By George Ingram, Susan Reichle

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has launched a package of internal reforms to modernize its engagement with the private sector. The Agency has a long history of working with the private sector—on both sides of the development continuum, from partnering with American businesses in delivering development solutions to building up the local private sector. An example is USAID’s work with an Egyptian exporter association that strengthened agricultural exports and increased revenue by including smallholder farmers and exporters in the high-value horticultural value chains. Seeing the benefits of a more inclusive export sector, major Egyptian exporter associations began to increasingly seek smallholder farmer contracts.

The most concerted effort, the Global Development Alliance (GDA), was launched more than 20 years ago as a means to advance USAID’s engagement with the private sector and has resulted in more than 1,900 public-private partnerships over the past two decades. Despite, or maybe because of, being the bilateral donor that has gone the furthest in partnering with the private sector, USAID recognizes that new tools are needed to meet today’s unprecedented development challenges that require a more forward-leaning approach to scaling up public-private partnerships.

The timing is propitious. The G-7, major reports by independent experts, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen have publicly prioritized the mobilization of private finance. Billions and trillions will be needed to address climate change, the loss of progress in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), COVID and conflict-induced poverty, and the astronomical cost of rebuilding Ukraine when Putin’s war is over. It is therefore essential that USAID have the tools to enlist the resources and capabilities of the private sector to meet these monumental demands.

With many corporations aligning their business strategies with the SDGs, the time is ripe for partnership with USAID. In 2021 USAID articulated how the private sector is integral to its work in a “Private Sector Engagement Policy” and highlighted the importance of public-private partnerships to achieve the global goals by 2030.

PSE Modernize

On November 17, 2022, USAID Administrator announced Private Sector Engagement (PSE) Modernize containing the following nine changes to its business model:

Mission Capacity Index	Relationship Management	Data & Reporting
Community of Practice	Future Workforce	Consultation Desk
Innovation Incubator	Learning Lab	Flexible Fund

Although each component is an important step, several are especially critical to USAID’s engagement with the private sector and require further strengthening to ensure the announcement of this initiative endures and leads to greater development impact.

Staffing and Resources

One of the greatest challenges USAID faces is the lack of staff and resources to deliver on the promise of engaging the private sector. The Mission Capacity Index is a new data system that will provide USAID country missions and Washington bureaus with information on their staffing capability to scale PSE programming. Rather than long technical documents, engaging the private sector requires unique communication skills based on slide decks and a deep understanding of the drivers for corporate partners, as well as the agility to respond quickly. While some USAID officers have these skills or could rapidly adopt them, the agency must invest and reward its staff to ensure these skills endure beyond this administration. Creating agency awards around PSE and incorporating objectives and targets into employee performance plans are just a few ways to incentivize staff.

The PSE Future Workforce Program will provide a needed focus on attracting and retaining private-sector talents in the agency. A step further would be to make PSE expertise a separate cone within the USAID personnel system to ensure those employees that their expertise is valued, and that they have a path for career advancement.

USAID has had staff members assigned to maintain the relationship with certain private sector partners. But this has been on top of other responsibilities and seldom rewarded. Under “Relationship Management” those positions will be prioritized and become more structured and formalized in the workforce plan.

The Consultation Desk, Innovation Incubator, and Learning Lab can be seen as a trio of knowledge units to provide missions and Washington bureaus access to PSE expertise, PSE innovative tools and authorities, and a repository of PSE resources. Due to a lack of resources, these endeavors are slated to be placed on the back burner. But they are critical tools for staff to perform their responsibilities in a smart and coherent manner, so priority should be placed on finding the modest resources needed to launch them.

A community of practice is a proven instrument for sharing experiences and learning. The PSE Community of Practice is designed to be internal to USAID. To be truly impactful, it should also encompass private-sector participation.

Flexible Fund

The Flexible Fund takes further an underused authority in the FY 2022 foreign operations appropriations act that allows $50 million in development assistance and economic support funds used for private-sector partnerships to be available for use for three years (rather than the usual two years). If approved by Congress, the Flexible Fund, at a suggested $80 million for fiscal year 2023, would be the first time USAID had a discrete pot of money just for partnering with the private sector.

