MSI, A Tetra Tech Company, is the prime implementing partner for this pre-competed single-hold USAID task order. MSI’s subcontractors are Global Communities, Deloitte, Navanti, Search for Common Ground and Viamo.
Table of Contents:
- **NEW ACTIVITY UPDATES**
- Overview
- Technical Areas of Work
- Competencies
- Grants Under Contract (GUC) *NEW to GISR*
- The Buy-In Process
- GISR MENA Consortium Capabilities
- GISR MENA Consortium's Presence Over the Past Three Years
Contact us for general questions and how GISR MENA can work for your mission.
Last Update: 7/12/2024
New Activity Updates
West Bank Responding to Local Priorities Program: This activity is a two-year, USAID-funded activity designed to respond to community priorities in the northern West Bank. In cooperation with Palestinian partners, the activity will:
1. : Respond to community needs arising from recent developments, improving community services, conducting light repairs for private and public spaces and buildings, and providing livelihood opportunities.
2. Improve the ability of community organizations to help people cope with psychological hardships and better respond quickly and effectively to emergencies.
3. Provide youth with meaningful access to economic opportunities, including short-term jobs and paid internships and working hand-in-hand with local youth organizations to expand activities and services that engage youth.
The USAID Responding to Local Priorities Program will quickly implement grants and direct procurement of goods and services, always in close partnership with locally based civil society and other community-based organizations and associations. The Responding to Local Priorities Program is flexible to respond to emerging needs by shifting directions within the three objectives above as conditions change. It is designed to work closely with other USAID activities, donor-funded programs, and local initiatives, filling immediate gaps and maximizing impact.
Local Leadership Peer Exchange Program: This program aims to strengthen organizational capacity and partnerships within a network of local, faith-based, and community organizations serving minority communities in the Middle East region.
Scaling MENA Youth for Climate Action (S-MYCA): Grantees under the GISR MENA Youth for Climate Action (MYCA) Activity have achieved great outcomes during implementation of their grant. These include opening a new recycling point, increasing eco-tourism, and supporting green start-ups, among others. The Scaling MYCA (S-MYCA) Activity aims to further increase community resilience to these challenges by supporting MYCA activities that have the potential to scale, and in parallel, increase youth leadership and capacity to implement these interventions at scale. Selected grantees will receive support to develop a scaling plan informed by MSI’s Scaling Up Framework and receive grant funding to implement and monitor their scaling plans.
USAID GISR MENA Core Funds Frankfurt DRG Conference: GISR MENA provide facilitation and logistics support for the MENA DRG workshop that took place on March 4-6, 2024. The event was located at the U.S. Consulate in Frankfurt, Germany.
USAID Regional Day at USAID Gender Advisors Conference: GISR MENA provide facilitation and logistics support for USAID MENA Regional Day at the USAID Global Gender Advisors Conference that took place on May 24, 2024. The event was located at the Ronald Reagan Building (RRB), USAID in Washington D.C.
Perception Tracking Activity: This activity covers the comparative analysis of perception surveys before and After October 2023. The activity intends to review data on perceptions of the United States before and after October 7, 2023, to assess short-term damage and identify future data sources to determine potential long-term effects on the U.S. 's image and reputation. The focus will be on MENA countries but will also include relevant data from non-MENA countries. This activity is pending client approval.
Overview:
Managed by USAID's Bureau for the Middle East’s Office of Technical Support (ME/TS), GISR MENA is a $95 million multi-faceted, and single-award support mechanism under the General Services Administartion’s OASIS IDIQ that allows for buy-ins without competition.
The period of performance is August 15, 2018 – August 14, 2025. The GSA has recently authorized the use of grants-under-contract (GUCs) under OASIS awards, providing GISR MENA the potential to provide GUCs to support USAID’s localization objectives and reinforce the capacity of local entities to act as drivers of change in the MENA region.
Phonetically, "GISR" means “to bridge” in Arabic. The project is designed for USAID missions, bureaus, and independent offices to rapidly respond to shocks; address gaps in governance and resilience programming; and test and scale pilot activities that address the sources of fragility, conflict and poor governance.
