CARSS Industry Engagement Event Summary Notes_English.pdf

Central America Regional Support Services (CARSS) Industry Engagement Event

November 17, 2022

Welcome and Introductions

● Alexander Mavroukakis, lead Contracting Officer (CO) for this procurement, opened the event by welcoming all participants, thanking them for attending the in-person Industry Day, and noting that this procurement is still in its infancy stage and that USAID hoped this event would help make critical decisions regarding the solicitation going forward. He emphasized the importance of having the space and time to learn about one another, the program and some tidbits about what will come next.

● Virginie Martin-Onraët, lead facilitator for the Industry day, opened the floor to participants with an icebreaker to allow people to introduce themselves at the table level.

Opening Remarks

● Christopher Cushing, Mission Director, USAID El Salvador gave opening remarks in Spanish. The key takeaways of the message were:

○ Thanking participants and stating he was very pleased that 115 organizations were in attendance.

○ The purpose of the Industry Engagement Event is to exchange information about what USAID can do in the region and how partners can work together to achieve USAID goals.

○ CARSS is a requirement to address key root causes of irregular migration to the United States. USAID wants to help citizens create a more prosperous, safe country where each person can have a better life without needing to leave their homeland.

○ The Regional Development Cooperation Strategy (RDCS) and Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) are both available on USAID.gov website.

○ USAID wants to hear directly from Industry, many of whom have been partners for many years. The goal is to co-create solutions for the whole region and solutions and ideas from organizations present are key to creating innovative, sustainable solutions.

○ Highlighting the importance of new partners and the localization agenda.

■ Projects must take into account local citizen perspectives. This is the only way solutions can be truly sustainable. National partners should have humility, flexibility, and openness.

■ As working with USAID can be very complicated, organizations must be open to helping new partners with requirements.

■ USAID trusts that, with the organizations' intellectual capacity and experience, they will find innovative ways to make these objectives of localization and innovation a reality.

○ Listening must be a part of the whole process. The event will be successful only if participants get to know one another to work as a cohesive team.

○ In the short-term, USAID plans to have in-person and virtual presentations in English and Spanish on how to work with USAID and some upcoming opportunities.

Keynote Speakers

After the initial remarks, two keynote speakers followed.

Martin McLaughlin, Director, Office of Central America and Mexico Affairs (CAM), Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean USAID spoke about USAID regional objectives, including creating more and better jobs, strengthening rule of law, and combating corruption. He explained that there is a general consensus in development that donors need to be more receptive to the needs of actors in local communities. This is how we will achieve lasting change in the communities we work with. His main points included:

● It is key we address the root causes that drive immigration to the United States.

● This customizable work order approach will help address the causes of irregular migration, drive opportunities, & increase economic opportunities in an integrated manner.

● USAID intends to double down on increasing the role of local development partners and design activities to empower people to work within their communities via grants.

● CARSS is a very agile mechanism, which can support the execution of the strategy, address root causes of irregular migration, and enable organizations here today to work closely with local partners.

● There is a strong commitment from USAID/HQ to combat climate change and gender-based violence (GBV). One of the biggest challenges for Central American countries is climate change, which will slow down economic growth of the economy in several areas and reduce opportunities in the workforce.

● USAID has a new collaboration with Amazon, with initial financing of $6 million to establish gender equity for climate. USAID and Amazon will work together to achieve an additional $16 million on financing, and more partners are welcome.

● Multiple bureau offices are aligning in order to achieve initiatives in Central America and make sure they will have the greatest impact.

Kimberly Ball, Director, USAID Office of Small & Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) spoke about the importance of small business for CARSS. Her main points included:

● The Agency has received an A scorecard for small businesses;

● 2022 had a record for obligated funds of $983 million to small businesses (total at USAID, not just El Salvador). This shows that they can do a great magnitude of work, not just traditional “small business” work;

● Urge all participants to please talk to small business colleagues and see how they can help;

● Explain that equity in Procurement is part of Biden’s DEIA initiative:

○ Making sure minority-owned businesses are getting a fair share of federal obligations;

○ By 2025, Biden has asked the agency to be at the 25% mark (right now it’s 5%); the team here has been very intentional;

○ OSDBU is working closely with the solicitation team about what small business involvement in this requirement will look like, and they are very engaged & interested in having small businesses engage with USAID and would like small businesses to prime when possible. I want to also remind big primes of the benefits and opportunities in working with small business;

○ Key questions should be addressed:

■ Who are the small businesses & local organizations?