A model for this fund could be the Complex Crisis Fund (CCF) which enables USAID missions to access resources quickly per a short application to USAID/Washington. Like the CCF’s ability to act rapidly to prevent or respond to a crisis, the PSE Flexible Fund would enable missions to quickly respond to an opportunity with the private sector. Often, USAID staff and partners in-country are unable to capitalize on unique opportunities to create private-sector partnerships because USAID’s current procurement options, including the Global Development Alliance, just do not move fast enough, often requiring many months of endless meetings to reach closure. An agile fund enabling missions to rapidly draft a concept note to USAID’s PSE hub would not only provide funding but also technical assistance to missions that could significantly leverage USAID’s partnerships with the private sector.

Additional Recommendations

Beyond these practical initiatives, several additional steps the authors have proposed in earlier writings (here, here, and here) would further advance “PSE Modernize.”

A particularly important element in upping USAID’s game with the private sector is enhanced collaboration with the Development Finance Corporation (DFC). USAID has a deep understanding of development, experience providing technical assistance, and a wide array of activities that can benefit from private-sector partnerships. The DFC has the tools of finance (debt, equity, and guarantees) and insurance.  Joining their respective capabilities, the two agencies can enhance their engagement with the private sector through deploying blended finance and technical assistance that will derisk private investment to build more sustainable activities.

A second area for action is the need to revise USAID procurement rules and processes to make them timelier and more amenable to how the private sector functions. A constant mantra from the private sector is the need to quickly get to “yes” or “no”.  We hear of too many instances in which corporations have just walked away because trying to work with USAID was too complex and time-consuming. The agency should join together to mandate the exigencies of three initiatives that require the simplification of agency procedures. On November 28 Administrator Power announced the Burden Reduction Program to “reduce bureaucratic burdens and so-called time taxes imposed and/or experienced by the Agency.” Similarly, a critical part of the heightened agenda on locally-led development is to make USAID rules and regulations simpler in order to be more accessible to local organizations in partner countries. Incorporating PSE Modernize into these efforts to simplify USAID requirements and procedures would make it easier for the private sector, both local and international, to comply with the agency’s procedures for procurement, reporting, and accountability.

Thirdly, just as it is recognized that USAID lacks sufficient numbers of contracting officers to handle current procurement actions, much less the greater number that will result from partnering with local organizations, the agency also lacks sufficient contracting officers experienced in dealing with private companies. One example of where this will be absolutely critical is the rebuilding of Ukraine. The private sector will play a pivotal role in Ukraine’s reconstruction efforts. USAID would be wise to staff up now with needed contract and PSE experts, as well as bolster its Europe and Eurasia bureau which is chronically understaffed to manage billions of dollars in assistance.

Today’s development challenges require new and enhanced tools to engage the private sector. Administrator Power’s announcement in November is a good start. The proof will be in whether USAID can move more quickly to form meaningful private-sector partnerships that will endure beyond the headline.

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Doctors who treated Damar Hamlin said the Bills safety was back in Buffalo on Monday, an uplifting sign of the remarkable progress he has made a week after going into cardiac arrest and having to be resuscitated on the field during a game in Cincinnati.

Hamlin tweeted Monday thanking the staff at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and praising the doctors and nurses at his current location, Buffalo General Medical Center.

“Headed home to Buffalo today with a lot of love on my heart,” Hamlin tweeted. “Watching the world come together around me on Sunday was truly an amazing feeling. The same love you all have shown me is the same love that I plan to put back into the world n more. Bigger than football!”

Hamlin was discharged from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center in the morning and flown to Buffalo, where Dr. William Knight said he was “doing well.”

The team released a statement from the UC Medical Center on Twitter saying, “We are thrilled and proud to share that Damar Hamlin has been released from the hospital and returned to Buffalo. He is doing well and this is the next stage of his recovery.”

Hamlin’s return comes a day after he cheered on the Bills from his hospital bed during their regular season-ending 35-23 win over the New England Patriots. The game proved to be a cathartic outpouring of support for the Bills and Hamlin.

The Bills wore No. 3 Hamlin patches on their jerseys and honored their teammate by raising three fingers in the closing minutes, while tight end Dawson Knox celebrated his touchdown by forming his hands into the shape of a heart.

