Quarterly Status Report: Support of the Urban Policy (SOUP) Project

The project's period of performance consists of the Base Year (October 1, 2015 through September 30, 2016) and four Option Years, with Option Year Two covering the period from October 1, 2017 to September 30, 2018. The SOUP Project is designed to encourage the adoption and application of an "urban lens" to various phases of the USAID Program Cycle, particularly within the context of important Congressional Earmarks for initiatives such as Water and Development, the Global Health Initiative (GHI), and Feed the Future (FtF). This approach is consistent with USAID's increased focus on integrated programming and will help to scale up development impact and achieve core development objectives such as reducing extreme poverty in developing countries. The project entails training programs, urban analyses, evaluations of related USAID programs, as well as knowledge management and communications products. Through an integrated systems approach, the SOUP Project is delivering a series of inter-related activities to support USAID's Urban Team to demonstrate to internal and external audiences that sustainable urban service delivery is vital to making progress in key development sectors such as climate change, health, education, food security, and economic growth. The ECODIT Consortium for the SOUP Project consists of ECODIT, the prime contractor, and International City/Country Management Association (ICMA), the major subcontractor. Resource Partners (RPs) include ICF International (ICF), Macfadden and Associates, AECOM, Mott MacDonald, Global Communities (GC), World Learning, IMC Worldwide, Development Transformations (DT), and the World Resources Institute (WRI). The team is led by Mr. Steve Anlian, Chief of Party (COP)/Senior Urban Training Manager (UTM/PM), and includes Ms. Roula Attar, ECODIT's Home Office Program Manager, and Ms. Jessica Johnston, Project Manager for ICMA. During the reporting period, ECODIT and ICMA held ongoing in-person and telephone meetings with the USAID Contracting Officer's Representatives (COR), Mr. Kevin Nelson, and the USAID Activity Manager for Tasks A, C, and D, Mr. Jeremy Green. The team also conducted biweekly "Check-in Calls" with the COR and the USAID Activity Manager. Task A: Training was a key focus area during the reporting period. USAID directed ECODIT to continue to hold up on the first two planned Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) proposed under the SOUP Project. E3/LU decided to postpone delivery of these courses to facilitate input from the USAID Global Climate Change (GCC) Office and clarify the current USG Administration's climate change policy. Consensus was reached on the remaining two courses, with MOOC # 3 on Urban Health to be developed and delivered by USAID staff from the Asia Bureau and Global Health Office with support from SOUP Project staff in production and taping.