FY 2020 Summary Report: USAID/Asia Bureau Indo-Pacific Strategy, ITAN

ITAN is a part of the IPS, with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) playing a leading role in helping Indo-Pacific partners catalyze private sector investment by strengthening their ability to implement and manage sustainable, transparent, and high-quality infrastructure projects. The overall Goal of ITAN is to improve systems and structures for infrastructure planning, implementation, and governance. This Goal is supported by three interconnecting Outcomes, related Intermediate Outcomes, and four Cross-Cutting (CC) Outcomes. The Theory of Change (TOC) underlying ITAN posits that if systems and structures for infrastructure planning, implementation, and governance are improved, and laws, policies, regulations, and standards for infrastructure development are improved, and market-based investments for infrastructure are catalyzed, then Indo-Pacific countries' management and implementation of sustainable, transparent, and high-quality infrastructure projects will be strengthened. In FY 2020, IPS Missions in Bangladesh, Burma, the Philippines, and Vietnam reported the most relevant high-level results. These results are presented according to the relevant ITAN Goal or Outcome, with more high-level results falling under Outcomes 1 and 2. With the exception of USAID/RDMA, ITAN results focus on non-energy related infrastructure achievements. All energy-related infrastructure results are reported separately under the Asia Enhancing Development and Growth through Energy Initiative, known as Asia EDGE. In Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Agricultural Infrastructure Development (BAID) Activity rehabilitated rural roads and markets in Jashore, Jhenaidah, Barisal, and Patuakhali districts. The BAID Activity also supported the development of market systems, including the establishment of a market information system and the provision of training to farmers and traders. In Burma, USAID worked to assess key government infrastructure projects to ensure competitive tenders prior to the February 2021 coup. In the Philippines, the Philippines Performance Audit Partnership (PPAP) supported the development of a national infrastructure audit framework, which aims to improve the transparency and accountability of infrastructure projects. The PPAP also provided training to government officials and private sector stakeholders on the use of the framework. In Vietnam, the Vietnam Electricity (EVN) company implemented a number of infrastructure projects, including the rehabilitation of power transmission lines and the construction of new power plants. The ITAN TOC highlights three contextual assumptions that inform the Initiative's design: economic growth globally and in the region continues growing without any major crises, perpetuating the need for new infrastructure; political situations in Indo-Pacific countries are stable; and foreign investment, especially from the U.S., continues flowing to the region. While these assumptions are important, they also underscore the need for ITAN to focus on getting the underlying policies and systems right, as concrete results in infrastructure presuppose a lead time of years of planning and designing. The FY 2020 Summary Report synthesizes quantitative and qualitative data collected from the IPS performance monitoring and reporting system, which was originally designed in 2019 and updated in 2020. The data consist of performance indicator and narrative submissions from relevant IPS Missions and Operating Units (OUs) for the 2020 Fiscal Year (FY) reporting period.