteria hosted on their gills, while sparse shrimp supplement their diet with scavenging of other crustaceans and grazing of microbes. Fatty acid signatures also indicate that the shrimp derive most of their carbon from chemoautotrophic bacteria, with a minor contribution from photosynthetic sources during their pelagic larval stage. This research improves understanding of carbon cycling and food webs in vent ecosystems.
This document outlines the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Open Government Plan. The plan details initiatives to increase transparency, encourage public engagement, and drive collaboration through open government. Key initiatives include establishing an innovation lab, utilizing predictive analytics to combat homelessness, creating a business practices exchange for housing providers, and making regulations and data more accessible online. The plan aims to strengthen HUD's mission and better serve the public through openness, participation, and cooperation.
2015 09-wioa-playbook-for-creating-effective-state-plans - copyRob Wilson
This document provides recommendations for states to create effective state plans under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). It recommends that states use broad stakeholder engagement throughout the planning process to develop plans that are supported by those implementing and benefiting from the plans. The document focuses on how state plans can establish strategies for sector partnerships, career pathways, cross-agency data and measurement, and job-driven investments as emphasized by WIOA. States are encouraged to clearly describe their vision, goals, and action steps for closing skill gaps and meeting business needs through an integrated workforce system.
The Collaborative Leadership for Development ApproachGhani Kolli
Leadership plays an important role in development and is a complement to
financing and technical solutions. The 2017 World Development Report on Governance and
the Law has highlighted how increased commitment, coordination, and cooperation increases
effectiveness of policies and the delivery of services to citizens. It also demonstrated how
power asymmetries can undermine implementation of policy reform given that those with
power can exclude critical stakeholders from a change process.
This document provides definitions for key terms related to tracking and ensuring accountability for the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It includes definitions for concepts like accountability, governance, human rights, participation, transparency, and youth empowerment. It also defines organizations and initiatives involved in implementing and monitoring the SDGs like the High Level Political Forum and the Youth Governance and Accountability Task Team. The glossary is included in a toolkit to help young people develop accountability frameworks for tracking SDG progress.
About the ODI slides + notes for potential investors theODI
v2015-09-17
An overview of the ODI's vision, team, progress and ambition in slide and notes format, for use by any potential grant or project investors, or by those interested in the ODI and its plans.
The document outlines the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Open Government Plan. Key initiatives include the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services launching a dashboard to visualize Medicare spending data and releasing Medicare claims files. The Food and Drug Administration is pursuing a Transparency Initiative and launching a performance management system. HHS will prioritize and publish additional data sets, host challenges for applications using the data, and measure the success of open government efforts. The plan aims to advance transparency, public participation, and collaboration across HHS agencies.
This is the introduction to 'Accountability in Action', a training presentation from Restless Development to train young people to become Accountability Advocates.
Use this guide to inspire young people to group together, to organise and to hold their governments and power-holders to account.
The US National Advisory Board (NAB) on Impact Investing released its report of policy recommendations to mainstream impact investing within the United States at a White House event this morning. The initiative, focused on promoting public and private innovation and entrepreneurship in solving the United States’ greatest social challenges, addresses the most catalytic changes needed from a policy standpoint. The report, Private Capital, Public Good: How Smart Federal Policy Can Galvanize Impact Investing — and Why It’s Urgent, has been made public online at www.NABimpactinvesting.org.
About the NAB
The US National Advisory Board (NAB) to the Global Social Impact Investment Taskforce aims to catalyze the development of the global social impact investment market. It was established following the June 2013 G8 Social Impact Investment Forum in London. The NAB was formed to focus on the US domestic policy agenda. The NAB is comprised of 27 thought leaders, including private investors, entrepreneurs, foundations, academics, impact-oriented organizations, nonprofits, and intermediaries.
DESA's capacity development strategy focuses on partnering with countries to integrate global development knowledge into their national development strategies. It identifies five priority areas for its capacity development work: 1) strengthening statistical capacities and MDG monitoring, 2) macroeconomic advisory services and tax cooperation, 3) social integration and inclusion of vulnerable groups, 4) sustainable development including climate change and forests, and 5) public administration and ICT. DESA provides expertise, training, knowledge sharing, and some funding to assist countries in these areas and achieve internationally agreed development goals.
Open data barometer global report - 2nd edition yann le gigan
This document provides an introduction and overview of the Open Data Barometer report. The report analyzes global trends in open data by assessing countries' readiness, implementation, and impact of open data initiatives. It finds that while open data initiatives have spread rapidly, more work is needed to support data-enabled democracy worldwide and ensure data access, skills, and freedoms are distributed equitably. The report evaluates 86 countries across different clusters and provides recommendations for tailoring open data strategies based on countries' varying capacities and needs. It aims to contribute to understanding challenges and opportunities in realizing open data's potential to increase transparency, empower citizens, and inspire innovation.
The Open Data Barometer aims to uncover the true prevalence and impact of open data initiatives around the world. It analyses global trends, and provides comparative data on countries and regions via an in-depth methodology combining contextual data, technical assessments and secondary indicators to explore multiple dimensions of open data readiness, implementation and impact.
This is the second edition of the Open Data Barometer, completing a two-year pilot of the Barometer methodology and providing data for comparative research. This report is just one expression of the Barometer, for which full data is also available, supporting secondary research into the progression of open data policies and practices across the world.
The Open Data Barometer forms part of the World Wide Web Foundation’s work on common assessment methods for open data.
Progress since busan on inclusive developmentDr Lendy Spires
This document discusses progress on inclusive development since the 2011 Busan Partnership Agreement (BPa). It defines inclusive development as involving the inclusion of voices, actions, and benefits for all stakeholders in development processes and outcomes. Some progress has been made in establishing multi-stakeholder forums and including more voices, but meaningful inclusion of civil society remains a challenge in many places. Transparency around development cooperation has improved, but more work is needed to fully achieve inclusive development as envisioned in the BPa.
This document discusses fundraising opportunities through United Nations programs and agencies. It outlines that Shuvam Consultancies & Services Pvt. Ltd. aims to bring a holistic long-term approach to development through partnerships between governments, donors, civil society, and the private sector. It also describes several UN funding agencies like UNICEF, UNIFEM, and UNCDF that provide funding for private projects, as well as the eligibility criteria and assessment process for obtaining UN funding.
This document discusses fundraising opportunities through United Nations programs and agencies. It outlines that Shuvam Consultancies & Services Pvt. Ltd. aims to bring a holistic long-term approach to development through partnerships between governments, donors, civil society, and the private sector. It also describes several UN funding agencies like UNICEF, UNIFEM, and UNCDF that provide funding for private projects, as well as the eligibility criteria and assessment process for obtaining UN funding.
Since its establishment, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) has been directing, administering, and providing DoD-wide guidance for the execution of programs for which it is responsible. This role is made difficult by the rapidly changing international environment, by resource scarcity, and by the overall complexity of the Security Cooperation community (SCC). It requires a whole-of-government approach to building capacities with our partners that support U.S. interests. DSCA Vision 2020 lays out a plan for DSCA to enable such an approach by the Security Cooperation enterprise (SCE), focusing on three interlocking areas: (1) synchronizing security cooperation activities, (2) meeting customer expectations, and (3) ensuring the effective and efficient use of community resources.
RSGB East young driver rider intervention survey 2015David Frost
This document provides a review and summary of existing road safety interventions targeted at young drivers and riders in the Eastern Region of Road Safety GB (RSGB East). It finds that while most local authorities deliver some programs, resources are limited due to austerity measures. Common issues are identified with interventions, such as marketing, evaluation, and coordination with schools and partners. Opportunities for pooling resources across the region are discussed. The document provides an overview of current interventions and makes recommendations to address issues and maximize the impact of future programs through better planning, evaluation, and regional cooperation.
This document proposes a cloud-based project management system called the Glocal Program
Management System (GPMS) that facilitates monitoring and evaluation of complex projects involving
multiple stakeholders across different levels from local to global. It argues that to achieve ambitious goals
like the UN's Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, project management needs to go beyond individual
enterprises and engage all stakeholders on a single platform with shared access to validated data in real-
time. The document introduces Transportal, an Indian citizen engagement platform, as an example of an
ICT system that can operate across organizations and jurisdictions to improve transparency, accountability
and governance when managing large-scale, long-term programs.
This paper on citizen engagement in public funded projects and programs won the Best Paper award in PMI India's National Conference 2016 held at Mumbai. Public policy governance and corporate governance have to go beyond the enterprise to embrace all stakeholders and even the public at large to ensure efficient deliveries of goods, services and consultancies. Only by doing this, better returns on investments can be ensured. To cite an example, in order to ensure that Sustainable Development Goals are actually achieved globally by 2030, it is necessary to bring all stakeholders to the same platform to responsibly share information relating to the programs aimed at achieving the 17 SDGs. All the stakeholders need to access the same validated data, to facilitate facts based decisions at each level- global to local. Timely interventions are possible only when diverse data is processed, collated and analysed and made available in real time, by generation of appropriate alerts and delegation of tasks. We need to build TEAM one world to achieve success. We need to focus on public good rather than private gains. How the state of art ICT infrastructure of cloud computing, mobile apps etc can be fine tuned to deliver complex programs and projects, involving glocal stakeholders is proposed to be demonstrated live using the in house built TRANSPORTAL.
Review of evidence progress on civil society related commitments of the busan...Dr Lendy Spires
The document provides an overview of evidence on progress made since the Busan High Level Forum in 2011 on commitments related to civil society. It covers: democratic ownership and inclusive development partnerships; the enabling environment for civil society; donor support to and engagement with civil society; and CSO development effectiveness.
On democratic ownership, there is evidence that multi-stakeholder approaches are growing at the global level, such as with the GPEDC, but quality varies at country level. For inclusive partnerships, findings suggest the concept of ownership is still often conflated with alignment to government priorities rather than CSO leadership.
Regarding the enabling environment, restrictions on CSOs appear to be continuing or increasing in some countries. Evidence
How is GovLoop Transforming Learning for Government?GovLoop
This document summarizes GovLoop projects in 2015 that transformed learning for government. It describes projects with the Federal Highway Administration, Small Business Administration, Federal Executive Institute, Young Government Leaders, Natural Resources Canada, National League of Cities, and Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board. The projects implemented flipped classrooms, online training portals, virtual conferences, and mentoring programs to reduce costs and expand access to training across dispersed government workforces.
This document discusses the differences between teaching-focused design and learning-centered design. Teaching-focused design prioritizes the instructor passing knowledge to passive students, focusing on single topics and assessing student learning through tests. Learning-centered design emphasizes active student involvement, interdisciplinary topics, students evaluating their own learning through real-world application and viewing errors as opportunities to improve. While not always black and white, the document encourages shifting perspective to focus more on learner needs, skills and connecting new information to existing knowledge to support a continuous, interactive learning cycle.
