USAID is going to be more effective

Robert Swope over at D3 (http://www.robertswope.com/) posted the contents of a speech by Rajiv Shah, the USAID Administrator. The upshot of the speech: USAID programs are going to be monitored and evaluated for their effectiveness. While I applaud this thought, I wonder how this will be accomplished. USAID is essentially a huge contracting agency. The agency cuts contracts with local NGOs (called "implementing partners") to do the work, and other contractors to see if the work was done (or they just let the implementing partner report about how the work was getting done). In one province in remote Afghanistan, for example, there were allegely more than 50 programs on going. There was one USAID representative and it was not his job to see if the women in the job program were actually getting the required literacy training or not. He spent his day at the FOB because he had no transportation. This is not the entire picture, by the way, of what USAID does--there were numerous incredibly dedicated individuals posted to remote and dangerous locations all by themselves living off the military (again-- a somewhat hostile relationship) doing great work. But in terms of contracting...no way USAID has any idea about what's going on in all those contracts all over Afghanistan. No Way. So, how to implement some kind of control? Well, that would require growing the organization to do monitoring. That's not going to happen obviously. We'll just have to wait to see how this plays out. It's a good idea, but I am not sure it's feasible.

Here's the speech:http://www.usaid.gov/press/speeches/2011/sp110119.html