The News

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EVELYN Team Completes Surveys of Thousands of Ethiopian Households

(January 2, 2018) ME&A’s Evaluation and Learning (EVELYN) Mechanism, awarded by USAID’s Office of Food for Peace (FFP), recently completed large-scale population-based surveys (PBSs) of thousands of households in areas served by FFP projects in the Oromia, Amhara, and Tigray regions of Ethiopia.  The surveys were conducted as four FFP projects came to an end and four new projects got underway. 

The goal of the FFP projects is to improve the food security and nutrition of poor, rural households, and to enhance their resilience to shocks and stresses such as drought or conflict.  The indicators derived from EVELYN’s household surveys include various measures of the effects of extreme poverty. They are based on household consumption, the nutrition of pregnant and lactating mothers, access to safe drinking water and prevalence of diarrhea, stunting and wasting of infants and children under the age of five, and utilization of productivity-enhancing farm and garden practices promoted by the projects, among others.  

The household questionnaire developed by FFP consists of 11 modules and gathers quantitative data on 38 FFP indicators including, in Ethiopia, five resilience indicators.  The questionnaire was administered to approximately 8,400 households in villages where the previous FFP projects were implemented and/or the DFSAs would be implemented.

EVELYN’s report on the end-line survey included comparative analysis of how household wellbeing in areas served by the ending projects had fared on the FFP indicators since a baseline survey was conducted four years earlier.  A baseline study was also produced for the new project areas, based on FFP indicators collected through the household survey, supplemented by extensive field interviews and group discussions to help implementers understand the context framing household well-being in those areas. These reports will be submitted to FFP in early 2018.

ME&A currently implements the $20 million EVELYN contract with FFP to conduct PBSs, performance evaluations, post-project evaluations, impact evaluations, process evaluations and thematic studies designed to help FFP improve future programming.  In all, EVELYN will be conducting surveys and evaluations covering 25 of FFP’s projects during a two-year period.  ME&A’s subcontractors include ICF International, NORC at the University of Chicago, Abt Associates, and TANGO International.

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Well Closure in Armenia to Save Nearly Two Million Cubic Meters of Groundwater Annually

(November 3, 2017) USAID and local partners marked the successful completion of a project that supported the permanent sealing of a self-flowing well near Sipanik village in Armenia’s Ararat Valley.

USAID Armenia Mission Director, Deborah Grieser; Armenia’s First Deputy Minister of Nature Protection, Erik Grigoryan; representatives of the regional government, local residents and mayors of neighboring villages attended the event.

The permanent closure of the well in Sipanik was initiated at the request of local mayor, Hrant Gevorgyan, based on the recommendation of the Ministry of Nature Protection. Never used by the community, the water from this self-emitting well flooded the neighborhood, water-logging the fields. With a water discharge of about 60 liters per second, about 1.9 million cubic meters of water will be saved each year thanks to the well’s proper closure.

In 2016, the USAID funded Advanced Science and Partnerships for Integrated Resource Development (ASPIRED) project conducted an inventory of groundwater wells, natural springs and fish farms, revealing 135 non-operational groundwater wells across the Ararat Valley, Armenia’s key agricultural hub. The total annual discharge from these unused wells is estimated to be around 35 million cubic meters of water. As a result, high quality groundwater is simply wasted, while the ecological imbalance of groundwater aquifers is increasing dramatically.

The well closure was carried out by the USAID ASPIRED project as part of technical assistance to the Armenian government to address groundwater challenges in the Ararat Valley. Among its activities, ASPIRED demonstrates the use of innovative technologies and approaches to groundwater and energy saving via pilot projects in the Valley.  ME&A implements ASPIRED under a task order contract awarded to ME&A by USAID/Armenia in 2015.

 

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Georgian Association of Social Workers Pursues Professional Recognition

(October 2, 2017) HICD 2020 consultant Dr. Kimberly Strom-Gottfried is assisting the Georgian Association of Social Workers (GASW) to improve self-regulation and develop mechanisms for its enforcement.

Improved self-regulation will enable GASW to ensure that social work activities in Georgia are practiced solely by qualified and competent practitioners. The overall goal is to obtain professional recognition of social workers in Georgia based on established guidelines, standards, and criteria.

ME&A is implementing the HICD 2020 Task Order contract under USAID’s Human and Institutional Development (HICDpro) Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract, which was awarded to ME&A in November 2013. ME&A is joined in this effort by two subcontractors, Chemonics and Performance Design Partners (PDP). The contract is being managed locally through the ME&A/HICD2020 office in Tbilisi, Georgia.

