DevTech’s continued excellence in Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning has once again been recognized by the U.S. State Department, which awarded our company two new task orders: the Evaluation of Technical Assistance Implemented in the Caribbean from 2018 to 2022 and the Midterm Evaluation of the Infrastructure Transaction Advisory Network.
The Bureau of Energy Resources (ENR) of the U.S. Department of State (DOS) has contracted DevTech to conduct an independent and ex-post performance evaluation of ENR-supported technical assistance in the Caribbean region. The evaluation will consider ENR’s technical assistance efforts from 2018-19 when the Bureau supported broader U.S. Government efforts to establish a Caribbean loan guarantee to help promote private investment in non-oil energy projects. During this period, ENR’s Office of Energy Programs funded a technical cooperation program that was implemented by Deloitte in coordination with the DOS’ Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, USAID, and the Development Finance Corporation (DFC), which at the time, was the Overseas Private Investment Cooperation. The evaluation will collect and analyze information about Deloitte’s activities in support of the loan guarantee, and will consider whether ENR’s technical assistance and the National Commercial Bank (NCB)—a Jamaica-based commercial bank that was brought on board to partner with USAID and DFC in establishing a Caribbean loan guarantee—achieved intended outcomes of promoting non-oil energy projects in select Caribbean countries. DevTech will also make recommendations for improving ENR’s effectiveness and future technical assistance in support of the U.S.-Caribbean Partnership to Address Climate Change (PACC) 2030’s investment promotion goals.
The DOS has also awarded DevTech a contract to conduct a mid-term evaluation of the project design, management, and impact to date of the Infrastructure Transaction Advisory Network (ITAN) for the DOS’ Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs. ITAN, implemented by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Commercial Law Development Program under an Inter-Agency Agreement between the Departments of State and Commerce, began in 2019 and is scheduled to conclude in 2024. The project provides capacity-building workshops and technical assistance to selected countries in the Indo-Pacific region that help to build an effective enabling environment and foundation for improved connectivity and for infrastructure and information and communication technology development. In addition to assessing the performance of ITAN in achieving its stated objectives and expected outcomes, DevTech will examine the implementation challenges and/or successes, and draw lessons learned for future programming.
