Asia and Legislative and Public Affairs Workforce Surge Capacity Support Final Report

The contract was a five-year agreement originally scheduled to end on May 21, 2020, and was extended through November 21, 2020. Through this contract, Dexis provided a core staff of employees, including administrative and technical personnel, as well as support staff for program design, implementation, oversight, and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) to the Bureaus for Asia and Legislative and Public Affairs (LPA) at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Dexis staff and consultants played key roles in assisting USAID to manage development and humanitarian response activities, informing workforce surge capacity needs. Over the last five and a half years, Dexis staff and consultants have helped advance priorities of both the Bureaus for Asia and LPA. Core and surge staff assumed DC-based roles with services ranging from administrative to highly technical while supporting the work of LPA and all offices within the Asia Bureau. Dexis fielded 48 Temporary Duty Assignments (TDY) by long-term staff and 19 short-term technical assignments (STTA), supporting a total of 16 country and regional Asia Missions and traveling to three other countries for LPA trainings, workshops, and coordination. Dexis staff, alongside United States Direct Hire (USDH) staff within their respective teams, spearheaded new projects that furthered the mission of the Bureaus and the Agency. Embedded Dexis and RTI employees have supported every team within Asia Bureau, which includes the Office of the Assistant Administrator (AA), Office of Technical Services (TS), Program Office (PO), Office of Administrative and Management Services (AMS), Office of East Asian and Pacific Affairs (EAP), and Office of South and Central Asian Affairs (SCA). Support ranged from administrative to technical. Select accomplishments of Dexis' Asia Bureau staff include participating in a rapid assessment in Laos, providing communications training to Mission employees, strategizing on communications planning for the anniversary of the Nepal earthquake, and presenting to private sector companies and USG colleagues on USAID's Asia Enhancing Development and Growth through Energy (EDGE) program. Contracted personnel have provided integral support to the LPA Bureau's role as liaison between USAID and the American people, Congress, the media, and other key constituencies of the Agency. Staff have effectively supported this crucial coordination through various activities, including preparing and submitting Congressional Notifications (CNs) alongside USDH counterparts, supporting USAID's COVID-19 response by coordinating public communication of ventilator deliveries and donations across 15 countries in the Asia region, and leading speechwriting efforts of Asia Bureau leadership. The contract also included the development of a roster of highly qualified, fully vetted professionals and experts across several development fields to provide long- and short-term support to the Bureaus for Asia and LPA. Through this contract, Dexis and subcontractor RTI International (RTI) provided up to 30 Washington-based staff embedded within both Bureaus and regularly fielded and facilitated short-term technical assignments (STTA) and Temporary Duty Assignments (TDY), supporting 15 regional and country Missions through travel to the following 22 countries: Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, Colombia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Laos, the Maldives, Nepal, North Macedonia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. The Asia and Legislative and Public Affairs Workforce Surge Capacity Support contract has been instrumental in advancing the priorities of both the Bureaus for Asia and LPA, and has played a critical role in supporting the work of USAID in the Asia region.