Next Gen: Critical Conversations Slide DeckGovLoop
This document provides information about an online training session on critical conversations held on May 13, 2015. It lists the speakers, provides housekeeping details such as how to ask questions and get CPE credit. It outlines cooperation zones and strategies for having difficult conversations. These include identifying valued criteria, asking open-ended questions, thinking from the other perspective, being candid yet clear, networking for support, and documenting interactions. The document advertises upcoming leadership trainings from GovLoop and provides thanks and resources.
Internet of Things: Lightning Round, SargentGovLoop
This document discusses considerations for Internet of Things (IoT) solution design. It outlines key factors such as objectives, operational environment, technology environment, data consumers, analytics strategy, and data framework. It provides an example of how Intel's edge analytics platform can reduce data transfers by analyzing data at the edge. The document also describes Intel cloud services, edge and cloud analytics, and an end-to-end HVAC monitoring system using Intel hardware and software.
Internet of Things: Lightning Round, RonzioGovLoop
The document discusses the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and opportunities for using sensors and remote monitoring. The VHA operates 151 hospitals, 300 vet centers, and other facilities that provided healthcare to over 6.4 million veterans in 2013. The document suggests sensors could help reduce hospital equipment and costs, improve patient mobility and data recording, and enable remote monitoring and diagnosis for medical issues like heart attacks, seizures, and elderly care. It was presented by Dr. Joseph Ronzio, Special Assistant to the Chief Health Technology Officer for the VHA.
Rodney Hite is a product manager for Big Data solutions at ViON. The document discusses the history and evolution of big data, from the earliest disk formats in the 1970s-80s that held kilobytes of data, to the present day where a variety of data sources generate huge volumes, velocities, and varieties of data. It outlines analytical techniques like semantic extraction, sentiment analysis, and predictive pattern analysis that can gain valuable insights from big data across domains like sports, security, fraud detection, and social media. The key to success is having an iterative strategy that focuses on desired results, future-proof technologies, integration, and using data scientists and engineers efficiently.
Internet of Things: Lightning Round, FritzingerGovLoop
Steve Fritzinger gave a presentation on virtualization and the Internet of Things. He discussed how inexpensive sensors can collect data with near zero installation and low power usage through mesh networks that are self-configuring and self-repairing. This data is analyzed using intelligent "fog" systems and new analysis tools, which can integrate with social networks and the sharing economy.
Internet of Things: Lightning Round, McKinneyGovLoop
Richard McKinney, the Chief Information Officer of the Department of Transportation, gave a presentation titled "The Data Tsunami: Making Transportation Safer & Smarter" where he discussed how collecting and analyzing data from vehicles, cameras, sensors and other Internet-connected devices could improve transportation safety and operations. He explained how connected vehicle technologies could help with intersection safety, commercial vehicle safety, and disseminating real-time road weather information. He also discussed potential applications in aviation like improved air traffic control and predictive maintenance, as well as uses in transportation planning such as travel demand modeling and smart parking.
Internet of Things: Government Keynote, Randy GarrettGovLoop
Randy Garrett gave a presentation on cyber security analytics and the Internet of Things for DARPA. Some key points:
- DARPA has a history of developing new technologies to provide strategic advantage for national defense.
- The interconnectivity enabled by modern technology has democratized access to sophisticated tools and information.
- Physical systems like vehicles are increasingly vulnerable to cyber attacks as they become more connected to networks.
- DARPA is pursuing research in areas like intuitive cyber situational awareness tools, encrypted computing, automated software analysis, and developing high-assurance cyber systems through formal methods.
Leap Not Creep Participant Guide Pre-Course Through Week 3 - 20140722GovLoop
Here are the key definitions of innovation discussed:
- A new method, idea, or product: This is a common definition but it's broad and doesn't capture the essence of innovation - that it creates value.
- A change that creates a new definition of performance: This definition gets closer to capturing that innovation is about creating value. It's not just coming up with something new, but improving performance in a meaningful way.
The second definition - a change that creates a new definition of performance - is likely the most accurate one for understanding innovation in the context of this course. The goal is to implement innovations that make meaningful improvements, not just introduce changes for the sake of being different.
The document discusses identifying the target audience for an innovation. It defines target audience as the specific group an innovation is meant to reach. The key steps are:
1. Define the target audience by considering factors like demographics, needs, pain points.
2. Conduct market research on the target audience to understand their wants and how they might respond to the innovation.
3. Create a description of the target audience to guide development and marketing of the innovation.
This document provides guidance on describing an innovation and setting goals for its implementation. It advises creating a mission statement and goals for the innovation that align with the agency's strategic goals and are written accessibly and measurably. The document also stresses writing an innovation description that clearly states the benefits for the target audience and is accessible to all. Setting goals is important so the innovation's purpose is clear and its implementation is worth the effort required.
Building Powerful Outreach - Executive Research BriefGovLoop
You’ve done the research. You’ve gotten leadership buy-in. Your government program is set to start helping people. But if nobody knows about it, your program will never make a difference. It’s like if a public health department had prepared thousands of flu shots, but no patients showed up to get them. In this brief, we will tell you how to empower your outreach.
The document discusses how big data technologies can help organizations make better decisions by analyzing large, diverse datasets in real-time. It provides examples of use cases like fraud detection, predictive maintenance, and demand forecasting that have been revolutionized by big data solutions. The document also explains how big data has evolved from traditional data warehousing and how organizations can build on existing technology investments to implement big data strategies. Real-time analytics is said to get the right data in front of decision makers faster by consuming, analyzing, and visualizing historical and live data sources.
NoSQL is not only SQL, so it’s structured and unstructured data AND much of it is very important data, data that requires enterprise-grade features. I’m referring to all the features of Relational databases that large enterprises expect
In today's fast paced and digital world, many in government are looking to the cloud as a means to transform their agency. The cloud allows us to easily collaborate, share resources, receive on demand computing power, and change the way we deliver services to citizens. With the cloud, this all can be done faster and more efficiently than ever before.
Build Better Virtual Events & Training for your AgencyGovLoop
Build Better Virtual Events and Training for Your Agency
Meet In-Person to Learn How to Thrive Online
Conferences are being canceled, and training budgets have been trimmed, but government personnel still need to learn the latest developments in their areas of expertise. That's the crux of the problem facing agency leaders and human resources professionals that want to sustain a top-notch government workforce. Moving in-person events and training to an online forum is one solution, but it's not always easy to do it well.
A successful virtual training program has 3 key ingredients:
An interactive technology platform
Just-in-time, relevant content
Active facilitation by a skilled moderator
Social Media Presentation for The Center for Organizational EffectivenessGovLoop
Here are some examples of specific, measurable outcomes with clear definitions of achievement:
- Drive 100 people to register for our emergency preparedness workshop by promoting it on social media. Achieved when 100 unique visitors click through from our Facebook page to the registration form.
- Generate 50 volunteer signups to help with our annual park cleanup event. Achieved when 50 people complete the online volunteer form and select the park cleanup from the options.
- Receive feedback from 200 residents on our draft budget through an online survey promoted on Twitter. Achieved when 200 surveys are submitted with at least one question answered.
Does this help explain what outcomes should look like in a plan? Let me know if you need any clarification or have additional
Guide to Managing the Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) Application Proce...GovLoop
If you plan to apply for the Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) Program to make the Class of 2014, this guide is your core resource. We interviewed dozens of current and former PMFs, career advisors and agency PMF coordinators to provide both information and insight to help you navigate the process.
Guide to Managing the Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) Application Proce...
USAID Open Gov Plan
1. USAID OPEN GOVERNMENT PLAN
“Our objective each day is to seek out best practices, learn from them, and adapt
them to everything we do. We are committed to transparency in both our successes
and our failures—viewing both as opportunities to learn and improve.”
--Dr. Rajiv Shah, USAID Administrator, 3/3/2010
USAID Open Government Taskforce
www.usaid.gov/open
04/07/2010
2. Table of Contents
1.0 Transparency ........................................................................................................ 4
1.1 - Strategic Action Plan ....................................................................................... 5
1.1.1 - Inventory High Value Data Currently Available..................................... 5
1.1.2 - Foster Public’s Use of Agency Information ....................................... 5
1.1.3 - High Value Data Not Yet Available........................................................ 6
1.2 - Already Public Information............................................................................. 6
1.3 – U.S. Government Transparency Initiatives ............................................... 7
1.3.1 - Data.gov ....................................................................................................... 8
1.3.2 - Regulations.gov ......................................................................................... 9
1.3.3 - IT Dashboard Requirements................................................................. 10
1.3.4 - Recovery.gov............................................................................................ 10
1.3.5 - USASpending.gov ................................................................................... 11
1.3.6 – Fido.gov/MTS ............................................................................................... 12
1.4 - Public Forums.................................................................................................. 14
1.5 - Records Management.................................................................................... 14
1.6 - Freedom of Information Act ......................................................................... 15
1.7 - Congressional Response ............................................................................. 17
1.8 - Declassification Program ............................................................................. 17
2.0 Participation .......................................................................................................... 19
2.1 - Public Engagement in Existing Participatory Processes .................... 19
2.2 - New and Easier Methods for Public Engagement.................................. 20
3.0 Collaboration ......................................................................................................... 22
3.1 - Organizing for Collaboration and Partnership........................................ 22
3.2 - Leveraging our Collaboration Platforms and Technology .................. 23
3.3 - Sustaining our Commitment to Open Government ............................... 25
3.4 - USAID’s Collaboration and Partnership Websites ................................ 26
3.5 - Innovative Methods for Obtaining Ideas and Increasing ..................... 27
Collaboration............................................................................................................. 27
3.5.1 - Overview .................................................................................................... 27
3.5.2 - Prizes, Competitions, Challenges, and Incentives ......................... 30
3.6 - Policy Implications ......................................................................................... 31
4.0 Flagship Initiative ................................................................................................. 32
5.0 Public and Agency Involvement ...................................................................... 36
5.2 - Open Government Initiative Public and Agency Involvement............ 36
Appendix A .................................................................................................................... 39
Appendix B .................................................................................................................... 41
Appendix C .................................................................................................................... 43
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 1
3. Introduction
For almost five decades, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
has been providing foreign assistance and humanitarian relief around the world.
As such, USAID is a recognized leader in international development and has
amassed a wealth of knowledge to assist a world in need. We have a
responsibility to share this knowledge with the general public, broader U.S.
government, international donors, implementing partners, host countries, and
beneficiaries—all with the objective of addressing development needs.
This is being done on a regular basis across the worldwide USAID organization.