■ How can they help/add benefits?

■ How can you make sure they are given substantive work?

○ There are many different ways of participating as a small business, i.e. you can also be a big business on the team of a small business;

○ Reiterate the Industry Day was organized because USAID believes there is a role for everyone (all types of partners)

A Q&A for the two keynote speakers followed.

Questions and responses are presented below:

● Question - set aside for small businesses?

○ No response yet, not able to discuss strategy to that length, continue to be engaged as

OSDBU office & in conversations with procurement team & continue to advocate for you

● Question - See the focus of the Administrator on localization, and small businesses are uniquely capable to address that given our perspective. How are things being balanced between US small business & local organizations?

○ USAID will be working on emphasizing that there is no conflict between the two.

○ As part of this conversation, be sure to make a contracting plan to allow for small businesses & encourage it. Make sure you are getting the work (this doesn’t always happen even if they are on a proposal). Thinking about how we can help our large business primes know who smalls are and the benefits.

○ Usually small businesses are for-profit, a lot of localization is assistance work (so there is no conflict). We will work on making that lack of conflict even more clear.

● Question - procurement would be a customizable work order approach - what does that mean exactly? Is it a multiple award IDIQ?

○ From Washington, we are here in many ways to support the field.

○ Development knowledge for most of these super complicated problems is held at mission level with tech experts, local colleagues who know problems better than anyone and have expertise to think of solutions.

○ Overall from Washington - we are supportive of IDIQ & its customization ability (focus is root cause strategies) for 5 missions & regional missions - they share a common challenge of irregular migration. CARSS mechanism will allow 6 operating units to buy in for as long as they want, could be larger/smaller, could be focused on one or 2-3 of the objectives. Customizability (time period, amount, tech focus) as a real benefit because we understand the complexity of the root causes.

○ IDIQ hasn’t been completely finalized, but it would be the best mechanism - there will be a small business component & will provide additional correspondence.

○ Most important - be flexible.

● Question - When the first documents came out, didn’t see a mention of youth clearly specified -will there be mention of education/youth? Services for young people?

○ What you see in the RFI are very broad section areas. In terms of flexibility - while you may not see something specific, it is in the overarching section area.

● Question - Whenever we pursue an opportunity, we want to be sure we can allocate resources, looking for reassurance that we should continue pursuing opportunity as a small business.

○ We are not able to say yes/no on small business roles. OSDBU’s presence here is indicative of something.

○ To pursue this opportunity, it costs money, and that is more of a hardship as a small business.

● Question - how does the IDIQ word and how many sectors it covers?

○ Section C - 4 listed strategic objectives, some work is cross-sector

● Question - how do you see the perception of USAID of having a local presence vs. working with locals?

○ People who manage policies & definitions are in charge of that, but we understand that how we manage targets is important.

○ No finite procurement policy on what it means to be local - trying to leverage that capability with procurement policy.

Hybrid Panelist Roundtable and Q&A

A hybrid roundtable, moderated by Alex Mavroukakis, included:

● Bruce Abrams (Mission Director (MD), USAID/Mexico - Virtual)

● Timothy Hurley (Program Officer (PO), USAID/Mexico - In Person)

● Nora Pinzon (Deputy Mission Director (DMD), USAID/Nicaragua - In Person)

● Nathan Olah (Office of Acquisition and Assistance (OAA), USAID/Honduras - In Person)

● Michelle Dworkin (Program Officer (PO), USAID/Honduras - Virtual)

● Christopher Cushing (Mission Director (MD), USAID/El Salvador & ECAM, In Person)

● Haven Cruz-Hubbard (Mission Director (MD), USAID/Guatemala - Virtual)

● Erin Krasik (Program Officer (PO), USAID/Guatemala - In Person)

● Armando Espinosa - (Office of Acquisition and Assistance (OAA), USAID/Guatemala - In Person)

The first question to the panel was what are your primary priorities and initiatives under your Mission’s CDCS/RDCS? Key takeaways of the conversation are below:

● Bruce Abrams

○ Mexico is not a developing country but the 15th largest economy in the world;

○ The development work we do is development work of mutual interest of US & Mexico on shared challenges and issues;

○ There is extreme poverty in Mexico and a variety of priorities we could focus on but we focus on those that are mutually beneficial between US & Mexico;

○ Development diplomacy - development moving relationships forward

○ Building capacity of Mexico side;

○ Rule of law, crime prevention, human rights are top 3 focus areas - American initiative;

○ Now new framework, bicentennial agreement;

○ Mexico is one of most decentralized countries, so our work is coordination at federal level but most work on the ground is at state & local level;

○ Working in climate friendly development - focused mainly in the south, sustainable landscapes, energy efficiency as a contributor to climate, working in southern Mexico focusing on econonimc development;

○ Focusing on economic root causes of irregular migration from Central America, we are supporting our counterpart in Mexico to implement 2 economic programs (value agricultural chain, youth education/job placement) & link Mexico programs with Central America programs.