Competencies:
USAID missions and offices can access GISR MENA for analytical work, field implementation and capacity development of staff, implementing partners and host-country institutions. Buy-ins can be initiated for the following:
- Conduct assessments to understand shocks, stressors and changing political and social dynamics to inform programming in governance, countering violent extremism (CVE) and conflict mitigation programming.
Egypt Situational Analysis: GISR MENA is assisting USAID/Egypt in conducting a desk review/study of current drivers of risk to inform USAID programming.
Libya Civil Society and Media Assessment: This assessment will provide the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) with an analysis of the current state of Libyan civil society and media, particularly independent media, including programing opportunities and challenges facing the civil society and media sectors.
West Bank-Gaza Gender Analysis: This assessment will provide USAID a country-wide (West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem) analysis of gender roles and constraints in order to provide a framework and baseline for effective integration of gender concerns and equities in its programming.
Photo (left): Libyan women participate in an enumerators training session. Photo courtesy of Navanti.
- Conduct research to assist USAID Missions across MENA to understand local dynamics, civil liberties, and economic/political situational analysis to better inform USAID's current and future programming.
Local Governance: Produced a series of research products focused on local governance and decentralization in MENA in order to provide a better understanding of the region’s local governance legal frameworks and practices to improve programmatic interventions based on similarities and differences that may be unique to the region.
Human Rights MENA Country Profiles: GISR MENA researched, designed and produced nine country specific profiles (Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen) focusing on the overall state of human rights in the respective MENA countries.
Photo (right): Beirut, Lebanon at night. Photo courtesy of Lukas Bischoff/Getty Images Plus
- Meet rapid response needs to address significant political and socio-economic shocks and unexpected governance opportunities.
This actors mapping and literature review, “Yemen’s Political Marketplace: Understanding the Actors and their Geography” supported the mid-term review of USAID’s Yemen Programming Approach (YPA).
- Test pilot activities related to stabilization, governance, conflict/CVE and resilience and adapt them for scaling up.
USAID's Iraq Genocide Recovery and Persecution Response - Learning and Pilots (GRPR L&P) activity aimed to aid survivors of Gender-based violence (GBV) in the Ninewa Plains and Sinjar, Iraq, as part of broader USAID efforts to foster healing for persecuted ethnic and religious minorities, and to restore their communities, support economic recovery, and prevent future atrocities.
Photo (right): Erbil, Kurdistan, by Ali Abahri @ Adobe Stock
- Develop bridging activities to address gaps in governance programming and help develop a strategy and/or program to facilitate the transition from humanitarian assistance to development programming.
Photo (left): The Bridge of the Republic spans the Tigris River in Baghdad, Iraq. Photo courtesy of MSI.
- Ensure the inclusion of youth, women and marginalized populations in governance and conflict programming.
Racial and Ethnic Equity (REE): This activity supports local partners in Lebanon, Yemen, and Libya to map and analyze existing resources and efforts that promote racial equity. Additionally, REE will build capacity of selected local partners to develop an action plan to address gaps and/or build on opportunities identified during the mapping phase.
All three CSO partners held their respective Learning/Networking events, bringing together key stakeholders, implementing partners, local civil society organizations, human rights activists, and USAID officials. Partners shared their key research/ assessment findings and recommendations. They were able to increase awareness on racial and ethnic equity issues, and facilitate and strengthen networking amongst like-minded groups within their countries.
MENA Youth Community of Practice: Since its launch in 2021, the MENA Youth Community of Practice has implemented activities, initiatives, and a youth engagement webinar series meant to provide a space for fostering learning, sharing knowledge, tools and ideas among donors, practitioners, local organizations, and youth.
MENA Youth for Climate Action: The purpose of this activity is to increase engagement of youth-led/youth-serving organizations (YLOs/YSOs) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) that seek to advance climate mitigation and/or adaptation initiatives. This activity also aims to strengthen each grantees’ technical and organizational capacities to implement and sustain climate efforts.
- Share promising practices and lessons learned and strengthen knowledge and skills to address governance and fragility challenges.
