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The Development Resources
Division and
USDA International Technical Assistance
Development Resources Division
International Cooperation and Development Programs
Foreign
Agricultural Service
United States Department of Agriculture
|
DRD’s Portfolio and Sustainable Development Initiatives Global Food for Education Program Agreements with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) DRD’s Organizational Structure |
In supporting the U.S. agricultural sector and its international mandates, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) works to improve farm income and expand markets, ensure an adequate and safe food supply, conduct agricultural research, protect the environment and assist in rural development. Since its inception in 1862, USDA has been active in international technical collaboration. The earliest work abroad involved plant collection teams who shared technical information with counterparts in host countries. Today, as then, working with agriculturalists around the globe is a vital element of USDA’s mission, and it is the cornerstone of its international cooperation and development programs. The Development Resources Division (DRD) serves as the technical assistance arm of the International Cooperation and Development (ICD) program area of the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) and is a leader in mobilizing USDA involvement in international agricultural development. |
DRD manages USDA technical assistance, training and cooperative programs with other nations to help build stable economies and a more prosperous world. Emphasized are government-to-government institutional development, with the goal of achieving sustainable agricultural production, mutual economic growth, conservation of natural resources, and a protected environment. DRD’s approach is to utilize all pertinent capabilities of USDA’s 19 technical and program agencies in its overseas work, as well as the expertise of Land-Grant Universities throughout the United States. Projects span a wide variety of agricultural sectors and disciplines, reflect the types of programs carried out by USDA services and agencies, and operate in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, and the Former Soviet Union.
DRD negotiates and coordinates working agreements between USDA agencies and institutions interested in enlisting USDA assistance in international development projects. Since the Department receives no appropriated funding for foreign assistance, USDA project services are provided on a cost-reimbursable basis to donors and cooperating countries. Assistance is furnished on either long- or short-term assignments.
Current funding partners include the (1) United States Agency for International Development, which sponsors the largest part of DRD’s portfolio, and (2) the World Bank, which is enlisting USDA participation in the Ecuador Agricultural Census Project.
Institutions that have worked with USDA agencies through DRD include: the Inter-American Development Bank, African Development Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization, United Nations Development Programme, World Food Program, and International Atomic Energy Agency.
Agreements with the U.S.
Agency for International Development (USAID)
DRD is involved in numerous activities affecting international agricultural development, and most of this work is performed under reimbursable agreements with USAID, pursuant to its delegated authority under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (FAA). Additional reimbursable agreements with USAID that focus on the Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe are authorized by the Freedom Support Act of 1992 and the Support to Eastern European Democracies Act of 1989. USAID agreements enlist the unique personnel resources, capabilities and experience of USDA on a partnership basis to plan, execute and evaluate those USAID programs for which USDA has special competence.
In managing and implementing activities funded by USAID, DRD draws upon the technical, programmatic and regulatory expertise of USDA agencies to furnish broad technical and institutional support for USAID/Washington and its Missions overseas. In 2003 DRD’s activities with USAID are carried out by a full-time workforce of approximately 148 persons who provide advisory and project-management services. The workforce is comprised of USDA employees and advisors under Land-Grant University agreements. Of these approximately 103 are detailed to a USAID/Washington project to carry out specific long-term activities, and 10 are stationed at USAID Missions in Botswana, Kenya, Senegal, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, and the Russian Federation. The remaining 35 are DRD employees who provide management, technical and administrative support to this group.
In addition, numerous USDA and Land-Grant University employees perform short-term consultancies during temporary duty assignments (typically for 1 - 3 weeks) to USAID Missions overseas or provide part-time management, technical, and administrative support for these activities from Washington or USDA field offices and campuses in the United States.
DRD’s Portfolio and Sustainable Development Initiatives
Currently, DRD’s international development portfolio tends to emphasize:
• Sustainable agricultural production and trade capacity building,
• Natural resources management and conservation of soils, water, and forests,
• Agricultural statistics, economics, and policy analysis,
• Plant and animal health, protection. and quarantine,
• Agribusiness and market systems development, such as market news and information, market grades and standards, food safety and marketing regulations, and
• Technology development and transfer through agricultural research and extension.
