GKI Advises USAID on its New Strategic Approach to Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) for Development
Just two weeks into his appointment as Administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Raj Shah found himself at the helm of a now US$ 650 million dollar aid enterprise charged with responding to the earthquake in Haiti that had killed more than 200,000 and wounded countless others. The magnitude of that disaster and leading the US response to it defined Administrator Shah’s first months in office. With recovery efforts underway, innumerable agency priorities confronted him. Long overshadowed by other Agency priorities, science and technology (S&T) rose to the top of the Administrator’s agenda in those pivotal early months of his USAID tenure. For the first time in 19 years, he appointed an S&T Advisor who came to the Agency from Office of the S&T Advisor to the Secretary of State, where Nina Fedoroff had served as the double-hatted S&T Advisor to USAID. The appointee, Alex Deghan, came to the organization with a daunting terms of reference: restore USAID as a leading scientific and innovative technical agency and revitalize S&T as pillars for development.
GKI Partners with USAID to Provide a Strategic Orientation to STI for Development
When it comes to science, technology and innovation (STI) for development, USAID has been challenged on many fronts. Over the last few decades, most of their S&T talent has been stripped down, leaving little in-house capacity. Additionally, there is a growing awareness that there are a multitude of tools and mechanisms available outside its walls that could be harnessed to better align STI resources to global development challenges. When it came time to articulate a new STI strategy, the Agency needed support. It turned to GKI to provide a structured process for identifying priorities and mapping the way forward. With a deep understanding of both the global knowledge partnership landscape and the contours of donor support in STI for development, GKI was positioned to provide valuable insight into a number of communities from which USAID could learn.
The GKI response: What we did, how we did it
GKI team members Sara Farley, Amanda Rose and
Christina Kang with USAID S&T Advisor Alex Dehgan
Recognizing the many directions a USAID strategy process could take, GKI first created a framework to parse and organize development challenges for which STI is required for the solution. This “challenge framework” provided the foundation for a high-level stakeholder dialogue that explored through 26 working sessions how USAID might orient its STI support. Entitled “Transforming Development through Science, Technology and Innovation,” the 2-day event brought together some of the world’s leaders from science, government, industry, academia, and philanthropy. Among the participants was the President’s Science Advisor John Holdren, Administrator Shah, and many federal science agency heads, marking a landmark opportunity to discuss science, technology and innovation across the federal science enterprise.
The goals of the stakeholder dialogue were ambitious – to generate consensus around key development challenges pertinent to STI, identify ways to adapt and incorporate existing solutions to address challenges, inform process for developing next generation of solutions, and recommend STI tools & mechanisms for USAID to incorporate. Working closely with the USAID S&T Office, GKI designed the process to be fully participatory and impactful in terms of what it delivered to USAID. This involved conducting a challenge harvesting and mapping exercise during the conference proceedings, creating guidance and original content for the working sessions, and providing real-time synthesis of the feedback elicited from participants.
The process designed and delivered by GKI generated enthusiasm and commitment to the STI for development agenda within USAID leadership and external experts alike. Dr. Shah noted his eagerness to seize the opportunity to “think differently, to embrace change, to embrace innovation, and to really understand the fundamental transformative power of science and technology for this portfolio of work.” Secretary of State Clinton, who offered remarks to the group at the close of the event, stated that STI are “great equalizers and can be used to create opportunity where there is very little of that commodity.”
Toward a future of deeper USAID-GKI Partnership
According to S&T Advisor Alex Dehgan, the success of the initial strategy articulation process was linked directly to the intellectual content and counsel provided by GKI. At its conclusion, USAID expressed a sincere interest in growing its partnership with GKI, a sentiment reciprocated by the GKI team. One element of this deepening partnership with USAID is with BIFAD, the Board on International Food and Agricultural Development. The primary role of this Presidentially appointed board is to advise the USAID Administrator on agricultural development priorities and issues and to monitor activities undertaken under Title XII (The “Famine Prevention and Freedom from Hunger," of the Foreign Assistance Act of 196l). GKI is working with BIFAD leadership and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) to determine how the people and resources of land-grant universities can be more effectively utilized in the effort to deliver solutions to agricultural development challenges globally. Most recently, GKI was invited to present its approach to forging, optimizing and sustaining knowledge partnerships at the 160th Meeting of the BIFAD. Representatives of GKI, USAID, BIFAD, and APLU currently are identifying more long-term opportunities to pursue our shared missions in collaboration with one another.
Contributors: Sara E. Farley, Amanda Lilley Rose
Graphics: USAID