Private Sector Engagement: Developed a Reference Guide on governance and private sector engagement (PSE) to provide regional democracy, human rights, and governance officers with relevant models, best practices, and lessons learned for integrating PSE into DRG programming in the MENA region.
Anti-Corruption Mapping and Analysis: Conducted mapping and analysis of existing and past programs relevant to USAID anti-corruption objectives in the MENA region, and reviewed and analyzed the effectiveness of USAID anti-corruption programming over the last decade in meeting anti-corruption goals in MENA.
Countering Digital Authoritarianism: GISR MENA in Iraq equipped an alliance of journalists, activists, and researchers with the knowledge, skills, and tools to monitor and counter malign online influence, including combatting mis/disinformation and digital authoritarianism in Iraq.
Grants-Under-Contract
The Grants under Contract (GUC) program will work with both for-profit and non-profit organizations to improve the capacity of civil society, non-governmental organizations to support localization and the new partnership initiative to carry out objectives under GISR MENA’s contract statement of work.
The Buy-In Process:
How Can a Mission Initiate Buy-in?
1. Contact ME/TS COR Najiyah Alwazir at nalwazir@usaid.gov and A/COR Milad Abraham at miabraham@usaid.gov to discuss your project concept or SOW and its fit with GISR MENA’s SOW.
2. When a potential project concept or SOW matches GISR MENA’s mandate, your mission or office can select one of the following options:
Option 1: Submit a rough or fully fleshed out SOW to the COR and A/COR for feedback and/or approval.
Option 2: Put forward a concept that still needs development to define a SOW, and request one or more of the following forms of assistance:
- Technical and political economy assessments and/or stakeholder consultations to inform concept development and SOW design; and/or
- A co-design process with ME/TS and the GISR MENA consortium partners to translate the concept into a SOW.
GISR MENA can also support technical and organizational assessments that inform the conceptualization of longer-term governance and fragility programs that may be competed separately.
Buy-in Management Process:
Select activity manager: A mission or office initiating a buy-in under GISR will designate an activity manager to guide and oversee the GISR MENA team implementing the activity. The mission activity manager drives the process.
GISR MENA CONSORTIUM CAPABILITIES
MSI
MSI has worked on USAID governance programs in MENA since the 1990s. MSI's programming experience includes large-scale $500 million+ public administration reform and service delivery improvement programs (e.g., Tatweer and Tarabot in Iraq); local governance (Iraq, Morocco and Lebanon); civil society advocacy and capacity development (Egypt, Morocco, Syria, Lebanon); youth (Morocco, Lebanon); internally displaced persons (IDP) policy and host community-refugee/IDP development relations (Lebanon and Iraq), gender-based violence (Iraq); and countering violent extremism (CVE) and conflict mitigation (Lebanon). MSI has developed several frameworks and tools of potential value to GISR MENA including for:
- Public sector reform (the Advancing Policy and Institutional Reform framework, business process reengineering, and the 4D organizational development assessment tool among others)
- Scaling up pilot initiatives (scaling up framework)
- Accountability (vulnerability to corruption assessment tool, citizen advocacy offices, crowdsourcing software for reporting corruption)
- CVE (assessment framework and programming guide)
- Conflict sensitivity (a guide and staff training modules)
- Youth development (the Youth Compass)
- CSO capacity building (training curricula in Arabic)
MSI has a long history of supporting democracy, human rights, and governance, as well as conflict and violent extremism (VE) analytics. This includes country and regional DRG, conflict, and/or VE risk assessments across MENA. These assessments informed USAID strategy and programming. MSI also deployed USAID’s political economy analysis framework and developed a tailored adaptation. MSI works in additional critical sectors including de-mining in Syria and Iraq; MEL and knowledge management in Jordan, Syria and Iraq; civil society capacity building in Lebanon; and entrepreneurship development and the prevention of child labor in Morocco. MSI draws on the expertise of other companies under the Tetra Tech umbrella for specialized expertise in areas such as the rule of law, water supply, natural resources management and land and engineering. Technical specialties may be useful to MENA missions in addressing shocks and stressors affecting the performance and policies of ministries.