With missions in over 80 countries, we must also be able to learn from each
other and our partners so that we can increase our impact. To do so, the full
extent of the Agency’s own knowledge must be made available in a way it can
easily be shared without borders—across countries and development sectors.
In the following sections of the plan, USAID outlines its existing activities related
to transparency, participation and collaboration—the key principles of the Open
Government Initiative. These principles are being demonstrated on a daily basis
in support of our strategic goal areas:
Peace and Security
Governing Justly and Democratically
Investing in People
Promoting Economic Growth and Prosperity
Providing Humanitarian Assistance
Strengthening Management Capabilities
USAID also recognizes that Open Government is about more than just tools and
technology. Agency culture and policy are also key components in order to
ensure the full benefits of Open Government are realized. This requires the
active engagement of many operational areas within the Agency towards these
objectives. These operational areas include:
Strategic Planning
Internal Directives
Legal
Performance
Employee Relations
Public Affairs
Agency Operations
Partnerships
Security and Privacy
Infrastructure
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 2
4. Enterprise Architecture
Program Management
The requirement to develop an Open Government Plan has given USAID an
opportunity to present a comprehensive view of both our programmatic and
operational activities already underway that relate to the Open Government
Directive. However, this document does not provide a true road map for USAID’s
Open Government response. In order to do so, it must also include the Agency’s
vision for Open Government and the steps we will take to get there. This vision
should be shaped by our senior leadership—just coming on board as this plan is
being drafted.
Furthermore, the selected flagship initiative—Global Pulse 2010—will be
occurring from March 29 – 31, 2010—just before the Open Government Plan is
due. We believe that the Global Pulse event and the active engagement of our
senior leadership will inform our vision and will help us better define our Open
Government roadmap. Therefore, we are committing to revisit this plan in 90
days in order to provide a more strategic view of Open Government at USAID.
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 3
5. 1.0 Transparency
“Transparency promotes accountability by providing the public with information
about what the Government is doing.” – Open Government Directive, 12/08/2009
Throughout USAID, there are numerous examples of programs that are
conducting work transparently. In 1975, USAID established the Development
Experience Clearinghouse (DEC) in order to strengthen development activities
by making development experience documents available to a wide variety of
audiences. Since the early 1990’s, USAID has maintained a public web
presence that enables openness by publishing quality and timely information
online for sharing with the general public, broader U.S. government, international
donors, implementing partners, host countries, and beneficiaries. More recently,
the Global Development Commons website,
http://commons.usaid.gov/categories, created in 2008, has augmented USAID’s
website with an inventory of hundreds of USAID-funded websites.
Now, with the Open Government Initiative, USAID will move beyond information
contained in published documents and reports to information created on demand
in the process of performing the Agency’s work. As such, USAID will strive
towards publishing information online in an open format that can be retrieved,
downloaded, indexed, and searched by commonly used web search applications.
Based on the directive, the presumption will be in favor of openness (to the
extent permitted by law and subject to valid privacy, confidentiality, security, or
other restrictions).
Transparency Objectives
By making our information accessible to the public, we are:
Contributing to greater understanding on the part of the tax-paying public of
the depth and breadth of USAID’s work in international development;
More actively engaging stakeholders in the foreign assistance dialogue as
both successes and failures are appropriately noted and analyzed;
Making our data available to implementing partners to inform as they work
side by side with us to address development challenges; and
Putting the information in the hands of people who benefit from our
assistance-- thus empowering them with information that could lead to their
own solutions.
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 4
6. 1.1 - Strategic Action Plan
The Open Government Directive defines “high-value information” as information
that can be used to:
Increase agency accountability and responsiveness;
Improve public knowledge of the agency and its operations;
Further the core mission of the agency;
Create economic opportunity;
Respond to need and demand as identified through public consultations.
USAID recognizes that high-value information, published online in open formats,
can be very valuable to staff and partners alike. By using new technologies for
organizing and aggregating the data, it is much easier to group data sets, map
them, visualize them, and otherwise add value to use the data more effectively.
1.1.1 - Inventory High Value Data Currently Available
The “Three Faces of USAID” is a frame of reference for the different
transparency efforts across the Agency. Information captured and shared by
each face are critical in helping USAID accomplish its development objectives.
The faces of USAID are:
Operational: Encompasses the management services, processes, and
support functions of the Agency;
Strategic: Found both within USAID/Washington and within each mission,
this facet defines Agency policy, Bureau and country strategies and program
plans; and,
Technical: Provides development and humanitarian assistance that involves
partners who are crucial to knowledge generation, and who are an extension
of the USAID organization.
The table in Appendix A shows USAID’s high-value information currently
available to the public. The next step will be to identify high-value information not
yet available online in an open format with a timeline for publication.
1.1.2 - Foster Public’s Use of Agency Information
The success of USAID’s development effort lies precisely in the degree to which
the Agency can leverage its accumulated knowledge through strategic facilitation
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 5
7. of global learning to spread innovation and opportunity far beyond the particular
programs it funds. Success comes from taking the learning generated through
implementing Agency programs and facilitating its widespread adaptation,
replication and scaling up by governments, civil society organizations and the
private sector.
Throughout its history, USAID has had great success in leveraging its knowledge
to achieve impact across entire global sectors. An early and celebrated example
was the Green Revolution, which leveraged innovations in plant breeding and
crop management to dramatically increase agricultural yields through improved
technology and sharing best practices. A current example is the microLINKS
knowledge sharing program, which combines traditional face-to-face forums with
Web 2.0 technologies to spread learning about innovations in sustainable
microfinance, enterprise development and market access far beyond the reach of
USAID’s own programs.
1.1.3 - High Value Data Not Yet Available
As part of its normal business, USAID generates both operational and
programmatic data. Operational data sets, used as part of central planning,
budget and reporting, are coordinated centrally. For USAID programmatic data -
our future plans will address not only public access but also internal coordination
to gather and standardize data from across the Agency's technical offices and
country Missions.
1.2 - Already Public Information
USAID has a long history of making the Agency’s rich development experience
available to the public. In 1975, USAID established the Development Experience
Clearinghouse (DEC). Its purpose is to strengthen development activities by
making development experience documents available to a wide variety of
audiences including USAID offices and mission staff, non-governmental
organizations, universities and research institutions, developing countries, and
the public worldwide.
Originally, all source documents were stored on microfilm and their associated
metadata stored on computer tapes running on a mainframe with no online
access. Now, the DEC is the largest online resource for USAID funded technical
and program documentation. Over 72,000 documents are currently available for
electronic download at http://dec.usaid.gov/. With a recent infusion of resources,
the entire document collection is being scanned and stored electronically. When
it’s complete, the entire collection, more than 150,000 documents, will be
available online for easy electronic download.
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 6
8. The DEC is such a rich collection of development experience because
contributing to it is written into the terms of USAID contracts and grants.
According to Acquisition & Assistance Policy Directive 04-06: Submission of
Development Experience Documents:
The Contractor shall submit to USAID’s Development Experience
Clearinghouse (DEC) copies of reports and information products which
describe, communicate or organize program/project development
assistance activities, methods, technologies, management, research,
results and experience as outlined in the Agency's ADS Chapter 540.
…These reports include: assessments, evaluations, studies, development
experience documents, technical reports and annual reports. The
Contractor shall also submit copies of information products including
training materials, publications, databases, computer software programs,
videos and other intellectual deliverable materials required under the
Contract Schedule.
In 2008, the Agency’s Automated Directives System (ADS) Chapter 540: USAID
Development Experience Information, was amended to accept electronic
information in all National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)-
approved formats as described in NARA guidelines related to the transfer of
permanent e-Records. (See http://www.archives.gov/records-
mgmt/initiatives/transfer-to-nara.html).
In addition, the software used by the DEC was recently upgraded to a product
that improves full text searches, expand options to save and share documents
and allow collaboration though comments, ranking and blogs.
All of this paves the way for taking DEC to the next level—collecting and
publishing underlying data in the most accessible forms and formats as called for
in the Open Government Directive. This will require an aggressive plan to: 1)
educate our Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative (COTRs); 2) possibly
implement additional software/ hardware upgrades to automate content tagging
and expand data holdings to include geospatial data and multi-media and 3)
enforce the policy with implementing partners. Through revised Agency guidance
in the Automated Directives System. By adding geospatial data to the DEC
collection, USAID will be able to share the supporting data from its projects and
analysis directly with the public in ways previously not possible.
1.3 – U.S. Government Transparency Initiatives
USAID is currently meeting its legal information disseminations obligations as
defined in the Paperwork Reduction Act, Public Law. No. 104-13, section
3506(d). USAID is ensuring that the public has timely and equitable access to
the agency's public information, including ensuring such access through:
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 7
9. 1. Providing timely and equitable access to the underlying data (in whole or in
part) in cases in which the agency provides public information maintained in
electronic format;
2. Agency dissemination of public information in an efficient, effective, and
economical manner;
3. Regularly soliciting and consider public input on the agency's information
dissemination activities;
4. Providing adequate notice when initiating, substantially modifying, or
terminating significant information dissemination products; and
5. Not, except where specifically authorized by statute--
(a) establishing an exclusive, restricted, or other distribution arrangement
that interferes with timely and equitable availability of public
information to the public;
(b) establishing user fees for public information that exceed the cost of
dissemination.
The following sections provide additional information about USAID’s participation
in a variety of U.S. Government transparency initiatives.
1.3.1 - Data.gov
The purpose of the Data.gov initiative is to make data generated by the Federal
government available to the public. “Increasing the ability of the public to
discover, understand and use the vast stores of government data increases
government accountability and unlocks additional economic and social value 1 .”
With a physical presence, Data.gov is the platform by which the public can
evaluate the Federal government and each government agency’s commitment to
transparency. The Open Government Directive (OGD) instructs each agency to
identify and publish high-value information 2 . For data that is already in the public
domain, Data.gov facilitates discovery and presentation of data in a user-friendly
format. For data historically limited to internal agency use, USAID plans to
provide the data while ensuring privacy, confidentiality, and security regulations
are protected.
USAID’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) is responsible for populating Data.gov
with high-value, authoritative data that explains and supports the Agency’s core
development mission. The CIO appoints a Point of Contact (POC) who is
responsible for implementing Data.gov submission procedures and coordinating
1
Draft Data.gov Concept of Operations, version 0.7, December 3, 2009, pg 6. (put link)
2
Open Government Directive Attachment section 3.a.i defines “high-value information” as “information
that can be used to increase agency accountability and responsiveness; improve public knowledge of the
agency and its operations; further the core mission of the agency; create economic opportunity; or respond
to need and demand as identified through public consultation.” (Place link.)
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 8
10. compliance requirements both within USAID and between the Agency and the
Data.gov Program Management Office.
