EXPERIENCE WORKING WITH PARTNER FIRMS, NGOS, COMMUNITY- BASED ORGANIZATIONS, AND GOVERNMENT AGENCIES

DAI's technical and management approach is based on a principle of partnerships with our subcontractors, with our client, USAID, and with the end users of our services in developing countries. From USAID's perspective, this principle translates into a true team of firms collaborating to provide the most appropriate resources in the shortest amount of time. In the field, this principle creates ownership of our work among government counterparts, community groups, the private sector, and international donors.

When implementing a task order, we draw upon the full range of our team's expertise. On the Water IQC, we have created an Internet-based "team room" through which we can immediately share task orders with our 11 subcontractors. The team room provides complete contract transparency, allowing all members of the DAI Water IQC consortium to propose staff for task orders and to review the internal selection process. On our first task order in May 1999, Management of Transboundary Water Resources: A Short Course for the SADC Region, several of the subcontractors had the ability to use the team room to submit a technical approach, candidates, and cost information to DAI's Project Manager, who compared the submission with those of other partners, selected a combination of DAI and SAIC team members, and then presented a proposal to USAID. The combination of the IQC vehicle and team room allows USAID to quickly access a DAI-created team of experts.

Because we value the intellectual contributions of our partners, we will hold teamwide implementation reviews of the IQC semiannually. We have adopted a similar practice for our other worldwide IQCs, which has proven to be an effective implementation tool.

Collaboration with Host Country Partners

We understand the importance of forging institutional linkages and achieving broad-based community support to sustain activities, mobilize local resources, and build institutional infrastructure. As such, our activities have encouraged cooperation among all partners and stakeholders. We emphasize work with stakeholders on our U.S.-based and our overseas projects. For example, under the USAID centrally funded GEMINI contract, DAI provided technical advice and training to representatives from 380 NGOs worldwide. In the implementation of project buy-ins, we contracted with local NGOs 11 times and with U.S. private volunteer organizations and universities on 17 activities.

Overseas, under the Upland Agriculture and Conservation Project in Indonesia (1986-1993), USAID asked DAI to coordinate this institutionally complex project that included another contractor and a cooperator, 12 governmental counterpart agencies, and dozens of small farmers groups. To ensure the project moved forward cohesively, we hosted monthly meetings for the project's steering committee of all involved institutions, and held quarterly meetings just with USAID implementers. At a national level, DAI organized a major conference with 100 Indonesian and international participants to discuss watershed management. Conference proceedings were highly influential in guiding the country's national watershed management policy. All told, the project's final results were impressive: 12,000 smallholder farmers adopted sustainable agricultural practices, and soil erosion decreased on 20,000 hectares. Subsequently, the World Bank funded Indonesia's watershed management policy.

Photo Credit: Copyright 1994 PhotoDisc, Inc.

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