MSI has managed IDQ task orders for the Center for Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (DRG), the Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI), and the Center for Conflict and Violence Prevention (CVP). MSI has experience with rapid response efforts to address sudden shocks and with USAID co-design processes. MSI staff has staff experienced with the RE! Institute’s rapid results methodology of setting 100-day challenges to bring together diverse leaders and institutions to solve a specific problem in that period.
Deloitte
Deloitte’s capabilities span the range of GISR MENA activities including public financial management, domestic resource mobilization, regulatory and market reforms in the water, sanitation and energy sectors, public private partnerships, ICT for development, urban resilience, and social and economic reform programs. Deloitte’s implementation of USAID programs has led to improvements in the effectiveness of the formation and impact of national, subnational and inter-governmental policy. Deloitte’s success is based on its understanding of how to strengthen institutions and systems with human capital, partnerships and technology needed to sustain enduring impact. In Tunisia, Deloitte supports a four-year governance project that aims to help the Government of Tunisia decentralize governance to the institutions closest to its citizenry and continue to strengthen its nascent democracy. Deloitte is working to enhance citizen participation in the process of governance, as well as the government’s service delivery capacity in line with citizens’ priorities. Deloitte’s work in Jordan on Financial Reform and Public Financial Management (FRPFM) contributes to greater macroeconomic stability and inclusive economic growth by increasing revenue generation and collection, improving budgeting, expenditure and debt management, increasing public investment, and strengthening public-private dialogue on fiscal policy choices. Deloitte has focused on comprehensive tax reform, actively engaging with the Minister of Finance and the IMF to expand the tax base, to improve the structure of the tax system, and the implementation of over 13 projects aimed at combatting tax evasion and improving compliance.
Global Communities
Global Communities has worked in partnership with communities in MENA since 1995, starting with its first programs in Gaza. Over the past 20 years, Global Communities (GC)'s humanitarian and development programs have been in technical sectors including food security, local governance, and youth engagement. GC operates loan guarantee programs for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Egypt, Iraq and Jordan. Through a holding company, GC operates microfinance institutions in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and the West Bank and Gaza. GC applies a set of tools and methodologies in engaging communities, strengthening civil society and community based organizations, and building governance capacity. The Participatory Action for Community Enhancement (PACE) methodology offers a structured process for communities to work together to map their assets and strengths, identify priority needs, mobilize resources and set in motion a community-driven development process. By modeling practical engagement mechanisms that promote participation, accountability and citizen empowerment, PACE builds the capacity of elected community councils, called Community Development Committees, to work in partnership with local governments for improved service prioritization and implementation. GC also supports CSOs to conduct policy advocacy in support of community goals and needs, as well as to monitor government activity using innovative social accountability tools, including social audits and budget transparency tools. GC’s Appreciative Review of Capacity© (ARC) methodology and suite of tools help organizations assess and improve their own abilities to fulfill their missions, manage quality projects and achieve long-term successes.
ARC guides CSO staff through constructive self-assessment to discover their strengths and success factors and identify opportunities and necessary resources required to support sustainability, growth and increased impact. Global Communities’ approach to local government strengthening, embodied in the Participatory Approach to Governance Excellence (PAGE), emphasizes close partnerships with and technical assistance to local governments and citizen groups, and a commitment to multi-stakeholder processes. Initially developed in the West Bank and Gaza, PAGE has expanded to include lessons and tools to improve citizen participation, local governance and community cohesion. GC also helps government improve services via its Service Delivery Improvement Planning (SDIP) framework, a bottom-up process focused on citizen-prioritized services.
Navanti
Navanti provides timely and insightful data collection and analysis that shapes programming and empowers local voices, bringing their concerns, ideas, and knowledge to a broader audience. Its systems inform high-quality interventions in rapidly evolving, conflict-affected environments, employing an approach to contextual, nuanced data that uncovers and engages local actors and opportunities in need of support, resources and training – to create sustainable and transformative solutions that impact their communities. Navanti offers near-real time understanding of local dynamics, enabling an anticipatory programmatic capacity that takes advantage of near horizon change. In MENA, Navanti has developed and trained local networks of researchers indigenous to the communities from which they collect data since 2011, producing over 500 analytical products crafted for activity design and evaluation and policy/strategic decision-making, spanning governance, reconciliation, political transition, media, civil society and community development, conflict mitigation, resiliency, youth empowerment, local security dynamics and countering violent extremism (CVE). Navanti’s regional network includes over 150 primary researchers, trained in a variety of data collection methodologies. Current efforts include community driven mapping of security actors in Libya; infrastructure and market analysis in Yemen; quantitative surveys measuring service delivery post-ISIS in Syria; neighborhood atmospherics in Lebanon; and the research and design of youth focused skills training in Morocco.