As USAID prepares to evaluate data for suitability for posting to Data.gov, the
Agency will incorporate applicable policies and procedures from the Automated
Directives System (ADS), USAID’s directives management program.
Chapter 557, Public Information, describes the responsibility of the Bureau
for Legislative and Public Affairs to ensure information released to the
public is in an appropriate style for public distribution and consistent with
Agency policies.
Chapter 578, Information Quality Guidelines, adopts Office of Management
and Budget (OMB)—the Executive Office of the President—guidelines on
information quality and USAID-specific procedures to implement the OMB
guidelines. In this chapter, USAID uses six categories to classify Agency
information:
-- Planning and Management;
-- Programs, Products, and Services;
-- Policy, Legislative, Regulatory Standards, and Enforcement;
-- Research and Statistical;
-- General Reference; and
-- Influential Scientific, Financial, or Statistical.
Both chapters will require revision to include the new standards of data
dissemination contained in the Open Government Directive. A working group
composed of the Agency data quality subject matter experts, the Information
Technology (IT) legal advisor, the POC of Data.gov, the Office of Security, the
Privacy Office and others working in information technology have been directed
to establish a review and approval process to qualify data for Data.gov.
January 22, 2010 marked the official launch of Data.gov and the requirement for
each agency to post three high-value datasets for public inspection. The
datasets USAID posted are: 1) U.S. Official Development Assistance Data (place
link here); 2) U.S. Trade Capacity Data (place line here); and 3) U.S. Overseas
Loans and Grants. http://www.data.gov/open Data currently posted on data.gov
are described in Appendix B
1.3.2 - Regulations.gov
The E-Government Act of 2002 required agencies to become more transparent
and accountable by providing Web-based access to records and by allowing a
broader spectrum of the public to participate in the rulemaking process. The
website www.regulations.gov is the public face of the U.S. Government’s
eRulemaking Initiative and facilitates public participation in the federal regulatory
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 9
11. process by providing a single location where the public can view and comment
on federal regulatory actions.
The Federal Docket Management System (FDMS) is the “behind the scenes” on-
line regulatory system where agencies create and organize electronic files
through which:
Rules and notices published in the Federal Register are posted;
Public comments can be received through www.regulations.gov; and
Agency comments can be posted to be viewed by the public.
FDMS requires each agency to designated FDMS Agency Administrators who
are responsible for the application of Agency-specific configurations and user
administration. For USAID, this is in the Office of Management Policy, Budget
and Performance (M/MPBP).
1.3.3 - IT Dashboard Requirements
USAID is fully compliant with IT Dashboard reporting requirements. The CIO has
evaluated all four of the Agency’s major information technology (IT)
investments. A representative within USAID’s Office of the Chief Information
Officer issues a monthly data call to the Project Manager (PM) for each major IT
investment. After all of the PMs have responded, the completed evaluations are
submitted to the CIO for review. With the CIO’s approval, the evaluations are
used to update the IT Dashboard at the end of each month.
1.3.4 - Recovery.gov
Recovery.gov is the U.S. government’s official website providing easy access to
data related to Recovery Act spending and allows for the reporting of potential
fraud, waste, and abuse.
Given the high priority placed on the accuracy and reliance of information on
USASpending.gov, and specifically information related to American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) reporting on Recovery.gov, USAID has
established internal controls, procedures and data quality standards to assure
data is submitted accurately, completely, timely and in the proper format. As
prescribed by the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA)
and the Recovery Act, USAID is responsible for pre-dissemination review of all
information being submitted to USASpending.gov and Recovery.gov. All
agencies must ensure all reporting is complete and accurate and complies with
the agency’s Information Quality Act guidelines.
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 10
12. To align with these guidelines for Recovery Act related information, USAID has
established a Senior Risk Management Council and a supporting Recovery Act
working group composed of individuals across business areas accountable for
acquisitions, contracts, technology, finance, legal, policy, OMB compliance and
risk management. The group meets weekly, and reviews/facilitates clearance of
all Recovery Act information that ultimately is made available to the public, as
well as manages tasks as required to assure compliance with OMB
directives/mandates for Recovery Act. A Separate Risk management group
independently tracks agency risks in accordance with A-123 requirements. The
USAID Office of Inspector General (OIG) attends all meetings and provides
advice as appropriate.
To date, USAID has received $38M dollars in stimulus funds. Weekly financial
reports are posted on www.USAID.gov and www.Recovery.gov and available for
public review/comment. In addition, information about contract awards,
modifications and new opportunities are posted on Federal Business
Opportunities (FBO.gov). Information on USASpending.gov is updated through
contract actions within the Agency’s acquisition and assistance systems.
Recovery.gov is not updated directly; rather, information is pulled from our
Agency website and other government sites as defined in the published
recovery.gov architecture. To assure accuracy and quality of data, the working
group team members, including the OIG, frequently review website content and
recommend changes. Currently, minor gaps exist in how some Recovery Act
information is “classified” that the team has documented and has been tasked to
resolve.
1.3.5 - USASpending.gov
USAID is committed to data integrity and compliance with all OMB directives
relative to data collection, quality and transparency in general and in accordance
with USASpending requirements. It is Agency policy that information about all
applicable contracts, grants and loans are available for public review on
USASpending.gov in accordance with the various applicable OMB Directives.
Specifically this means that all contractual actions are automatically transferred
from our internal systems to the government wide Federal Procurement Data
System (FPDS) per an agreed upon schedule. Currently, the Agency has two
internal automated data collection systems that perform this function, the Global
Acquisition and Assistance System (GLAAS) and the Electronic Procurement
Information Collection System (EPICS). GLAAS is the Agency's new acquisition
and assistance system,. Deployment of GLAAS is currently underway and
expected to be completed by the end of 2011. In the interim, EPICS acts as the
agency's data collection system for those users not yet on GLAAS. Both GLAAS
and EPICS are directly linked to FPDS, so once data has been entered into one
of these systems and validated, it is immediately available on www.FPDS.gov.
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 11
13. USASpending.gov retrieves its contractual data from FPDS.gov and other
websites. Information to be made available to the public is reviewed for data
quality errors and issues are reported as appropriate. In the Agency's recent
FPDS Data Quality Report, USAID reported that 92% of all applicable actions
had been successfully posted. The remaining 8 percent are the result of the
transition to the GLAAS system and it is expected that all actions will be
complete by March 31, 2010. In addition, GLAAS is being modified in March
2010 to institute a system requirement, which would mandate the entry of FPDS
data into GLAAS before an acquisition action can be fully completed. This will
ensure 100 percent compliance going forward. The Agency is also performing
Independent Verification and Validation efforts on FPDS data, in accordance with
OMB Directives. This requires statistically sampling data submitted to FPDS and
comparing it to actual data as presented in the original contractual documents.
This process will help identify any reported errors and the need for enhanced
training and guidance, if applicable. For Assistance actions (grants and
cooperative agreements) and loans, the Agency submits a batch process
containing all relevant actions for the reporting period to USASpending, twice a
month in accordance with governing guidance. All submissions have been
successfully received and posted to USASpending.gov. The Agency is
committed to systemically providing training and enhancing guidance relative to
data reporting.
To align with the additionally data fields required for tracking Recovery Act funds,
USAID currently manually creates and transfers a data and program file to FPDS
as appropriate. This file enables USASpending.gov to accurately report
Recovery Act contractual data to the public.
1.3.6 – Fido.gov/MTS
Federal Information Databases Online (Fido.gov) was established 13 years ago
to share information over the Internet and to support reporting and data collection
projects for multiple agencies of the Executive Branch and the Congress.
General Services Administration (GSA) is the registered owner of the Fido.gov
domain. The Metric Tracking System (MTS) is a performance measurement
system that captures key financial management performance indicators across
the Federal Government:
Fund Balance with Treasury (Net): This indicator identifies the difference
between the fund balance reported in Treasury reports and the Agency fund
balance with Treasury recorded in its general ledger on a net basis. Smaller
reconciliation differences translate to greater integrity of financial reports and
budger results.
Amount in Suspense (Absolute) Greater than 60 Days Old: This indicator
measures the timeliness of clearing and reconciling suspense accounts. This
metric is reported quarterly. Prompt clearance of amounts in suspense
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 12
14. Delinquent Accounts Receivable from Public Over 180 Days: Reported
quarterly, this indicator measures the success in reducing or eliminating
delinquent accounts receivable from the public. It shows how well the agency
actively collects debt. Actively collecting debt improves management
accountability, reduces Treasury borrowing, and increases accuracy in
reporting.
Electronic Payments: The number of electronic payments measures the
extent to which vendors are paid electronically. A high use of electronic funds
transfer saves money, reduces paperwork, and improves cash management.
Percent Invoices Paid on Time: This indicator measures how many invoices
are paid on time in accordance with the Prompt Payment Act (PPA). Timely
payment reduces interest charges and reflects a high degree of accountability
and integrity.
Interest Penalties Paid: This indicator measures the effect of late payments in
the amount of interest penalties paid relative to the total dollars of invoices
paid. Smaller amounts of interest paid shows that an agency is paying its bills
in a timely manner in accordance with the Prompt Payment Act. Not having to
pay interest saves agencies money and allows funds to be used for their
intended purpose.
Travel Card Delinquency Rates: This indicator measures the percent of travel
card balances outstanding over 61 days for individually billed accounts as well
as centrally billed accounts. Reducing outstanding travel card balances helps
increase rebates to agencies.
Purchase Card Delinquency Rate: This indicator measures the percent of
purchase card balances outstanding over 61 days. Reducing outstanding
purchase card balances helps increase rebates to agencies and reduces
interest payments.
The collection of the Suspense Clearing and Delinquent Accounts Receivable
information began in May 2003. Over time, some new information was added.
Travel and Purchase Card Delinquencies were added in 2005. The tool’s intent
is to provide government managers, Congress, and other stakeholders the
information to assess the financial management health of the Federal
Government as a whole and for each individual agency. Tracking performance
on indicators helps to guide financial management reforms and targets resources
to areas where better stewardship of Federal financial resources is needed.
Federal agencies are owed debts from a variety of individuals and entities. A few
examples of debt are loan repayments, duplicate or erroneous grant or
entitlement payments, as well as fines or penalties and other debts. These debts
total billions of dollars government-wide. Improving the management of these
debts – especially improved performance in the collection of outstanding debts –
is important to ensuring that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and efficiently.
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 13
15. USAID is diligently working to reduce the amount of delinquent debt by improving
the screening of potential borrowers and improving internal agency collection
practices. In the case of credit programs, improvements are also being made in
litigating the debt at the Department of Justice, and transferring the debt to the
Department of the Treasury for cross-servicing and administrative offset
opportunities.