Buffalo Bills running back Taiwan Jones (25) kneels in prayer for safety Damar Hamlin before an NFL football game against the New England Patriots, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023, in Orchard Park, N.Y. Hamlin remains hospitalized after suffering a catastrophic on-field collapse in the team’s previous game against the Cincinnati Bengals. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)

Hamlin responded on his Twitter account with a heart message directed toward Knox.

Fans joined in, with many holding up red hearts and No. 3 signs.

The 24-year-old Hamlin has made significant progress in his recovery since spending his first two days at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center under sedation and breathing through a ventilator.

He was awakened on Wednesday night and was eventually able to grip people’s hands. By Friday, Hamlin was able to breathe on his own and even addressed the team by videoconference, in which he told the Bills, “Love you boys.”

The latest update from doctors came on Saturday, when they described Hamlin’s neurological function as “excellent,” though he remained listed in critical condition.

On Monday, Knight and Dr. Timothy Pitts issued statements about his health through the Bills’ Twitter account.

“Damar walked his first lap around the hospital on Friday and he’s on a normal to accelerated trajectory,” Knight said via the tweet. “We continue to be ecstatic about his recovery.”

Pitts added when the Bills returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown, he was jumping up and down.

Later that day, Hamlin tweeted: “Putting love into the world comes back 3xs as much… thankful for everyone who has reached out and prayed. This will make me stronger on the road to recovery, keep praying for me!”

The NFL will show support for Hamlin during all Week 18 games by including a pregame moment of support, painting Hamlin’s No. 3 on the 30-yard line and pregame shirts with “Love for Damar 3.”

Hamlin’s heart stopped on Monday night after making what appeared to be a routine tackle in the first quarter against the Bengals. The game was initially suspended before officially being canceled later in the week.

Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin has been released from a Cincinnati hospital one week after suffering a cardiac arrest during an NFL game and has returned to Buffalo, New York, doctors said on Monday.

Doctors at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center where Hamlin spent the last week said he traveled well by air and will continue to be monitored by a care team in Buffalo.

“I can confirm he is doing well and this is the beginning of the next stage of his recovery,” Dr. William Knight told reporters.

Knight also said that since Friday Hamlin had been up with physical and occupational therapy walking the unit, tolerating a regular diet and meeting with family and many members of the care team.

The 24-year-old Hamlin collapsed during a game last Monday in Cincinnati moments after making a tackle and then had to have his heartbeat restored on the field while stunned players from both teams cried, prayed and hugged.

Hamlin began to wake up two days later and has had his breathing tube removed, while the sporting world and fans alike paid tribute to him.

“Headed home to Buffalo today with a lot of love on my heart,” Hamlin wrote on Twitter. “Watching the world come together around me on Sunday was truly an amazing feeling.

“The same love you all have shown me is the same love that I plan to put back into the world n more.”

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The president of Venezuela’s opposition national assembly, Dinorah Figuera, said on Monday a new committee meant to manage the country’s assets abroad will pay off debts to law firms in the United States.

Venezuela owes some $20.7 million to U.S. law firms representing it in fights against creditors. So far it has repaid close to $30 million, according to documents seen by Reuters.

“There is willingness to honor our commitments,” Figuera told journalists in an online forum, adding that the payments will be managed by the committee, whose five members will be named.

The committee is a key part of recent moves by the opposition legislature, which appointed Figuera and two vice presidents last week after disbanding the interim government of Juan Guaido.

Venezuela owes more than $60 billion to creditors and is facing demands over nationalizations conducted 15 years ago by late President Hugo Chavez and bond payments delayed since 2017.

Because of its backing abroad, the opposition is able to control assets in other countries.

The United States has so far protected Venezuela’s state-owned oil refiner Citgo Petroleum from creditors, a protection the opposition hopes the United States will extend when it expires this month.

The committee will conduct an “inventory” of cases, Figuera said.

Figuera said the legislature will also soon make changes to the boards of state companies, including oil company PDVSA.

In a statement on Monday, the U.S. Treasury Department renewed permission for U.S. citizens to engage in business with the opposition assembly and the boards it appoints.

Venezuela traditionally has only one legislature, but currently has two parallel bodies – one of government-allied lawmakers and another for the opposition.

Opposition lawmakers have declined to participate in elections since the 2018 re-election of President Nicolas Maduro, which they say is fraudulent, and have continued to operate an assembly despite the 2021 installation of a second legislature by government allies.

