AID contract no. HNE-0377-C-00-2086-00 with Chemonics International Consulting Division to provide support to the democratic institutions support project in the Near East

The project, a key part of the Near East Bureau"s Governance and Democracy Program, will have three basic components: (1) a technical support component, to be implemented by Chemonics International, which will provide a broad range of technical support services, along with modest training and commodity support; (2) a bilateral program support component, which will provide matching funds for Mission-generated institution-building activities; and (3) an NGO component, which will finance a limited number of institutional strengthening activities by international organizations. Project activities will be tied to host country development priorities. Components 2 and 3 will be implemented by USAID and monitored by Chemonics. Activities under the technical support component will include: (1) conducting country-level political and economic reviews and institutional assessments aimed at identifying reforms critical to democratization and economic liberalization, along with studies and workshops on selected topics, e.g., the legal status of women; (2) helping Missions to draft governance and democracy projects and strategies; (3) helping design and monitor small-scale institutional strengthening activities, e.g., training parliamentary research staff to use on-line databases; (4) developing a management information system, to include syntheses of evaluations and lessons learned; and (5) promoting regional institutional linkages and sponsoring regional networking conferences.