1.4 - Public Forums
USAID embraces a practice of broad public consultation in the development and
implementation of its foreign assistance programs. Several of these forums are
described in detail in Section 3.2.
1.5 - Records Management
The Records Division oversees the Agency’s management of both paper and
electronic records. Tools are currently in place to manage records from creation
to destruction to permanent archiving. The effective management of the
Agency’s official records results in improvements in searching and retrieving
information. This provides for transparency within the Agency.
Realizing the proliferation of electronic records, the Records Division is making a
very assertive effort to put additional tools in place to address the emphasis by
the Obama Administration for accountability. The Administration has
emphasized automation and harnessing current technological advances. In
response to this, the Electronic Records Team has plans to test an electronic
records application. The Team’s purpose is to determine if this tool might begin
to provide some solutions to address the need to manage the various forms of
electronic records. This includes those records currently created, produced,
generated and stored on various electronic infrastructures throughout the
Agency.
The emphasis by the Obama Administration upon openness, transparency,
participation and collaboration lends itself to prioritizing initiatives that address
the effective management of information and records. In summary, the Records
Division is attempting to address this initiative by:
The launching of a new online training course to provide training for all
employees, and to promote the importance of Records Management;
Participating in various workshops, presentations, and forums in order to
teach records management and provide information on what the Records
Team has in place to meet the challenges of records management. Plans
are also currently in place for overseas meetings to reach out to the missions
for teaching and dissimilation of records management instruction and
resources;
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 14
16. Participating in the Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) activities in order
to assure that Vital Records are available and accessible should the situation
presents itself;
The efforts of the Electronic Records Team that includes: the testing of
Electronic Record Application, the scanning of retired paper records, the
scheduling to the Information records applications throughout the Agency,
and the compiling of records management training guide;
Realizing that records management is everyone’s responsibility, the Records
Team’s task is the oversight of Records Management throughout the
Agency. There are five team members assigned as records client analyst for
specific regions.
For additional information, see http://www.usaid.gov/policy/ads/500/502.pdf -- the
Automated Directives System (ADS) chapter on Records Management.
1.6 - Freedom of Information Act
The following section describes USAID’s capacity to respond to Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) requests.
Process of analyzing and responding to FOIA requests
The FOIA team analyzes requests by reviewing each document line by line to
determine exempt material. The FOIA guide is used as a resource to determine
the proper exemption to use. Input is gathered from the authoring offices of the
documents as to the sensitivity of items. The FOIA team consults with the Office
of the General Counsel on sensitive issues and any cases that may potentially go
into litigation.
After all responsive documents have been received, the documents are
reviewed, the office comments, and the proper exemptions are applied. A letter
explaining why certain information has been withheld is written to the missions.
Capacity to analyze, coordinate and respond in a timely manner
The FOIA office does not have any documents. A search for documents
requests is sent to the Washington and overseas office to obtain documents.
The result of a search may reveal numerous, potential responsive documents.
As a first review, the FOIA team asks the offices to provide recommendations on
withholding of any sensitive items. After receiving the documents, the office does
the final review to determine the types of exemptions to apply to exempt items.
This coordination may take some time particularly if there are numerous
documents and offices to submit documents. If it’s determined that submitter’s
comments are needed, under Executive Order 12600, time is given to the office
to review and send comments (10 days). This can be a lengthy process.
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 15
17. Because of these circumstances, responses to requests cannot always be made
withinthe statutory time limits.
To help with the initial processing of requests, a new tracking system,
FOIAXpress, was obtained and started live in FY 2008. This system allows the
FOIA team to put documents and information about cases in one place. Request
that consists of putting in the requester’s contact information and the request
letter are put into the system. An acknowledgement letter is sent to the requester
that includes the tracking number and the contact information of the specialist
assigned to the case. A request for documents through the system using Form
810 FOIA Action Control Record is also sent out.
Steps to reduce the backlog
Before securing supplemental processing assistance, the six-member FOIA team
worked consistently to reduce the backlog. As the number of high profile and
complex cases increased, USAID found it necessary to obtain additional help
with processing.
USAID secured the services of a FOIA consultant in 2005. The consultant is a
former FOIA officer. The consultant focuses on referrals and consultations from
other agencies. These are time-sensitive requests that need immediate
attention. The consultant gives full attention to these sensitive requests. In our
backlog efforts, the direct-hire staff is involved with high profile and current
requests. During this period, the consultant has closed over 85% of the assigned
cases.
USAID secured a FOIA services contract on September 27, 2007. The first
contingent of three contract employees arrived during the period of December
2007 through December 2008.
The initial goal for the contract staff was to eliminate the pre-2005 cases. Then
the contractor would work on the remaining initial backlog. The contractor staff
has closed almost 70% of the initial backlog. As the contractors work on this
backlog, the FOIA team continues to process and close current years’ requests.
The FOIA team receives requests on a continuous basis. In anticipation of more
high profile and complex requests, the Office of the Director of Administrative
Services submitted a request to hire additional staff.
Steps to reduce the backlog by 10% each fiscal year include:
Inventory of requests to identify duplicates and closed cases which are
classified as open
Grouping and classifying requests by actions necessary
Grouping and classifying requests by records holding offices
Follow up on search actions or search actions sent to records holding
offices
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 16
18. Reminder search actions sent for searches not completed within
prescribed timeframe
Reviews conducted, redactions and withholdings made if necessary
Draft responses prepared
General Counsel clearance obtained as necessary
Final responses prepared and sent to requesters
Milestones
Inventory of requests – Completed by November 1 of new fiscal year
Grouping and classification of requests – Completed by December 1 of
new fiscal year
Follow up on search actions or search actions sent to records holding
offices – Completed by January 15 of new fiscal year
For additional information about USAID’s (FOIA) process, see
http://www.usaid.gov/about/foia/ .
1.7 - Congressional Response
Every year Congress asks USAID to submit a series of reports on various
matters of concern. In an effort to provide a maximum of transparency to the
general public, these reports are now being made available at the following web
site: http://www.usaid.gov/press/congressional/
For FY2009, these reports include:
Assistance by the People's Republic of China to Governments and Entities in
Latin America and Africa (pdf, 177kb)
Agriculture Strategy Report, FY 2009 (pdf, 115kb)
Biodiversity Conservation and Forestry Programs Report, FY 2009 (pdf,
6.1mb)
Gender Integration and Programming Report, FY 2009 (pdf, 261kb)
Health-Related Research and Development Activities at USAID, FY 2009
(pdf, 447kb)
Third Annual Report to Congress on Highly Vulnerable Children (pdf, 2mb)
USAID Jamaica Community-Based Police Report, FY 2009 (pdf, 352kb)
Pakistan Assistance Strategy Report (pdf, 367kb)
The USAID Strategic Plan for Microbicide Research and Development:
Current Initiatives and Next-Generation Leads, September 2009 (pdf, 216kb)
University Programs Report, FY 2009 (pdf, 259kb)
1.8 - Declassification Program
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 17
19. The USAID Systemic Declassification Program resides with the Information
Records Division, Office of Administrative Services. The Information Records
Division also handles Mandatory Declassification Review requests that are made
by the public in accordance with Executive Order 12958 and Executive Order
13526.
USAID does not have the authority to declassify documents that are not originally
classified by USAID’s Original Classification Authorities. Documents that are
originally classified outside of USAID, with the exception of State Department,
must be sent to that respective agency to be reviewed for declassification.
The USAID Declassification Team consists of four employees who work on a
part-time basis and are currently reviewing documents at the Washington
National Records Center (WNRC). These individuals follow the guidance
included in Executive Orders 12958 and 13526 to determine when to declassify
particular documents.
Referrals made to USAID by other agencies are reviewed by State Department
employees located at the national Archives, College Park (NARA II) in
accordance with State’s authority to declassify USAID documents and vice versa.
Some referrals from CIA are reviewed by a member of the USAID
declassification team at International Point.
A recent Presidential Memorandum on December 29, 2009 refers to the new
Executive Order 13526. This memorandum is focused on the modification of the
current declassification system. The National Declassification Center (NDC)
recognizes the need for a review of the current declassification process that is
handling a backlog of more than 400 million pages. This review will take place
and further direction will be given to ensure that access to all declassified records
from this backlog will be made available to the public.
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 18
20. 2.0 Participation
“Participation allows members of the public to contribute ideas and expertise so
that their government can make policies with the benefit of information that is
widely dispersed in society.” – Open Government Directive, 12/08/2009
USAID is committed to engaging the public in a proactive and transparent
exchange of ideas, providing opportunities for the public to provide input into
agency programs and activities. Public engagement impacts the Agency’s
activities as new foreign assistance projects are designed and implemented.
Many offices within USAID’s pillar bureaus and overseas missions engage with
stakeholders on an ongoing basis to evaluate program successes and improve
program design.
Participation Objectives
By participating with the public, we are:
Promoting opportunities for the public to participate throughout the
decision-making process;
Offering a more open forum to engage the public in the foreign
assistance dialogue;
Providing an outlet to inform partners, stakeholders and the public of
development challenges; and
Creating an interactive platform for the people who benefit from our
assistance.
2.1 - Public Engagement in Existing Participatory Processes
Public Information and Participation
Stakeholders and the general public can engage with USAID in a number of
venues. USAID’s Public Information, Publications, and Online Services division
engages the public through written correspondence, the agency phone operator,
and the USAID Public Web Site (http://www.usaid.gov/contact.html ). Feedback
and suggestions received from the public are routed internally to appropriate
offices for action.
Portal Participation
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 19
21. A number of portal web sites in specific topic areas allow stakeholders and the
general public to discuss best practices in development projects. Several of
these examples are described in Appendix C.
Social Media Participation
USAID has also begun interfacing with the public on social media portals,
including Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/USAID.News ), Twitter
(http://twitter.com/usaid_news ), YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/usaidvideo ),
and LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=118430 ). These are being
used as avenues for information dissemination as well as obtaining feedback
from citizens, stakeholders, and beneficiaries. USAID also maintains multiple
email lists and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds, available via the Public
Web Site for dissemination of updates and current information on USAID
activities.
2.2 - New and Easier Methods for Public Engagement
Participating more openly
USAID, in the interest of the Open Government Directive, will implement the
maximum practical and manageable participation methods available on its
www.USAID.gov/open/ page, to include linking to:
FOIA Request Forms
USAID Senior Accountable Officials and contact information
USAID Open Government Representative and contact information
USAID Organization and Leaders
USAID Organizational Structure Chart
USAID Physical Address
USAID Employee Directory
USAID Open Government Directive email, i.e., opengov@usaid.gov
Link to ‘Share’ through Social Media Portals
Links to visit USAID Official Social Media page, e.i., Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube, Flickr, Blogs/RSS, Slideshare, et al.
