USTDA Expands Procurement Partnerships in Africa
July 2, 2018
(USTDA)
Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire- Today the U.S. Trade
and Development Agency signed a memorandum of
understanding (MOU) with the African
Development Bank (AfDB) agreeing to partner
under USTDA’s Global Procurement Initiative:
Understanding Best Value (GPI).
The MOU signifies the commitment of the AfDB
and USTDA to promote best practices in public
procurement and capacity building across the
African continent through information-sharing,
joint planning, and leveraging resources to
support the training of procurement officials.
Cooperation will include workshops, trainings,
new initiatives, international forums and
development programs and projects. The MOU aims
to provide African procurement officials with
the tools and knowledge needed to make sound
procurement decisions that result in high
quality, sustainable infrastructure.
“With two GPI partners in Africa, we are
pleased to be expanding our procurement
cooperation with AfDB,” said USTDA Director,
Congressional and Public Affairs, Thomas R.
Hardy. “We appreciate the opportunity to
support the continent’s efforts to achieve
better procurement outcomes, while leveling the
playing field for U.S. companies to compete for
tenders in Africa.”
The MOU was signed at AfDB headquarters, where
AfDB President, Akinwumi Adesina, led a
roundtable discussion on how U.S. companies can
better engage with the AfDB on projects, market
intelligence, and in the new Africa Investment
Forum. Mr. Hardy signed on behalf of USTDA,
while on a trip with the President’s Advisory
Council for Doing Business in Africa
(PAC-DBIA).
The theme of best value procurement continued
on the trip as Ethiopia Electric Power (EEP)
adopts a new USTDA-funded Procurement Manual to
support the utility in obtaining greater value
for money by utilizing tools such as life-cycle
cost analysis in their decision-making
process.
This Procurement Manual will serve as resource
for all EEP employees with the hope that it can
also be used by procurement professionals and
energy industry decision-makers throughout
Ethiopia to support policy and strategy
development.
“As an electric sector utility, EEP manages
a large volume of procurements,” said
Engineer Azeb Asnake, CEO of EEP. “To this
end having a modern procurement manual is a
paramount importance to carry out transparent
and competitive procurements. EEP believes that
the manual can be a good reference to other
sectors as well. The financial and technical
support obtained from USTDA falls in line with
our capacity building efforts.”
USTDA also announced plans to host an
orientation visit for public sector leaders in
Kenya focused on how to transition to best
value procurement. The visit will introduce
Kenyan procurement officials and leaders to
international best practices on ways to
professionalize the procurement workforce,
anti-corruption measures, and the improvement
of e-procurement systems to facilitate
transparency. The delegation will participate
in meetings with U.S. government and industry
leaders, as well as attend trainings led by
procurement experts from The George Washington
University’s Government Procurement Law
Program.
Launched in 2013, USTDA’s Global Procurement
Initiative: Understanding Best Value helps
public procurement officials establish
practices and policies that integrate
life-cycle cost analysis and best-value
determination in a fair, transparent manner.
USTDA now has ten partner countries under the
GPI, and is receiving requests from additional
countries wanting to partner under the
Initiative.
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