Rapid Expeditionary Development (RED) Teams Demand and Feasibility Assessment

The concept involves deploying two-person RED Teams to austere environments to design, fund, and implement development activities alongside local communities, while coordinating with interagency partners. The RED Team concept was gauged for demand, desirability, and feasibility by Frontier Design Group, commissioned by the Lab. The report consulted senior leaders from across the USG, including former heads of Agencies, Chiefs of Station, Mission Directors, and Lieutenant Generals, who shared their experiences in leadership roles in various countries and regions. These individuals expressed a widespread sentiment that the USG is underperforming in NPEs and believe that the RED Team concept could provide a better way to address these challenges. The report identified several potential benefits of the RED Team concept, including providing USAID with a direct, government-to-government reporting channel from denied environments to inform national security dialogue in Washington. Additionally, RED Team members could become "super enablers" by re-creating USAID's "doing capacity" and leveraging its talent and assets to contribute to the agency's work after returning from deployment. The report also provides recommendations on key champions and influencers that USAID might approach to advance the RED Team concept and field an initial pilot. These individuals have access to theaters/countries/commands and discretionary funds that could support a pilot, and the power to operationalize RED Teams if they believe in the concept and in USAID's ability to deliver. The RED Team concept has the potential to offer several benefits to interagency partners, including providing a new expeditionary development capability to counter VEOs in NPEs. However, the report emphasizes that the concept is not intended to serve as a roadmap for the robust operationalization or implementation of the proposed RED Team concept, but rather to document critical opinions about the demand for and feasibility of the proposed capability. The report suggests several funding and prototype pathways for USAID to consider in specific geographies, including the potential to leverage discretionary funds and operationalize RED Teams if key champions and influencers believe in the concept and in USAID's ability to deliver. Overall, the RED Team concept has the potential to provide a new and innovative approach to addressing the challenges of NPEs and could be an important tool in the USG's efforts to counter VEOs.