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ME&A Awarded State Department Performance Management & Evaluation Services Contracts

(October 2, 2017) ME&A was recently awarded two Performance Management and Evaluation Services Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Contracts to provide the U.S. Department of State with monitoring and evaluation services to regional, functional, and management bureaus at headquarters and overseas.

The contracts cover two Functional Areas: Civilian Security, Rights and Stability; and Management Platform. These two functional area contracts were reserved as small business set-asides. ME&A’s subcontractors on these two IDIQ contracts include Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC), Walter R. McDonald & Associates (WRMA), D3 Systems, IMPAQ International, ICF International, and The Ascendancy Group (TAG). Both of these contracts were awarded for one year with four optional years through September of 2022—each with a maximum value of $75 million. ME&A is also subcontractor to PwC on State Department IDIQ contracts for the remaining five functional areas.

These monitoring and evaluation services include the following:

• Designing and implementing a variety of short- and long-term quantitative and qualitative evaluations
• Performance monitoring
• Developing performance management
• Developing and providing training around State’s Managing for Results (MfR) framework
• Developing a variety of role-appropriate work aids and supporting instructions to facilitate understanding and use of evidence from evaluations and other performance management information
• Providing general technical assistance including consultation/advisory services
• Supplying support staff augmentation to implement various functions within the MfR framework

Since 2010, ME&A has conducted more than 75 evaluations and assessments in over 30 countries for the U.S. Department of State, USAID, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) under a dozen major contracts.

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ME&A VP in Puerto Rico Reports 'Our Surroundings are Devastated'

(September 29, 2017) ME&A Senior Vice President Carlos Beale reported from our branch office in San Juan, Puerto the day after Maria: “We are OK. No power, water & very limited Internet & our surroundings are devastated." Since then we have had little or no further word from him or his family.

For more than 30 years, ME&A has had a personal and professional relationship with Puerto Rico. Two of our senior executives are from Puerto Rico, and Thomas England, our CEO, represented the city of San Juan in Washington, D.C., for eight years. ME&A has maintained an office in San Juan for more than a decade.

Hurricane Maria has left the island without electricity and extremely limited communications. Even with outside help, it is estimated that it will take six months to restore electricity on this tropical island. Stocks of food and fuel are running dangerously low, and as an island, restocking is extremely complicated and time consuming. Clean water and sewage services are not available to hundred of thousands. Many villages have been completely destroyed and access to them is limited with many roads and bridges washed away or blocked by debris.

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Georgia HICD 2020 Team Sparks ISPI Conference in Italy

(September 28, 2017) Two Georgia HICD 2020 senior staff members—Chief of Party Roman Tsutskiridze and Deputy Chief of Party Ekaterine Leonidze—and three lead consultants from the project’s two local subcontractors, Policy and Management Consulting Group (PMCG) and GEC, participated in the International Society of Performance Improvement (ISPI) Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) 16th Conference in Bologna, Italy, from September 14-16, 2016.

Mr. Vano Tavadze, a lead consultant from PMCG, facilitated one of the concurrent sessions entitled Reshaping Organizations with Poorly Defined Performance Requirements and Coping with Influence Imposed by Complex Environments. The 60-minute session explored the results, experiences, and lessons learned of several performance improvement and organizational structure redesign projects implemented in Georgian organizations, including activities under the HICD 2020 project, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Mr. Tavadze provided an overview of the external influences and a variety of factors affecting performance of Georgian organizations, and introduced the participants to internal performance environments. The presentation focused on the PMCG teams’ efforts to:

• Redesign the organizational structures through application of generic tools
• Build sustainability into the performance management and measurement systems

Ms. Ekaterine Katamadze and Mr. George Simongulashvili, lead consultants from GEC, hosted an interactive presentation—Finding NEMO (New Efficient Management Opportunities)—at the Conference’s Lunch 'n Learn session. Throughout the presentation, the GEC consultants covered several Georgian case studies, discussed why organizations with nearly no competition nevertheless continue to strive towards development, and showed how efforts to improve performance can boost efficiency and help to manage complexity within organizations.

Ms. Katamadze and Mr. Simongulashvili also led one of the Open Assist multinational teams that included ME&A Senior Evaluation Specialist Randal Joy Thompson as well as three conference participants from Germany, Korea, and Israel.

Open Assist is a simulation case study ISPI-EMEA provided for its guest clients. This unique process, which runs throughout the conference, provides an opportunity for teams of participants to engage directly with senior management representing a real organization. Participant teams gain valuable knowledge and actual experience, working on a diverse multinational team, as they interact directly with a senior management team—all in a “safe,” supportive, and constructive environment.