● Nora Pinzon

○ Nicaragua mission operates under a framework that ends in December this year, supporting independent media to provide fact-based info, focus on human rights, democratization, youth development;

○ USAID activities also contribute to cross cutting sectors (indigenous peoples, gender equality/empowerment) and bilateral/regional activities, including fighting AIDs/HIV, COVID, other health crises.

● Haven Cruz-Hubbard

○ Connect indigenous people, women, youth with opportunities that will allow them to have opportunities in their home countries in Guatemala (where immigration ties in);

○ Inclusion of indigenous peoples, approximately 17 million inhabitants in Guatemala self-identified as indigenous, most experience unequal access to education, health, other services;

○ 2.3 million youth are out of school and many have not completed basic school and lack job skills;

○ Many of the youth (indigenous especially) see irregular migration as a route to opportunities;

○ Gender equality & Gender-Based-Violence is a focus - working to provide greater variety of services;

○ Democracy, victims of violence, inclusion of LGBTQ+;

○ 31% work outside the formal economy - want more economic opportunities for people within Guatemala given that they export so much;

○ 51% under 5 years experience learning stunting;

○ Move outside the capital, work with more local communities to focus on youth, women and indigenous people.

● Christopher Cushing

○ Reduce irregular migration, strategic focus is based on strategy of

US government to address root causes and create a more prosperous, safe, and secure Central America;

○ Economic prosperity, governance, security, environment, health;

○ Worth mentioning the RDCS & CDCS - most important sources to understand what we are doing under this program.

○ IDIQ key points -

■ Regional

● Migration is part of many factors - economic security, family (take an interrelated approach),

● Programs seek to promote links & opportunities in home communities, and repatriate people when possible (so people can come home);

■ El Salvador

● Focusing also on improving security (real & perceived - there is a difference),

● Bridge between the perception of security and the reality - working to increase income & improve jobs (informal & formal).

● Including health NGOs.

● Also want to mention that we focus on 3 urban areas because people are migrating through these (San Salvador, Santa Ana, San Miguel) -working to have a more prosperous, secure country.

● Michelle Dworkin

○ Have RDCS & CDCS - more democratic & safe country, esp for citizens, invest in local communities, we not only want to stop migration but also create culture in Honduras where people feel they can invest, remain safe with their family. People with more education migrate less so this is an important factor;

○ We want people to have the opportunity to invest in their own countries.

○ Impact of climate change is key - 2020 hurricane and recent floodings make Honduras very vulnerable to climate change (that then threatens economic opportunities, small businesses, etc.);

○ Fight corruption, work with civil society to have independent surveillance mechanisms, reduce tolerance towards corruption that currently exists;

○ Prevention of violence, work within proven infrastructure to improve citizen security, working with anti-corruption;

○ 30% of those who travel to the border are under 30 years of age;

○ Need young people to stay here to have a more democratic/prosperous/safe country.

● Erin Krasik

○ More investment in communities;

○ Strengthening of the government;

○ Better opportunities to reduce violence, fight corruption, a better focus on migration;

○ Seeing much more migration from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua;

○ All countries are facing the same challenges in terms of development (economic development, governance).

Follow-up questions included:

● How can you help increase the capacity of local organizations so that they can have a direct relationship with USAID? How can we include them?

● Which sectors may be most critically addressed under this mechanism?

● Timothy Hurley

○ Flexibility is the most important;

○ Our strategy is for 2024, support economic sustainable development, especially in the south of the country, address root causes of migration, between these areas we don’t know what we’ll need exactly in the future.

● Christopher Cushing

○ There are barriers specifically for women & children;

○ Solutions should be innovative;

○ Our concept is AND (not international OR local BUT international AND locals;

○ Climate change is extremely urgent - how can we change the systems in place.

● Michelle Dworkin

○ Another sector to focus on is domestic violence;

○ We are in the process of opening up programs to increase educational opportunities.

