ATTACHMENT_THREE_ERA_Co-Creation_White_Paper.pdf

ATTACHMENT THREE

Economic Reform Activity

White Paper - Resulting Changes from Co-Creation Efforts

The Economic Reform Activity (ERA) design team has conducted several stages of co-creation.

In lieu of issuing an updated scope in advance of the Request for Proposals, this white paper seeks to provide a summary of reflections and possible changes from the design team. These changes were generated from: Request for Information responses, April 5, 2019 Co-Creation

Conference conversations, consultations with the Government of Jordan, a May 22, 2019 Donor

Co-Creation and Co-Design Workshop, and a Stakeholder Workshop held in partnership with the

GoJ on June 25th in Amman.

The design team would like to acknowledge and thank respondents and participants in our various co-creation efforts. Your input and investment of time and resources have improved our design and enabled us to incorporate or acknowledge thinking from more than 100 different stakeholders.

The following are highlights from our co-creation:

1. The Reform Secretariat (RS) location was decided and announced by the Government of

Jordan (GOJ) to be within the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation. In the closing statement of the London Initiative, the GOJ committed to establishing and launching the RS.

USAID is positioned via ERA to provide assistance to the RS once it is officially established.

The UK Government via the Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) has committed resources to support the RS establishment and USAID will seek to harmonize our support with this Fund.

Task Order One is not envisioned to support the RS at this time. Task Order Two, which is planned as a U.S. small business set aside, will provide dedicated support to the Reform

Secretariat.

2. Firm Level Assistance (FLA): ERA is designed and anticipated to provide direct firm-level assistance via Enterprise Jordan (EJ) or in close coordination with EJ. USAID is looking to the contractors to propose approaches for EJ support. USAID seeks to build on what exists and ensure that our assistance is additive, not duplicative. ERA is designed to provide assistance and work with anchor firms as defined in the RFI; a clear line has been drawn to limit overlap with current or future USAID instruments. USAID is also looking to potential Offerors to be aware of what exists in the FLA space and work on devising a referral mechanism between the various assistance instruments, while positioning EJ to lead this process.

Some respondents recommended removing the firm-level component from ERA and broadening

Jordan Enterprise Support (JES) Activity’s mandate, as JES is currently planned to focus on

Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). We acknowledge the potential challenges raised by both activities working at the firm level and will require co-work planning to increase synergies and mitigate overlap.

Some respondents asked that USAID consider including all businesses in possible ERA firm-level interventions. Because ERA will have a sister activity, JES focused on MSME strengthening, and also will coordinate with the Women’s Economic Empowerment and

Leadership Activity (WEELA), which will also have interventions on MSME support, the design team has purposefully focused on engagement with anchor firms to delineate between the activities which will focus on certain firm sizes. There may be instances where exceptions are adopted to allow ERA, JES, or WEELA to work with a specific firm outside of their respective target populations, but it is not expected to be widespread.

3. Building Local Capacity with a clear Exit Strategy: ERA is designed to support Jordan’s

Journey to Self-Reliance. This means that USAID expects ERA to focus on building local capacity to prioritize and implement reform. USAID expects exit strategies for interventions under ERA, with clear local champions and leaders that will be partners in implementation of

ERA. While USAID acknowledges that not every finite activity can be expected to graduate at the end of a five year horizon, it is expected that through early development of exit strategies, the implementer(s) will transparently work with the GoJ to prioritize those elements that can be graduated.

4. Access to finance inclusion was proposed by multiple RFI respondents. USAID/EDE evidence suggests that there is improved access to finance within Jordan, but an under- or mal-utilization of financing available. Many potential private sector partners are seeking free financing, which is currently artificially offered through donor projects, crowding out the private sector from offering financial tools and services with fees and interest charges. It is not expected that ERA will include an access to finance component. USAID/EDE may develop a utilization of finance activity in the future but it is not currently planned as a part of ERA.

6. Multiple respondents encouraged the inclusion of labor market interventions in ERA.

Through donor coordination, the design team determined other donors will be focused on this space and that it will not be a main focus within Task Order One or Two.

Several respondents acknowledged that encouraging TO coordination is challenging and can be tricky to establish. We agree and look forward to your innovative proposals on how to address this challenge and how to utilizing co-work planning as a method to reduce competition between task order holders and other USAID and donor projects.

7. Several respondents asked for greater clarification or a summary list for Component 4 possible interventions. The Annexes provided that describe the Constraints to Growth and Assets to Build should be considered as a rough outline of possible areas for intervention.

8. Several respondents suggesting increasing the focus on strategic communications beyond its current reference, citing its importance in the policy process and implementation. We adjusted this in the latest version of the design.