USAID PRESTASI-3 Scholarship Program Semi-Annual Performance Report

The program is implemented by the Institute of International Education (IIE) and is funded by four USAID Technical Offices: Human Capacity and Partnerships, Environment, Health, and Democracy Rights & Resilience. The program's objective is to support the implementation of the Mission's programmatic strategy to improve, strengthen, and increase Indonesian health systems, management of natural resources, access to and quality of education, democratic governance, and employment opportunities. The program's goal is to create an expanded cadre of skilled leaders and managers who can disseminate new knowledge and skills within priority sectors and advance key development objectives. To achieve this, the program provides long-term and short-term training opportunities for Indonesian professionals in the United States and Indonesia. The program also aims to develop new and advanced management skills, technical capacity, and knowledge within targeted public and private institutions and Government of Indonesia (GOI) ministries. During the semi-annual performance report period, September 2018 through February 2019, the program made significant progress in achieving its objectives. Cohort-4 US-based scholars completed their university orientations and began their academic programs on schedule. The program deadline for Cohort-4 was May 31, 2010, and IIE Program Officers reviewed each graduate program to ensure completion of course by that date. The program also implemented the IIE Internship Guidelines for USAID Participants to suggest steps to take to locate and apply for internships. The guidelines were distributed to scholars in November 2018, and reviewed with scholars of Cohorts 3 and 4 who attended the Leadership Workshop/Washington DC in February 2019. The program's Field Office monitored scholars enrolled in Indonesian universities and found that all had submitted at least one request for program-extension, usually at no additional cost to USAID. The program also experienced a J-2 rejection for PRESTASI CIFOR scholar A, who was unable to return to the University of Missouri to complete his second year due to visa rejection. However, the IIE Home Office and the Faculty of Agroforestry coordinated with his professors to send lectures and assignments to the scholar in Bogor, allowing him to keep up with his work. In terms of project finance, the program revised its methodology of allocation to address the situation of IIE reporting negative balances in the funding streams on the monthly invoice. The recommended methodology was begun in February 2019. The program also provided support to ALPHA-I, the alumni association of USAID participants, which increased its membership to 631 by the end of the report period. The program also conducted success stories, including in-house writing workshops for PRESTASI and ALPHA-I staff members on techniques to interview alumni to identify and draft areas of success. ALPHA-I initiated contact with 23 alumni to collect updated data and identify potential success stories for USAID, PRESTASI, and for the ALPHA-I website and social media. During this quarter, ALPHA-I produced ten stories in Bahasa Indonesian for upload into its website, and PRESTASI submitted eight success stories in English to USAID.