Alex Mavroukakis then opened to a round of questions from the participants.

● Questions included:

○ How can we balance between local organizations & small US businesses

■ It’s not or but and;

■ Important to actively engage with local organizations & communities

● Are you using carbon credits where you can take carbon from the land?

○ Guatemala - mentioned that USAID is very focused on reducing GBV, that goes hand in hand with women’s empowerment, as women become breadwinners, there is a correlated reduce in violence:

■ Only 35% of women have access to formal work as opposed to 85% of men. 27% of businesses are owned by women and less than 20% of land is owned by women.

■ There is also a cultural aspect - this is a slow process of culture change (also pushback from women themselves). Only 3/10 women report being empowered in their own families to make decisions about their own income.

■ We are investing heavily in reducing violence against women because without that women cannot fully participate in societies

○ Mexico (climate change)

■ Working with partners in the US, open a space as a climate market, just started but we’re trying to use other examples in the region like Colombia (carbon credit exchange both within Mexico and internationally as well);

■ Beneficiaries that see carbon credits are crucial.

● Many of you have mentioned that education is very important, but RFI did not mention education so can you say how you see education as a part of this project?

○ For each country, education is crucial as a part of the portfolio. The difficult thing is that Congressional funds are being reduced in this area (depends on approved funds);

○ Honduras - we are working in basic education, but many students leave school in transition years and other factors contribute to migration

■ Focusing on pre-k education as well to lay foundations for opportunities;

○ El Salvador - had a lot of success mobilizing the private sector for after school enrichment programs, as well as working with public schools.

Keynote Speaker

After the roundtable, Sarah Rose (Senior Advisor for Localization) was introduced as a keynote speaker.

The main points of her presentation included:

● A quarter of the firms are local partners. Thanks to everyone in the region for spreading the word;

● Localization is about connecting people and creating more results;

● Localization looks like

○ Fostering locally led development tied through each country's unique conditions

○ Creating space for local partners to have power & leadership over design. By 2030, 50% of our programming will place local partners in the lead for programs

○ Channeling a larger portion of funding to local partners

● Inclusive development plan - all people, including marginalized/underrepresented, should be involved in development plans;

● USAID has been working to increase local ownership for decades;

● These goals have staying power. Even though it takes time, it is worth doing;

● Control of funds is part of localization - but it’s also about how they’re being used;

● Consensus that we need to reckon with some historical inequalities around development -gaining traction thanks to global movement around DEIA;

● We have a lot of knowledge around local partners & partnering with USAID, using this knowledge base to take steps forward;

● There is a role for all of us in advancing localization;

● Key is in the relationships (strong & long lasting);

● Many awards incorporate passive strengthening elements, but recently USAID released new localization framework;

● Respond to local priorities, not donor requirements;

● Find out what local partners are doing, what their priorities are, co-create objectives from there;

● We have a partner directory on workwithUSAID.org;

● International implementing community must commit to local partners in Central America.

After Sarah Rose’s presentation, participants individually answered the question:

Do you have questions about USAID understanding of localization?

The facilitator asked participants to answer that question in the Post-Its shared on the tables. These were gathered and are recorded in Appendix 1.

Feedback Session in Small Breakout Groups

After the questions were gathered, we started a breakout session in the different tables. Participants were to answer to the following questions:

● What have been successful ways programs have shifted power to local actors and organizations in planning, implementation, and measuring results?

● What are new and different ways this could happen in programs?

The facilitator asked the participants to share their key points of conversation to share with the USAID team. Each table added some Post Its to the flipcharts. A full record of takeaways are in Appendix 1.

Some of the notes were shared in plenary and Sarah Rose had some final remarks:

● Thanks to all participants in the exercise, I am eager to be able to read all the post its in detail;

● She emphasized the importance of how to structure capacity strengthening as a mentoring exercise and the key aspect of close accompaniment;

● Local priorities, listening co-creation, accessibility, how to simplify the process is part of the localization process;

● All these goals, she explains, are key to USAID.

OSDBU Session

A final session followed lead by the Small & Disadvantaged Business Utilization team led by Enrique Steiner and including Armando Espinosa, Contracting Officer, USAID/Guatemala, and Nathan Olah, Supervisory Contracting Officer, USAID/Honduras.

● Enrique Steiner presented a few myths regarding small business participation.