Search for Common Ground
Search for Common Ground has strengthened community resilience and basic service delivery across MENA. Its resilience programming supports initiatives related to inclusive governance, reconciliation, engagement with faith-based organizations, transforming VE, social cohesion, security sector reform and youth engagement. Search’s approach to inclusive governance strengthens the capacity of marginalized groups, including youth and women, to foster their participation in decision making. In Tunisia, Search has established Youth Leadership Councils in all 24 governorates to equip marginalized youth with the leadership skills and networks to increase their civic and political participation. Search’s social cohesion and reconciliation programming works closely with religious leaders, governments and local communities to identify and leverage windows of opportunity for dialogue and conflict resolution processes. Its Community Dialogue Approach (CDA), enables communities to identify and address local conflicts dynamics through mediation. In Yemen, for example, this approach has proven to be effective as, 91% of the beneficiaries reported a reduction in conflicts within their communities. Search supports local and national reconciliation processes in post-conflict societies by working with IDPs.
Host communities and other marginalized groups to bridge divides across lines of tension. Search has also adopted creative and innovative media approaches to enhance social cohesion by embedding social norms around tolerance and social stability. Embedding conflict sensitivity into program design is an important pillar of Search’s work in MENA; in 2018, Search established the Yemen Conflict Sensitivity Platform, to support collective action by those planning and delivering assistance in Yemen to enhance its impact and contributions to stabilization.
Search has also developed a Transforming Violent Extremism (TVE) methodology that aims to channel the underlying motivators of violent extremism into more constructive engagement. Search’s TVE programming engages youth, prison and police systems, and government actors to develop collaborative approaches that transform the threat of VE. Search also recognizes the importance of security sector reform to peace and stability and facilitates dialogue between the community and security sector actors by creating “safe spaces” for open communication. Search also supports initiatives to (strengthen local service delivery and promote engagement between communities and local authorities in addressing service needs. For instance, Search-Yemen provides small grants to community leaders to design and implement local service delivery projects that address a root cause of local conflicts; Search-Tunisia provides small grants to community groups to act upon locally-identified drivers of violent extremism through micro-projects.
VIAMO
Globally, nearly four billion people are digitally disconnected, about half of the world’s population. Entire communities are underrepresented, struggling without critical timely information. Despite that, these communities do have simple mobile phones and a desire to connect to the world.
Viamo’s platform provides the connection to spark life-changing information exchanges, offering services for international development and business sectors. Viamo amplifies your brand’s voice and connect it with hard-to-reach markets. Viamo facilitates organizational transitions to digital in emerging markets.
This is made possible by integrating digital strategy consulting, research and behavior change communication over a single platform at a regional level and global scale. Specifically, Viamo offers a full-service digital engagement approach which combines:
- Interactive, targeted and measurable digital engagement campaigns and surveys
- Multi-channel digital engagement platform to serve Interactive Voice Response (IVR), SMS, apps, and social media bots
- In-country design and implementation support across MENA and in most emerging markets worldwide
- Strategic partnerships with mobile operators to offer the lowest price, highest reliability and largest scale.
In Jordan, Viamo partnered with UN Women to support more than 500 Jordanian and Syrian women, as well as women-led Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMSEs) in over 8 refugee host communities in Jordan, in an effort to invest in digital engagement channels.
The project, which utilized a multi-channel approach, delivered useful information through SMS, IVR and WhatsApp Chatbot, and enabled women to be more financially resilient by providing them with interactive educational modules on banking, finance, entrepreneurship and mobile money.