Its major partners at USDA implementing the portfolio are the following USDA agencies:
• Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service,
• Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service,
Projects in the portfolio support DRD’s five initiatives for advancing food security and building the key institutions, capabilities, and technical skills that lead to sustainable development. The initiatives and USDA’s contributions for advancing each initiative are:
Initiative 1, Food Security and Trade Capacity Building aims to strengthen the capacity of cooperating countries to research, analyze and monitor food security issues; improve regional and national information and data systems relevant to food insecurity and its causes; and enhance institutional capacities for policymakers to use and analyze data effectively. Also emphasized are policies that achieve economic growth and address trade reform, market performance, and agricultural sustainability; improved access to technical and market information; dissemination of relevant research results; and extension systems in close collaboration with farmers and the marketplace.
Contribution to Sustainable Development: This initiative promotes economic and food security through institutional, financial and regulatory reforms for competitive markets, privatization, and an enhanced business environment for trade and investment. It also advocates national policies and actions to promote and support sustainable food and aquaculture systems, with particular attention to the role of women in natural resources management and all aspects of the food system. Emphasis is also placed on broadening dissemination of sustainable agriculture techniques and improving extension and linkages that help adapt new technologies to local conditions, while meeting the needs of producers.
This initiative also helps to improve regional and national information systems relevant to food security. Here, DRD is providing project management and program support services for USAID's Famine Early Warning Systems Network, that is implementing sustainable, African-led food security and response-planning networks to reduce the vulnerability of at-risk groups in drought-prone countries of Southern Africa. Further, in Ethiopia, Ecuador and Ukraine, USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service is furnishing technical assistance and training in all aspects of statistical surveys, censuses and data systems to improve agricultural statistics programs there. The goal is to provide better information to address shortfalls in regional food production, hunger, and lack of reliable information on the agricultural sector.
Projects supporting this initiative include:
Initiative 2, Conservation of Natural Resources and Protection of the
Environment
seeks to promote policies,
incentives, know-how and appropriate technologies for sustainable natural
resources management at the national and local levels.
Contribution to Sustainable Development: This initiative integrates environmental concerns into food security efforts to assure sound natural resources management and agricultural sustainability. It also promotes an environmentally sound approach to sustainable development, including environmental policy reform in developing countries. Further emphasized are (1) improved agricultural and agro-forestry production practices to sequester carbon in biomass and soils; and (2) efforts to prevent the loss of endangered species and biological diversity, protect fisheries and agro-biodiversity, and mitigate land degradation and desertification. Recognition of the essential role of forests in maintaining productive agricultural systems is promoted, as well as sustainable forest management for the full range of socio-economic and environmental benefits.
Projects supporting this initiative include:
Initiative 3, Mitigation of Climate Change and Environmentally Sustainable Energy Production and Use aims to develop and implement efforts to combat the threat of climate change in cooperation with developing nations and to strengthen national capacities to produce and use renewable, clean, and efficient energy resources.
Contribution to Sustainable Development: DRD is assisting USAID in implementing its Climate Change Initiative, as well as its sustainable forestry programs. These are expanding efforts to help developing countries reduce net greenhouse gas emissions and vulnerability to threats posed by climate change impacts and to increase participation in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. In sustainable energy, efforts are aimed at advancing energy conservation and efficiency, using alternative energy sources, halting deforestation and stimulating reforestation, promoting sound natural resource management, and understanding the relationship between policy and sustainable use of natural resources and the development of new technology.
Projects supporting this initiative include:
Initiative 4, Monitoring and Evaluation for USDA’s Global Food for
Education Initiative (GFEI) is
strengthening school feeding and pre-school projects in developing countries.