○ Myth 1: Small businesses are hard to identify because they make up a small percentage of businesses and generally don’t work overseas. However, 99% of total US businesses qualify as small businesses https://docs.google.com/document/d/15oznVg1__JMxaisuBWZtKCJW-u70Gdgt_RzqoBROG5s/edit https://docs.google.com/document/d/15oznVg1__JMxaisuBWZtKCJW-u70Gdgt_RzqoBROG5s/edit

○ Myth 2: Small business goals do not count overseas. This is false, as USAID got an A in small business goals last year and 25% of US small business dollars are going to the agency

● Armando Espinosa, Contracting Officer, USAID Guatemala Mission followed. The key points of the presentations are presented below:

○ Worked closely with program office to make assessments - a small business with experience working in India was identified;

○ Able to avoid a crisis due to the lack of capacity at the program office;

○ Similar experience in Guatemala - spoke with a small business and now working on a contract (Guatemala Support Services) - mission-wide, not specializing in one area but in all technical areas and in institutional support (finances, programming, contracts, facilitate events, etc.) so this experience has opened doors to where else we can work with a small business;

○ Small businesses allow innovation and allow a greater impact in the area of development.

● Nathan Olah, Supervisory Contracting Officer, USAID Honduras Mission

○ Have small businesses build the MEL platform because they have to work with all partners on a project (mission, IPs, etc.);

○ Sometimes you have to tell the mission if they’re doing well or not doing well.

○ Small businesses can do a lot more than just M&E;

After the two presentations, a Q&A session was moderated by the team.

● Advocating for small businesses, when we are preparing implementation plan, how do you balance the technical and financial?

○ Depends on the context of each country - in Malawi very hard to find certain expertise, makes it harder to find that expertise, but depends on the context. We will try to issue a contract to one mechanism that is going to be a fairly large amount;

○ COs want facts & realities (who has the expertise, show capacity based on the context of the award);

○ Research allows us to allocate & take advantage of small business capacity.

● What are you looking at in general when you’re looking at global past performance?

○ Proven good performance in that technical sector & the ability to leverage and apply it;

○ How specialized are the services that we are acquiring? If they are not unique.

● How do small businesses get to know the missions?

○ Reach out to the business forecast;

○ If you don’t know the CO at the mission, feel free to reach out to Enrique Steiner, he will reach out to the CO, Armando is happy to speak with you and share as much as he can about any procurement;

○ Agency tries to put out as much accurate information on business forecasts as possible.

● We are a business based in Mexico, how does that align with localization vs. US small businesses?

○ The 4th area of this program is capacity building - potential to build a foundation for local entities across the entire region.

● Can we send unsolicited proposals?

○ Yes, but it depends on what counts as unsolicited. Feel free to send it, but everything has to go through Washington & the Mission so it might take time;

○ It is very difficult to get USAID to approve an unsolicited proposals (need available budget, no other programs doing that, among other factors);

○ APS (annual program statement) is an opportunity;

○ Before you send in a proposal, look at the APS, consult technical officers, and finance experts;

○ Every cent is planned for.

● I don’t see a forecast for the upcoming few months right now.

○ Any opportunity that we are aware of will be on that forecast;

○ Business forecast - on USAID.gov, every opportunity worldwide, majority of individuals that update are COs - next update in December;

○ Business Forecast Call on December 7 - submit any questions before that deadline.

● If APS is assistance, is there an advantage for small businesses to apply if they are generally for-profit?

○ Contractors have waived the fee and taken an assistance award to be able to work in certain regions or gain skills in a technical sector;

○ Read the APS to understand all the requirements.

● What are some hesitations you have about engaging small businesses on this solicitation?

○ Experience, potentially (although that is subjective). The goal of the CO on this (listening to design team, program team, and OSDBU) - make it as inclusive as possible for everyone;

○ Want something for everyone to have the opportunity to engage with this solicitation;

○ Small businesses will have a seat at the table on this.

Closing Remarks

Alex Mavroukakis closed the Industry Day. His main points included:

● Thanking participants for coming;

● Summary of the session: we had a little co-creation, talked about priorities from LAC, heard from various panelists in different Missions on priorities, talked about localization;

● Hope this was informative, hope this has been collaborative. This is about you all talking to each other as well;

● Next Steps

○ Survey forthcoming

○ There will be an important seat at the table for small business, local partners, and large business/organization community

○ Our next big milestone will be to publicize a draft Request for Proposals (RFP) by Q2

○ Goal is to publicize final RFP during Q3

Following all presentations, an informal networking event was held until 2:00PM to enable participants to continue with their conversations.