Founded in 1962, ISPI is the leading international association dedicated to improving individual and organizational productivity and total performance results in the workplace. ISPI represents more than 10,000 international and chapter members throughout the United States and 45 other countries.

ME&A currently implements the Georgia HICD 2020 Activity under USAID’s Human and Institutional Development (HICDpro) Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract, which was awarded to ME&A in November 2013.

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Joint USAID/USGS Armenia Webinar Presents Groundwater Management Options

(September 15, 2017) The hydro-geologic framework, groundwater management options, and next steps toward development of a groundwater-flow model for the Ararat Artesian Basin in Armenia was the subject of a webinar the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Dakota Water Science Center team conducted August 29 and 30 for Armenian specialists.

Webinar participants included representatives from the ASPIRED Project, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID); the Environmental Monitoring and Information Center and Water Resources Management Agency of the Ministry of Nature Protection; and Yerevan State University.

The webinar was conducted as part of a joint project between USAID and USGS to strengthen the groundwater management capacity in Armenia’s Ararat Valley. The project’s objectives are summarizing groundwater resources in the Ararat Valley, characterizing the hydro-geologic framework and conditions of these groundwater resources, and building in-country technical expertise for their more effective management. In February and March 2016, a UGSG team visited Armenia to meet with the stakeholders, collect in-country data, and conduct training for local specialists on well inventory and water quality sampling protocols.

Experts from USGS made a detailed presentation of the hydro-geologic framework of the Ararat Artesian Basin and the methodologies used to develop the complex hydro-geologic structure of the area using sophisticated tools. The ASPIRED team contributed essential data to USGS, including available geologic maps, well records and logs, and groundwater-level measurements as well as additional information collected and complied by the ASPIRED Project through its 2016 inventory of wells, natural springs, and fish farms.

“Data from inventory is phenomenal in a sense of detailed description of groundwater levels and groundwater use in the Ararat Valley,” said Janet Carter, Deputy Director for Studies at the USGS Dakota Water Science Center, of the data the ASPIRED Project provided.

“We were able to use most of the datasets provided by the Armenian partners in our study, which is exceptional. For other countries we would be able to use from 2 to 8 percent of datasets available,” USGS hydrologist, Joshua Valder added.

The final report, to be published online, is the first step in the development of a groundwater-flow model of the Ararat Valley, which is a critical tool for more informed management decisions on strategic groundwater resources.

ME&A implements the ASPIRED Project for USAID/Armenia to support sustainable water resource management and sustainable practices of water users at the core of the water-energy nexus through the use of science, technology, innovation, and partnership approaches.

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EVELYN Evaluates Food for Peace Projects in Niger

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ME&A Awarded USAID Data for Development Contract in Tanzania

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ME&A Innovations Garner Interest at International Forum

(June 15, 2017) ME&A Representative Mikayel Koshkaryan was invited to present energy- and water-efficiency technologies and concepts at the Eighth International Forum on Energy for Sustainable Development and Ministerial Conference on “Meeting the Challenge of Sustainable Energy" June 11 to 14, 2017, in Astana, Kazakhstan.

The technologies and concepts he presented were developed under the USAID/Armenia Advanced Science & Partnership for Integrated Resource Development (ASPIRED) Project, which ME&A implements.

The Forum was hosted by the Government of Kazakhstan, supported by the five United Nations Regional Commissions, and linked to EXPO 2017 “Future Energy.” Also taking place in Astana, Kazakhstan, EXPO 2017 is an international exhibition running from June to September 2017 featuring the innovations countries, organizations, and businesses are contributing to an evolving energy system.

Forum participants were particularly interested in the approaches the ASPIRED Team recommended for the Aquaculture Technology Transfer Center (ATTC), a proposed experimental aquaculture center where different technologies and methods would be tested, validated, and demonstrated on a smaller scale. Approaches include recirculation, passive settling, airlift pumps, bio-filtration, phyto-filtration, use of outlet water for crayfish farming, biological treatment of wastewater, anaerobic digestion, and photovoltaic kits.

About 1,000 international energy experts and government officials as well as representatives from business, academia, and civil society attended the event. Key partners included the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Energy Charter, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the World Bank, the Copenhagen Centre on Energy Efficiency (C2E2), and the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21).

The purpose of the ASPIRED Project is to support sustainable water resource management and sustainable practices of water users in Armenia's Ararat Valley through the use of science, technology, innovation, and partnership initiatives. The goal is to improve water efficiency in the aquaculture sector through the application of innovative approaches to energy and water conservation.