Forms for submitting ideas to USAID
Newsletter/Update subscription forms
Events calendar for ‘Open Public’ meetings, speeches, events, etc.
Other Open Government Links
o Open Government Directive
o Data.gov
o USASpending.gov
o Recovery.gov
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 20
22. o IT Dashboard
o Regulations.gov
Provide Press Releases in Social Media News Release (SMNR) format
for third party ease-of-use.
List USAID Offices hours of operation
Import RSS feed of USAID updates linked to platforms allowing
participation
List USAID publications and collateral
USAID official social media pages will allow commenting from the public and be
moderated accordingly.
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 21
23. 3.0 Collaboration
“Collaboration improves the effectiveness of Government by encouraging
partnerships and cooperation within the Federal Government, across levels of
Government, and between the Government and private institutions.” – Open
Government Directive, 12/08/2009
USAID collaborates with a range of partners through sharing of networks,
expertise, and joint innovation to address development challenges that no one
organization can solve on its own. Our partnerships span relationships with more
than 3,500 American companies and over 300 U.S.-based voluntary
organizations. Working in over 100 countries in five regions of the world, USAID
programs support long-term development and equitable economic growth and
advances U.S. foreign policy objectives. Our work is focused on economic
growth, agriculture and trade; global health; and democracy, conflict prevention,
and humanitarian assistance. We are committed to improving collaboration
through partnerships and cooperation with other Federal government agencies,
across levels of government, and with the range of existing and possible
development partners from the private sector, the non-profit community,
educational institutions, think tanks, community and civic associations, and the
public.
Drivers for USAID’s improved collaboration and partnership include:
Leadership among and synergy with other development actors
Accountability – improved and more clearly-conveyed performance
results
Relevance – accomplishing development objectives in a multi-faceted
development assistance arena that is shared with a range of
development partners
Improved development practice and scalability – better, faster, smarter
accomplishment of USAID’s mission and objectives; ability to translate
and transfer up and across
Effective development process – technology and tools as enablers of
knowledge generation, sharing, exchange, application and use
Innovation as a source of fresh ideas, new solutions and approaches,
and conversations about challenges being addressed
3.1 - Organizing for Collaboration and Partnership
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 22
24. USAID’s commitment to engage and collaborate is governed by our equally
important commitment to good development practice. The agency has a range of
central collaboration and knowledge-sharing platforms and tools, which are being
applied in many collaborative programmatic activities. USAID works with
development agencies, other USG departments, and numerous partners
including development practitioners, other bilateral and multilateral organizations,
indigenous organizations, educational institutions, research entities and think
tanks, and the private and not-for-profit sectors.
USAID’s collaboration and partnership tools and technology serve nearly all of
our technical sectors, geographic locations, individual offices and missions. In
addition, they support important aspects of our internal operations (e.g., budget
and finance, contracting, performance monitoring and reporting, human
resources, legal and regulatory, public affairs, etc.). Some tools and technology
platforms – whether commercially available or open source – are centralized,
supported through USAID’s Office of the Chief Information Officer. Others are
deployed and maintained based on program need, situational challenges,
specific requirements, or innovative solutions.
USAID is a decentralized organization, with much of its programmatic power and
decision making decentralized to the in-country Missions, working closest to the
realities of developing countries and the challenges they face. The Office of
Development Partners (ODP) works across all foreign assistance program
objectives through partnerships, alliances, and collaboration. ODP’s placement
and cross-cutting role enables it to look across the development landscape to
identify trends and potential partnership avenues, opportunities for strategic
alliances, and ways to convene parties with shared interests both inside and
outside the agency and the U.S. government.
3.2 - Leveraging our Collaboration Platforms and Technology
Part of USAID’s Knowledge Management mandate is to support and leverage
better knowledge exchange, application, and use – enabling our staff and our
institutional partners to work better, faster, and smarter. Collaboration is an
important contributor to institutional learning. The platforms, tools, and
processes for USAID collaboration range from those that support internal agency
business and operations, to others that enable better dialogue and cooperation in
programmatic activities in field missions and in Washington, to ones that extend
into the interagency or inter-governmental arenas. The examples below are a
small slice into a broader set of tools and platforms that USAID has in place, to
encourage and enable more effective collaboration.
Examples of internal collaboration platforms, tools, and mechanisms include:
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 23
25. AIDnet blogs and communities – online collaboration space, available
through the USAID Intranet, for agency staff with network access.
Provides space for people to share opinions, ideas, resources, and
knowledge.
AIDSPEAK – Developed by USAID’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), this
blog’s primary objective is to improve information sharing and initiate a
dialogue about the work carried out by the COO, as well as agency
initiatives, events, and activities.
Chief Operating Officer’s Newsletter – communication from the Office of
the Administrator to every level of the Agency, with a commitment to
ensuring accurate, timely, and useful information flow.
Developedia, http://developedia.usaid.gov, a wiki-based tool that USAID
and Department of State colleagues can use to collect and share
information about the full range of agency programs, practices, and
operations. Featured pages range from descriptions of current programs
or activities, to YouTube videos, to Mission or Bureau-specific pages, to
toolkits that enable staff to better carry out their work.
Foreign Assistance Coordination and Tracking System (FACTSInfo),
a database of budget information, used inside USAID and Department of
State, to track foreign assistance budget information, annually and
programmatically.
Private and Voluntary Organization (PVO) Registry – USAID’s registry
comprises a diverse group of organizations engaged in foreign assistance
and development worldwide. This ranges from institutions with global
reach that annual deliver hundreds of millions of dollars of aid, to less
experienced organizations with limited resources.
Program Officers Tool Kit – portion of ProgramNet, offering Wikipedia-
style information for USAID program officers, organized thematically. This
knowledge management tool allows program staff to share knowledge and
experiences with one another to better carry out their work.
Sounding Board – Initiated by the office of Chief Operating Office,
provides a forum for USAID employees to submit concrete ideas to
transform the way our agency does its business.
USAID ALLNET, http://www.usaidallnet.gov/, the online collaborative
space for information and knowledge-sharing between USAID and its
partners. ALLNET offers a shared environment for improving interaction,
information sharing, and discussions. This environment hosts the newest
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 24
26. incarnation of foreignassistance.net, used for foreign assistance budget-
related planning by employees within USAID and Department of State.
Examples of partnership or inter-governmental collaboration platforms, tools, and
mechanisms include:
Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid (ACVFA),
http://www.usaid.gov/about_usaid/acvfa/index.html, this presidentially
mandated committee was established after World War II, to provide a link
between the U.S. government and private voluntary organizations.
Comprised of 30 private citizens with extensive knowledge of international
development, ACVFA helps provide the underpinning for cooperation
between the public and private sectors in U.S. foreign assistance
programs. ACVFA meetings, held three times a year, focus on timely
topics, issues, and challenges that affect the relationship between the
official foreign assistance program and the private voluntary community.
ACFVA recommendations are presented to the USAID Administrator,
offering a consultative avenue into agency planning efforts.
Inter-agency Policy Committee (IPC) – supports intra-U.S. government
agency collaboration and coordination, convened and organized as
needed.
Intelink, https://www.intelink.gov, hosted by the Office of the Director of
National Intelligence, this secure intranet was developed by the U.S.
intelligence community to promote information sharing between
Development, Diplomatic, Defense, and Intelligence staffs.
Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTS) (Iraq/Afghanistan), in
collaboration with Department of State and Department of Defense, PRTS
are inter-agency teams that work to stabilize, rebuild, and reconstruct
within unstable environments. Inter-agency collaboration is supported
within and among these teams.
USAID Seminar Series, http://www.usaid.gov/km/seminars/index.html,
provides a workshop format for presentations and panel discussions
exploring special topics in performance, implementation, measurement
and evaluation, policy, management, and business operations.
Presenters come from USAID, other government agencies, and from the
development partner community.
3.3 - Sustaining our Commitment to Open Government
Participation in an Open Government environment means using USAID’s
collaboration and partnership activities, to enable:
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 25
27. Learning: best practices, lessons from success or failure
Capturing and sharing knowledge and information (content that informs how
USAID plans, implements, manages, monitors/reports, etc. to do
development better)
Dialogue or collaboration with partners (to exchange, inform, and help us
carry out our development business more effectively and efficiently)
Scaling programs for broader impact
USAID is committed to staying current, as Open Government standards and
processes evolve. Ideas will be enlisted from the public, from within USAID, and
from our agency and institutional partners in development assistance for more
efficient, and more effective ways to manage feedback.
Already, suggestions, ideas, and feedback from the public are being posted on
IdeaScale, www.open.usaid.ideascale.com. Sample contributions from the group
posted to date include recommendations to:
Establish a pilot project to build a next-gen USAID portal for the Federal
Community Cloud – part of a suite of open social portal
Set up a national network for cooperation and information sharing, to connect
with other organizations in the U.S. and overseas, to implement strong
cooperation programs
Develop an online social networking community for young adults interested in
international development; the idea included ambassadors and educators
who can reach into the student community, and contests for students to
propose ways to solve complex development problems
Help develop small self-regulating cooperating nonprofit organizations, that
are socially and environmentally responsible and encourage direct action
from and with their communities
Collecting these ideas through various public-facing websites will better enable
USAID to provide effective development assistance and facilitate others to do the
same. This process can spur further dialogue and engagement with the public.
3.4 - USAID’s Collaboration and Partnership Websites
USAID missions, bureaus, and offices have created and supported websites and
other repositories to store and share knowledge and information about specific
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 26
28. programs, development activities, partnerships, collaborative endeavors,
products, new ideas and their solutions. In addition, USAID websites are used to
manage data and report on how development activities are being carried out.
USAID will maintain and update these sites, to reflect current activities in
collaboration and partnerships.
USAID mission websites can be accessed through the “Locations” tab on the
public website: http://www.usaid.gov/missions/.
A USAID public website, http://commons.usaid.gov/categories, is a collection
of program websites that shows USAID-funded program activities in technical
areas, geographic regions, and cross-cutting activities.
The Global Development Commons created
www.GlobalDevelopmentCommons.net, a site that profiles and promotes
successful applications of technology to international development efforts.
Following OMB’s guidance for Open Government, USAID is populating the
public site, http://www.usaid.gov/open, which is a central portal into the
activities and results of our Open Government work.
3.5 - Innovative Methods for Obtaining Ideas and Increasing
Collaboration
3.5.1 - Overview
Technology and entrepreneurship are the two classic wellsprings of innovation.