Contribution to Sustainable Development: Under GFEI, USDA donates U.S. agricultural commodities to support 49 separate school feeding programs in 38 countries. At the request of FAS Export Credits, DRD is monitoring and evaluating 26 Private Voluntary Organizations and one country government project in 20 countries. The recipients of school feeding grants were selected using a set of criteria that included need, contribution of resources by the host government, technical feasibility, and a commitment to the Dakar Forum's Education for All goals. Additionally each program was examined to insure that the donations would have a benign effect on local markets and would not disrupt commercial sales opportunities. School feeding programs help assure that children attend and remain in school and have the potential to improve childhood development and achievement, thereby contributing to more self-reliant, productive societies.
Global Monitoring and Evaluation for GFEI
Dominican
Republic: Implementation and Monitoring of the Government-to-Government
GFEI Program GFEI
Mid-Year Report to the United States Congress
Initiative 5, Agricultural Health and Food Safety seeks to enhance
international trade and promote the development and improvement of food-safety
systems in cooperating countries. Contribution to Sustainable Development:
USDA's Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service is providing technical assistance to developing countries
to promote science-based quarantine concepts and practices, bio-safety, and
related health and product quality standards. Also emphasized are control of
specific agricultural pests and diseases and assistance to countries in
meeting WTO sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures.
Projects supporting this initiative include: Assistance
on Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary Measures for the Andean Community DRD’s Organizational Structure
DRD is composed of four organizational units that focus on USDA project
development, support to off-site staff, and improved program administration. The RSSA (Resources
Support Services Agreement) Management Center (RMC)
manages agreements with USAID for USDA experts in specific technical fields to
provide long-term services and advice for USAID-managed programs in Washington
and at USAID Missions overseas. Center staff assist in the design of agreements,
recruit and select individual experts to work on detail at USAID, monitor and
evaluate their performance, and ensure provision of USDA backstopping needed to
carry out their assignments. As RSSA’s are DRD’s most significant
source of collaborative programming, quality support for these agreements
remains a top priority. The Project
Development and Management Center (PDMC)
expands current and explores new opportunities for providing USDA technical
assistance, training and information to donors, partners, and beneficiaries,
while emphasizing internal and external outreach and expansion of relations with
other USDA agencies. The Center develops and manages overseas projects that draw
upon the Department’s broad resources and utilize the unique capabilities and
expertise of USDA agencies and Land-Grant Universities. Center staff design new
projects, identify USDA experts to staff the projects (utilizing short- and
long-term technical assistance), manage the projects, and evaluate project
outcomes and impact. By building on USDA’s existing capacity to undertake a
wider array of program activity, the PDMC strengthens DRD’s ability to expand
its partnership portfolio and adapt to changing market needs. The Business
Management Center
(BMC) centralizes and
standardizes all fiscal and administrative functions for effective project and
RSSA implementation and facilitates financial reporting to clients. BMC teams
specialize in staff support, budget, travel and procurement and provide services
to the RMC, PDMC and Director’s Office. The Center also provides
administrative guidance to staff, establishes effective systems to meet DRD’s
unique needs, and liaises with administrative offices at USDA’s Farm Service
Agency. The Director’s
Office fosters an environment for
building stronger partnerships with USDA agencies and external organizations.
Internal management practices demand accountability and encourage teamwork, open
communications and risk-taking. DRD’s Employee
Directory contains a
complete listing of DRD staff, along with their email addresses and phone numbers. DRD job opportunities in international development can be found in the
"All Sources" section of FAS
Online Job Opportunities. That section lists
Schedule B positions in the FAS International Cooperation and Development
Program area that are open to all qualified U.S. citizens. Please note that
Schedule B positions are non-career, time-limited appointments in the Excepted
Service. Career vacancies in DRD are advertised in USAJobs
under the Foreign Agricultural Service of the Department of Agriculture. Dr. Howard Anderson
Director
USDA/FAS/ICD/DRD
Stop 1087, Room 3208-South
1400 Independence Ave, S.W.
Washington, DC 20250-1087
Phone: 202-690-1924
e-mail: andersonh@fas.usda.gov
Last modified: Thursday, February 19, 2004