Re: “More and more Jews are choosing cremation. These rabbis aren’t happy about it” by Stewart Ain

To the editor:

As a rabbi, I have been facilitating Jewish dialogues on cremation for nearly two decades. Perhaps the saddest part of the recent Forward report involves key issues that are never mentioned — especially the Jewish stake in protecting the earth. 

Millennia of natural burials did not bring us to our current brink of environmental devastation. When we focus on ceremonies and scattering, urns and plaques, we ignore the ecological damage of the actual cremation process. Nonrenewable fossil fuels are burned for millions of hours at four-digit temperatures, with emissions and air pollution weakly regulated between state and local authorities. Since fossil fuels are heavily subsidized, our lower consumer costs hide the steep environmental costs. The rise in industrial cremation escalates the energy consumption that drives climate change.

It’s also important to understand that the majority of funeral homes do not actually conduct cremations, but rather transfer bodies to offsite crematoria. Like other incinerators, these crematoria are generally located in lower-income neighborhoods. Awareness of longstanding community struggles against crematory air pollution — especially mercury emissions — should inform our end-of-life decisions.

Our local actions have further global repercussions. Although the U.S. represents less than 5% of the world’s population, our overall resource consumption is responsible for more than 20% of global emissions. It’s becoming disturbingly clear that those least responsible for greenhouse gases (in Africa and elsewhere) are bearing the brunt of our energy excesses. Jews who care about climate change and environmental justice need to connect all of these dots and more. 

For too long, difficult conversations about death have been deflected by quick-cheap-and-clean funeral mythologies. We can’t fix this with an occasional sermon from the pulpit. Jewish clergy and lay leaders can be of greater service throughout the year by organizing supportive dialogues, proactive educational programs, and natural burial fellowships in response to the deaths in our communities.

End-of-life taboos are complicated, and we have all done the best we can with the information previously available to us. Now, for the sake of our planet and future generations, let’s start facing the more uncomfortable truths and stop colluding with climate disaster.

— Rabbi Regina Sandler-Phillips

Executive Director, WAYS OF PEACE Community Resources, Brooklyn

The post Not only is cremation controversial in Judaism, it pollutes the earth appeared first on The Forward.

(NewsNation) — A NewsNation special report breaks down everything we know about the investigation into the deaths of four University of Idaho students, nearly two months after they were fatally stabbed.

Hosted by senior national correspondent Brian Entin, the special dives into who suspect Bryan Kohberger is, how police tracked him down and the top takeaways from an 18-page probable cause affidavit.

Kohberger — a 28-year-old criminal justice graduate student — faces first-degree murder charges, accused of killing college students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin on Nov. 13 in an off-campus rental house.

Alivea Goncalves, sister of victim Kaylee Goncalves, shared her reaction to Kohberger’s arrest and affidavit details.

Then, retired FBI agent Bobby Chacon weighed in on the possible reason why Kohberger returned to the scene of the crime.

Watch the full hour-long special report in the player above.

Venezuela’s attorney general said on Monday that a court in the country has issued arrest warrants for the new leadership of the opposition national assembly – who all live abroad – for crimes including treason.

The three lawmakers, appointed last week to lead the assembly after it voted to end the interim government of Juan Guaido, have lived abroad since 2019 because of what the opposition says is government harassment.

Assembly President Dinorah Figuera and one of her vice presidents, Auristela Vasquez, live in Spain, while the other vice president, Marianela Fernandez, lives in the United States.

Many leaders from the opposition, which is preparing to hold a primary in June to choose a candidate to face President Nicolas Maduro in an election tentatively scheduled for 2024, are either in exile or barred from politics.

The government has asked Interpol to arrest the legislators, Attorney General Tarek Saab said on state television on Monday morning.

“These three citizens live abroad – two in Spain and one in the United States. We are going to see what the governments of those countries do with our requests,” Saab said.

Saab said the lawmakers have violated the constitution because of their support for foreign governments including the United States, and added that the opposition as a whole had wrongly taken over state assets like oil refiner Citgo Petroleum.

Because of its backing abroad, the opposition is able to control foreign assets including Citgo and $1 billion in gold stored at the Bank of England.

Charges include usurpation of functions, treason and conspiracy, Saab said.