In a development context, USAID sees innovation as the intersection among
development practice, technology, and entrepreneurship. USAID is positioning
itself at the forefront of development practice that leverages technologies and
fosters entrepreneurship because these approaches lead to positive
development outcomes. There is a methodology component to the “new nature”
of innovation in the 21st century. That is, open, collaborative approaches to
problem solving that involve multiple stakeholders, especially end-users, are
more likely to yield positive, sustainable results. Good development practice
necessitates collaboration with, and commitment from, beneficiaries/communities
to make a development program a success.
International development efforts are now being undertaken by many interested,
skilled and, in some cases, well resourced actors. This environment demands a
different approach however from when the development landscape was
dominated by a few, large government donors, multilateral aid organizations and
charities. The concepts of openness and sharing are more important than ever
given the significant increase in the number of actors, and given our own
understanding of the importance of involving local actors in sustainable
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 27
29. development. The skills to listen to these actors, identify common interests and
construct shared programs that can leverage each actor’s strengths, and satisfy
beneficiaries’ needs, while meeting USAID objectives, are key for professionals
in 21st century development craft.
USAID leadership is discussing an internal proposal to bring a holistic, integrated
innovation approach to how our agency does business. We see the
programmatic basis for innovation as comprising three core areas: technology,
entrepreneurship, and open, networked development. The overall approach will
be to:
Communicate innovations from inside USAID for replication and scaling and
externally for replication, scaling, partnership opportunities and branding.
Identify innovations in development practice from outside USAID and bring
into USAID.
Build a community of development innovation stakeholders, including USAID
leadership and employees, thought leaders, partners, traditional and non-
traditional development actors, and media.
Launch new programs and support existing programs within the Agency that
meet the following criteria:
Impact: Does the program deliver tangible results in the triangle (the
intersection of the three legs of innovation)?
Disrupt: Does the program signal a new, more efficient or engaging way
of doing business?
Innovate: Does the program promote innovation within (as culture
change) or outside the Agency (+ branding)?
Lead: Does the program have leadership and existing USAID assets
behind it?
Partner: Does the program leverage existing Partner resources, networks
and assets?
Network: Does the program catalyze action from non-traditional
development actors or beneficiaries?
Achieve: Is it program implementable, given the resources available?
Motivate: Does the program excite and inspire?
Align: Does the program offer long-term strategic value to USAID’s
mission?
Support: Bureaus and missions to coordinate, catalyze and integrate
innovations
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 28
30. Transcend: Surface and break down institutional barriers (cultural,
bureaucratic, and/or logistical) to innovation
Examples of USAID’s innovative activities, currently underway, include:
African Diaspora Marketplace (ADM): A competition, marketplace, and idea
generation forum for entrepreneurs to spur job creation in their native
countries. ADM was carried out in partnership between USAID, The Western
Union Company, and the Western Union Foundation as well as through
Western Union Agency Giving Circles. From an initial pool of 733 applicant
business plan proposals, 60 finalists were chosen. At a Washington-based
forum and marketplace event in January 2010, 14 diaspora-driven businesses
in seven countries were awarded matching grants ranging from $50,00 to
$100,000. Winning entries ranged from a commercial plant tissue culture
business using biotechnology to increase yield and quality of produce for
Ethiopian agriculture producers, to a franchise business model that will
empower female nurse entrepreneurs to improve access to healthcare and
reduce the burden on government hospitals in Ghana.
Office of Democracy and Governance (DCHA/DG) Community of
Practice Blog: A discussion of innovation in the democracy and governance
sector. With the intent of capturing best practices and informing the fields, an
online discussion commenced in January 2010 to spark conversation, pose
challenges, collect ideas and best practices. As the democracy and
governance sector continues to evolve, it is important to provide technical and
intellectual leadership and services. Recognizing that the majority of
innovations are field-driven, this blog begins with discussions that define
innovation; highlight new programs, approaches, or ways of engaging new or
non-traditional partners; explore new technical innovations and opportunities;
and explore how to encourage more open, collaborative approaches to
problem solving with a full range of partners.
Global Pulse 2010: A 72-hour online dialogue, led by USAID in partnership
with The White House, the Departments of Commerce, Education, Health and
Human Services, and State. (GP 2010 is featured as USAID’s Flagship
Initiative, discussed in more detail in Section 4.)
LAUNCH: A collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) to develop a concept and event series to create a
dynamic new platform to promote and share disruptive innovations in
sustainability and development. USAID will work with NASA in developing
and rolling out a series of collaborative partnerships to accelerate new
innovations to scale. The activity is slated to begin in mid-2010.
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 29
31. Partnership to Monitor Election Related Violence in Afghanistan: an on-
the-ground partnership with FortiusOne’s GeoCommons, Google,
OpenStreetMap, Stamen, Development Seed, the Synergy Strike Force, and
others who map data on election-related violence and trends around the
Afghanistan 2009 Elections. A map is available in real time to anyone with an
Internet connection, creating an unprecedented degree of transparency.
Also, any user can upload data to build this out further. Ushahidi’s platform is
collecting data from mobile phones via Short Message Service (SMS). These
partnerships are demonstrating the potential for new ways to document
events surrounding elections in general, which can be useful in similar
situations around the world.
3.5.2 - Prizes, Competitions, Challenges, and Incentives
The Open Government Directive recognizes prizes, competitions, challenges,
and incentives as motivators to spur new ideas, approaches, and partnerships.
In 2008, USAID’s Global Development Commons team initiated the Development
2.0 Challenge, and the activity was honored as a finalist for the 2009 Service to
America Award. See www.servicetoamericamedals.org/SAM/finalists09/
With over four billion subscribers in the world, the mobile phone is often the key
to connecting and exchanging information with people in developing countries.
The 2008 USAID Development 2.0 Challenge, implemented by the Global
Development Commons, invited innovators and entrepreneurs from around the
world to participate in a global competition to seek access to information and
build new connections to the global community. Crowdsourcing and Open
Innovation have become increasingly important engines of innovation globally,
leveraged by the commercial, non-profit, academic and government sectors to
identify opportunities and solve problems. USAID’s Development 2.0 Challenge
yielded 115 submissions using high impact, low-cost, open source solutions.
The top three finalists presented their projects at an awards ceremony in
Washington, DC, attended by international development practitioners, private
sector partners, potential investors, media, and students. RapidSMS Child
Malnutrition Surveillance, a startup from six graduate students at Columbia
University's School of International and Public Affairs working in partnership with
the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), was the winning project, receiving
a $10,000 grant. The two runners-up, Click Diagnostics and Ushahidi, were
commended and received grants of $5,000 each. For more information about
the Development 2.0 Challenge, see www.usaid.gov/about_usaid/gdc/
Building on lessons from the Development 2.0 Challenge, USAID intends to
identify and implement the next Development 2.0 Challenge to highlight
innovative social enterprises developing cutting-edge development technologies.
As offices, programs, missions, and bureaus in USAID stand up their own
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 30
32. development challenges, USAID continues to hone its innovation advisory
capabilities. We will offer challenge advisory services to internal USAID clients.
These include design, technology identification, partnership access, marketing
and communications support, and a potential online platform.
USAID recognizes the important role that incentives can play in sharing best
practices about innovation, as well as surfacing innovative ideas and solutions
that can help advance the broader development agenda. These include
Experimenting with new technologies,
Taking a whole-of-government approach to leverage expertise, both within
USAID and in collaboration with other Federal Government agencies and
departments, and
Forming high-impact collaborations with researchers, the private sector, and
civil society.
3.6 - Policy Implications
USAID views innovation as one lever of a more dynamic partnership and
collaboration environment. As Open Government gains traction among U.S.
Federal government agencies, engaging with the public can enrich our
collaboration and partnership activities. We recognize the value of honing our
collaboration systems and methods by which we develop, track, and
communicate about development activities, in relationship to other development
partners.
USAID is committed to improving foreign assistance planning and execution in
an ever-evolving interagency arena, working with a range of traditional and non-
traditional partners. An Open Government approach to collaboration and
partnership tools, methods, and technology will reinforce our ability to plan for,
engage in, and communicate about ongoing and new partnerships and alliances.
Platforms and other engagement modes for knowledge-sharing and information
use will allow more effective access to data about collaboration and partnerships.
This should enable USAID and our partners to advance the important work of
development with a complete range of collaborators, development practitioners
and the local community in overseas missions. We expect that an Open
Government will better equip us to draw lessons from experience, explore new
tools and models, and learn from good practices in innovation, partnership, and
collaboration through ongoing engagement with development partners, other
agencies and departments, universities, think tanks, private companies, non-
governmental organizations, and interested citizens.
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 31
33. 4.0 Flagship Initiative
On March 29 – 31, 2010, the U.S. Government will be hosting, Global Pulse
2010, a 72-hour, online collaboration event that will turn dialogue into
partnerships, ideas into
opportunities, and rhetoric
into action. Global Pulse 2010 Topics
Implemented by an Advancing Entrepreneurship,
interagency team led by Trade, and Economic Opportunity
USAID, Global Pulse 2010 is Building Strong Partnerships
a US Government initiative Empowering Women and Girls
that identifies ten hot-button Enabling Essential Education
issues facing the global Exercising Political and Civil
community across the fields Rights
of science and technology, Fostering Science, Technology,
entrepreneurship and human and Innovation
development (see text box). Inspiring a New Generation
The Global Pulse 2010 event Promoting Global Health
will give thousands of
Pursuing Grand Challenges
participants from around the
Supporting a Sustainable Planet
world an opportunity to
discuss these issues and
connect with others who have
shared interests. The
platform will be used to capture the pulse of live, online collaboration sessions
with analytic tools that identify the key ideas and major thematic areas that
emerge. The goal of the Global Pulse 2010 event is to connect individuals to
resources, and to inform U.S. foreign assistance and diplomatic strategy in an
effort to bring sustainable innovation to communities around the world.
Globalization has given local problems a global reach. Sustainable solutions
therefore require collaboration on a global scale. Global Pulse 2010 will be an
open call for solutions, rallying participants who are interested in partnering with
individuals or organizations to turn great ideas into action. Governments and
private businesses are learning that the best ideas do not always come from the
top. Global Pulse 2010 participants will share ideas and co-create solutions in
collaboration with governments, private sector entities, and civil society
organizations.
Updates and information on the Global Pulse 2010 event are available to the
public at www.GlobalPulse2010.gov.
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 32
34. Global Pulse 2010 Target
Countries
Azer baijan
United States Tajikistan
Morocco
Jordan
Senegal
India
Brazil Kenya
Indonesia
Global Pulse 2010 is an unprecedented event sponsored by the US Government.
