Global Development Alliances & Public-Private Partnerships

Guidance for Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) with the U.S. Mission to Armenia

Objective

The U.S. Government through USAID/Armenia is strongly committed to building alliance partnerships that mobilize resources, expertise, creative approaches, and technologies that address development issues in Armenia. The U.S. Mission to Armenia seeks to work with non-traditional resource partners to leverage funds and bring fresh perspectives to address development priorities. More than just philanthropy, the ideal partnership relies upon market-based solutions to advance broader development aims.

The global financial crisis poses new challenges for Armenia, while simultaneously threatening to roll back recent economic gains. Although Armenia’s financial services are not greatly exposed, Armenia relies heavily on remittances, mining and the construction sector as engines of growth, all of which have been significantly hit by the crisis. USAID, by leveraging funds from the private sector and other donors, is taking both a macro- and a micro-level approach in addressing the financial crisis. At the micro-level, USAID will seek private diasporan resource contributions for a new small-scale infrastructure and community self-help to provide short-term employment.

Programmatic Priorities

USG is interested in partnering with private diasporan organizations to expand the scope and impact of selected programmatic priorities. Priority will be given to alliances that do not require additional funding, but that augment our current programs. USAID/Armenia has identified the following program areas for which private contributions are sought:

Reproductive Health/Maternal and Neonatal Health through Birth Preparedness
Service Delivery to Vulnerable Population
Private Sector Competitiveness

How to partner with us

The U.S. Mission to Armenia intends to actively reach out to potential partners based on market research examining private organizations’ and non-profits’ corporate strategies and interests. This will help in identifying areas of mutual interest and develop partnerships that serve USG’s development objectives and at the same time are directly aligned with core business objectives of target private sector partners. As a result, USAID aims to attract non-traditional partners able to add the utmost value for the achievement of specific priority development objectives in Armenia.

The PPPs can be formed in two following ways:

1. PPPs contribution to or supplementing an existing project

In the preferred model for building public-private alliances into USAID programming, the mission identifies a resource partner, explores common interests, and jointly defines the problem and solution. We are interested in giving preference to alliances that directly contributes to USG’s existing programs. In these instances, the most appropriate mechanism will be to channel additional resources (both private and USG) to USG’s existing implementing partner active in that certain area.

2. Partnerships in new areas

New initiatives can be developed either by the USAID Mission actively reaching out to potential resource partners with a common interest, or by resource partners approaching USAID with development agenda in line with the U.S. Government priorities, to jointly design and implement a new solution to a development challenge.

Contact USAID/Armenia for more information on USAID/Armenia Public-Private-Partnership strategy and potential project ideas.

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