“Intimidation will not make us give up,” Figuera said during a forum held on Zoom, adding the opposition would continue working for unity and focusing on talks with the government meant to find solutions for the country’s crisis. “While they keep pursuing and criminalizing, we will keep going with our agenda.”

Texas governor Greg Abbott (R.) told President Joe Biden that his visit Sunday to the southern border in El Paso was “$20 billion too little and two years too late.”

In a letter Abbott handed to the president on the city airport’s tarmac, the governor blamed Biden for the “worst illegal immigration in the history of our country,” adding that Texans are paying a “high price,” sometimes with their lives.

Biden received the letter after he stepped off Air Force One in El Paso, where he spent roughly three hours touring sites before heading to Mexico City for meetings.

Republicans have criticized Biden for months for failing to visit the border as it faces record levels of illegal immigration. Agents tallied 313,681 migrant encounters in December, which broke November’s record-setting level. The last fiscal year saw a total of 2.4 million encounters. Four million immigrants have attempted to illegally cross into the United States since the beginning of 2021, federal data show.

Ahead of Biden’s visit, El Paso police cleared out migrant camps throughout the city, where the Democratic mayor declared a state of emergency in December over homeless migrants.

“Your open-border policies have emboldened the cartels, who grow wealthy by trafficking deadly fentanyl and even human beings,” Abbott said.

The governor listed several actions the Biden administration should take, including enforcing Title 42, a Trump-era policy allowing agents to turn away migrants due to the pandemic. Biden has sought to reverse the rule and the Supreme Court is set to rule on it next month.

“You must immediately resume construction of the border wall in the State of Texas, using the billions of dollars Congress has appropriated for that purpose,” Abbott said.

Abbott also called for the designation of drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations.” Former president Donald Trump said last week that if reelected he would deploy military assets to “wage war on cartels.”

The post Southern Border Visit ‘Two Years Too Late,’ Texas’s Abbott Tells Biden appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Jair Bolsonaro’s supporters failed in a Trumpian plot to overthrow democracy. President Lula must make sure they never succeed

The storming of the three branches of Brazilian government is the most significant threat to the country’s democracy since the end of its dictatorship in 1985. Rioters ransacked Brazil’s Congress, its presidential palace and its top court in the capital, Brasília. They had been led to believe false claims by Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right populist, that last October’s presidential election had been stolen by the victor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. They hoped to trigger a military intervention by tapping into pro-Bolsonaro sentiment in the armed forces. Mercifully, this did not materialise. Far-right protesters ended up being arrested by the very soldiers whose arrival they had cheered.

President Lula, the 77-year-old leader of the Workers’ party, will now need all his considerable political skills to navigate a dangerously divided nation. His immediate – and understandable – reaction was to call protesters “vandals, neo-fascists and fanatics”. He singled out Mr Bolsonaro, with good reason, for “inciting” the invasion. The blueprint looks to have been the January 6 US Capitol attack by a mob of supporters of Donald Trump. But while Mr Trump whipped up the crowd personally to rush the US Congress weeks before his opponent Joe Biden took office, Mr Bolsonaro fled Brazil and spent inauguration day in Florida. He has yet to concede defeat in October’s election. He did condemn Sunday’s violence but not the goal that inspired it.

Continue reading…

The attack on state institutions in Brazil on Sunday is likely to postpone the first actions planned by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s economic team, three sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Monday.

Pressured to present concrete actions to address the country’s public accounts deficit, aggravated by Congress’ approval of a multi-billion reais spending package to meet campaign promises, Finance Minister Fernando Haddad had publicly said he would make his first announcements this week.

The timing of the announcements are being deliberated with the Chief of Staff Cabinet, said one of the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“There may be some delay in the announcements. The situation is very complicated,” said a second source.

Hundreds of supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed and vandalized the Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace on Sunday. The supporters do not agree with the recent election result, won by Lula by a narrow margin in October. Lula took office on Jan. 1.

The attacks on state institutions are considered the worst since the country’s return to democracy in the 1980s.

Haddad still needed to decide with Lula the list of actions to be implemented, focusing on measures to increase revenue and cut expenses. Now, the minister is personally participating in emergency meetings with Lula and representatives of the other powers.

Two other sources in the economic team said that ministry technicians continue to work normally, with one of them pointing out hopes that the announcements would not be affected by the latest events, which triggered condemnation in Brazil and worldwide.

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