Participation is planned to be global. We are designing the outreach program
globally to encourage participation from:
Non-governmental organizations
Universities and community colleges
Private sector companies
Diaspora communities
Governments
Participation and collaboration are the openness principles that will be addressed
by this event. Outreach efforts are focused on reaching organizations that have
broad networks of individuals with authority and/or expertise to contribute value
to the discussion topics identified for Global Pulse 2010. We are expecting a
global mix of participants across all themes and geographic areas. We
appreciate the fact that Internet access is a prerequisite to participate in the 72-
hour event, and understand that this excludes many interested parties. However,
we are focusing on including voices that might otherwise be under-represented if
they are not drawn in (e.g., women). We will set up facilities to invite participation
during the event, using central gathering spots such as schools and community
meeting areas to better enable groups of people to participate and contribute
together. Additional cross-cultural engagement and exchange will come in
through locations in the U.S. Department of State’s American Corners – an
extensive cultural exchange network in missions and posts around the globe. In
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 33
35. addition to providing physical hubs for information and knowledge-sharing,
American Corners locations make available their collections of electronic media,
books, music, videos, other resources and information about history, politics,
history, literature, culture, and geography.
Through the interagency planning process, USAID was asked to take the lead. A
core group of agencies have come together to plan and execute this event. They
include:
USAID – Lead Implementing Agency
Department of Commerce
Department of Education
Department of Health and Human Services
Department of State
A broader group of non-governmental organizations are also directly involved
with the planning of the event directly with the interagency group identified
above. Participants have included:
Aga Khan Foundation
Babson College
Brookings Institute
IBM Foundation
Mercy Corps
Facilitation of the content and outreach elements of the program is underway.
While the actual Global Pulse 2010 event will take place from March 29 to 31,
2010, we expect that its impact will be felt for months after the on-line part of
event wraps up.
Broad participation and discussion about the specific topics should
illuminate diverse points of view and opportunities for participation and
collaboration. Without the Global Pulse 2010 event itself, they might not
be identified or prioritized appropriately.
We plan to analyze and use data obtained, to inform USAID and U.S.
government’s policy and programming activities in international
development.
We expect that USAID and the other agencies directly involved will identify
ideas and approaches that can be adopted directly or that can
meaningfully influence policy and programming efforts.
We anticipate that the Global Pulse 2010 will impact not only the
sponsoring agencies, but also the participants. We expect to carry out a
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 34
36. We will publish a Global Pulse 2010 report on our www.USAID.gov/open
website.
We will present findings from this experience at conferences and in journal
articles.
The timing of this flagship initiative coincides with the drafting of USAID’s
Open Government Plan. We anticipate that lessons from the Global Pulse
2010 experience will inform planning and implementation of future global
engagement activities. Even if these are different in scope and approach, the
information and ideas can be discussed broadly. At this time, the exact
program for related follow-on engagement that will be carried out by USAID
and other participating agencies is under development.
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 35
37. 5.0 Public and Agency Involvement
The Open Government Plan is about the current and future activities of the
agency to take advantage of the benefits of a transparent, participatory and
collaborative approach to the work of the Agency. It is only fitting that we
exercise these skills within the agency in support of the creation, refinement and
finalization of the USAID Open Government Plan.
5.1 - USAID’s Open Government Initiative Task Force
This draft plan and the process for seeking and integrating feedback from both
inside and outside the agency are being managed by an Open Government Task
Force within USAID. It is co-chaired by the Director of the Office of Management
Policy, Budget and Performance in the Management Bureau and the Director of
the Office of Development Partners. The task force has been in place since the
beginning of January 2010. It includes representation from each of the
organizations with direct responsibility for some aspect of the Open Government
Initiative. They are:
Office of Management Policy, Budget and Performance (M/MPBP)
Office of the Chief Information Officer (M/CIO)
Office of the Chief Financial Officer (M/CFO)
Office of Acquisitions and Assistance (M/OAA)
Office of Administrative Services (M/AS)
Office of Development Partners (ODP)
Office of the Chief Operating Officer (COO)
Legislative and Public Affairs (LPA)
Office of the General Council (GC)
Office of Security (SEC)
5.2 - Open Government Initiative Public and Agency Involvement
USAID’s Open Government Initiative Taskforce is leveraging expertise from
around the agency to support the creation of the Open Government Plan that we
intend to provide for broader comment. As we build the plan, we anticipate a five
day comment period from March 15-19, 2010, per the guidance received from
the Office of Management and Budget’s Open Government Working Group.
During this comment period, USAID will seek comments, feedback and input
from:
USAID employees
Other U.S. Agencies and Departments
Implementing partners
The general public
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 36
38. We will use a number of mechanisms to reach these constituents, depending on
the group. For example, for USAID employees, these could include:
Agency Notices
The Foreign Affairs Bulletin (operational and programmatic guidance,
information, and communication about noteworthy activities and
decisions, disseminated to USAID and Department of State employees in
missions and posts around the world)
The Chief Operating Officer Bi-Weekly Report
FrontLines (published by USAID’s Legislative and Public Affairs bureau,
reaching employees in missions and posts around the world, plus
interested development professionals worldwide)
Mentions or more expanded descriptions in various internal organization
blogs and web site postings
For U.S. government agencies and departments involved in international
development:
Direct contact with the individual agencies and departments themselves
Open government forums and workshops
For implementing partners:
Communication through industry organizations, such as the Advisory
Council on Voluntary Foreign Aid (ACFVA); InterAction (a coalition of over
150 humanitarian organizations providing disaster relief, refugee
assistance and sustainable development programs worldwide); and the
Professional Services Council (PSC), the unified voice of the government
services community.
Convene an Open Government Plan meeting to review what we have and
seek their comments.
Present at Society for International Development working group meetings,
to increase understanding and encourage participation among
development practitioners, students, retirees, and others who are
interested in international development.
For the general public:
Post the plan for comment on the OpenGov website.
Promote it and encourage discussion via Facebook, Twitter, and other
social networking avenues.
Push requests for comment and engagement through existing
mechanisms including IdeaSource.
Connect to USAID-related collaboration sites. (For more about this, refer
to the list of USAID collaboration mechanisms, described in the plan under
“Leveraging our Collaboration Platforms and Technology”)
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 37
39. Use appropriate resources to process and respond to feedback collected
from USAID employees and the public, during the plan’s initial comment
period.
Once this feedback/comment period is complete, we will refine the plan and
publish USAID’s Open Government Plan according to the schedule prepared by
the Office of Management and Budget’s Open Government Working Group. At
this time, April 7, 2010 is listed as the date when all government agencies must
post their plans. We envision this as the beginning of an ongoing process
whereby we more effectively take a participatory and collaborative approach to
engaging with others about our international development work. We anticipate
receiving input and ideas from USAID employees, employees of other
government agencies and departments, key stakeholders in the private and non-
profit sectors, and the general public.
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 38
40. Appendix A
The following table serves an inventory of existing USAID activities that embrace
the open government principles of transparency, participation and collaboration.
USAID-Managed Public Websites
Website URL Description
USAID Main Web www.usaid.gov This is the primary USAID web site that
Site conveys to the public its history,
organization, U.S. foreign
development/humanitarian policy, aid
programs/projects by region/country,
and other information.
USAID Mission www.usaid.gov/mi USAID missions have an internet
Web Sites ssions presence available to the public that
provide country-specific
budget/financial data and USAID
assistance profiles. Many sites provide
information in the language of the aid-
recipient country.
USAID www.usaid.gov/p Summarized results achieved for a
Performance olicy/performance representative set of approximately 38
Trends performance indicators with results
from FY2005-2008 and targets for
FY2009 and FY2010.
USAID Budget and www.usaid.gov/p For budget, performance and
Performance olicy/budget accountability information, USAID
produces several key planning and
reporting documents that define the
primary goals and progress of U.S.
foreign policy, development and
humanitarian assistance as well as
related aid levels and flows.
Where Does www.usaid.gov/p A snapshot and related details on how
USAID's Money olicy/budget/mon USAID obligated its budgetary
Go? ey/ resources in FY2008 forward
Congressional http://www.usaid. The FY 2011 Foreign Operations
Budget gov/policy/budget/ Budget Request reflects the continuing
Justification cbj2010/ process to provide improved strategic
focus, data quality, and information on
topics of greater Congressional
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 39
41. interest.
Agency Financial http://www.usaid. Provides an overview of the
Report gov/policy/afr09/ Agency's financial and performance
data to help Congress, the President,
and the public assess
USAID’s stewardship over resources
We Are USAID http://www.usaid. Highlights agency finances, successes,
Brochure gov/policy/afr08/a and accomplishments in a visually
fr08_brochure.pdf appealing, clear and understandable
format for a general audience.
Annual http://www.usaid. The Annual Performance Report
Performance gov/policy/budget/ presents an assessment of USAID and
Report apr09/ the Department of State’s performance
for the fiscal year
Citizen's Report http://www.usaid. The Citizens’ Report provides a
gov/policy/budget/ summary of USAID and the State
citrep09/ Department’s performance for the fiscal
year
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 40
42. Appendix B
To date, USAID has submitted the high value data in the table below to the
data.gov website.
Data Set URL What makes the dataset high-value?
U.S. Official http://www.data.gov/ USAID has a twofold purpose of
Development raw/1596/ furthering America’s foreign policy
Assistance Data interests in expanding democracy and
free markets while improving the lives
of citizens in the development world.
As the principal U.S. agency extending
foreign assistance dollars overseas,
approximately 40%, data is organized
to conform to guidelines established by
the Organization for Economic Co-
Operation and Development (OECD),
Paris, France. Called Official
Development Assistance (ODA),
USAID submits the report to the
Development Assistance Committee
(DAC) of OECD. DAC is the principal
body dealing with issues relating to
international cooperation with
developing countries and by using
OECD’s definitions comparisons by
international donor are possible.
U.S. Trade http://www.data.gov/ USAID supports on-the-ground
Capacity Data raw/1605/ activities in economic growth and trade
to sustain foreign policy interests in
expanding free markets. Since 2001,
all U.S. government trade capacity
building activities in development
countries and transitional economies is
quantified and submitted to the Office
of the U.S. Trade Representative
(USTR). The data is used to promote
and conduct trade within World Trade
Organization rules.
U.S. Overseas http://www.data.gov/ Commonly known as the Greenbook
Loans and raw/1554/ (the bound copy always sports a green
Grants cover), the report provides a complete
historical record, since 1945, of U.S.
foreign aid to the rest of the world. Data
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 41
43. is reported by fiscal year—October 1 to
September 30 of the following year 3 .
Congress mandates 4 the submission of
foreign assistance data on all loans
and grants authorized by the U.S.
government and categorized as either
economic assistance or military
assistance. Non-concessional
support 5 is also presented.
3
Previous to 1976, the fiscal year began on July 1 and ran until June 30 of the following year.
4
A binding obligation
5
Loans based on market rates which must be repaid.
USAID Open Government Plan, 04/07/2010 42