USAID Europe & Eurasia Newsletter

Message from

Assistant Administrator

Brock Bierman

While I was in Albania earlier this month, the Journey to Self-Reliance was on view everywhere I looked. Albania broke free from communism roughly a generation ago -- the last of its neighbors in the region to embark on democratic and free market reforms. Their path has not been easy. From an infamous pyramid scheme that collapsed its economy in the late 1990s to deeply entrenched networks of organized crime and corruption, the pace and trajectory of development has been neither steady nor straight. Yet, Albanians have persevered.

The spirit I encountered in Albania felt familiar. Representing a diverse cross-section of society, the Albanians I met with showed real affection for their country, but were quick to call out where progress should move more quickly. Across the board, they shared the view that Albania’s lingering challenges can be solved but that progress was not a given. Ordinary citizens would need to do their part. This spirit is paying dividends.

More and more Albanian citizens are embracing their rights and responsibilities as citizens in a democracy. In the small town of Cerrik, I met with 30 high schoolers who are members of a USAID-supported Youth Board. This group is developing their skills as community leaders, able to identify community challenges and advocate for government action. They are already seeing the impact of their efforts. I met journalists and public watchdogs who are holding public officials to account, sometimes at great cost to themselves; representatives of civil society groups who have stepped up to help address issues ranging from preventing radicalization to safeguarding the rights of persons with disabilities; and members of the newly created High Judicial Council -- an organization on the frontlines of justice reform, an issue that will have a determinative impact on Albania’s development journey. As more citizens like them step up to take the lead, we are better positioned to support from behind.

Read more about my reflections on Albania here.

We hope you will follow this journey through our newsletter and by following me on Twitter @BBiermanUSAID and the Europe & Eurasia Bureau @USAIDEurope .

USAID M ission of the Month - Georgia

At the turn of the 21st century, Georgia’s economy was opaque and unpredictable. Thousands of businesses operated outside of the purview of the tax authorities. The Georgian government had one of the worst reputations in the former Soviet Union for bribe-taking and corruption.

Following the “Rose Revolution” in 2003, the new government initiated progressive reforms to modernize Georgia's economy. Because the government was committed to reform, but lacked technical expertise for design and implementation, Georgia partnered with USAID to build systems and institutions that increase the country’s ability to identify and finance solutions to its own development challenges. Over the years, we have built on our successes, leveraging each one into an opportunity for further development wins.

Read more about Georgia's Journey to Self-Reliance here.

Private Sector Development

In 2013, USAID Serbia helped Qanije Selimi transform a problem -- an absence of daycare options -- into a business opportunity. Today, years after benefiting from USAID assistance, her small business is thriving, creating new jobs and helping more women rejoin the workforce.

Read more about her story .

Empowering Women & Girls

USAID Kosovo's campaign for equality in the work place encourages Kosovars to call out discrimination where they see it.

#SAYIT

Investing in the Next Generation

Members of the new European Democracy Youth Network (EDYN) come from opposing political views, diverse backgrounds and different countries. Yet, EDYN members are not divided by these differences; they are empowered by them.

Read about what motivates EDYN members here.

Innovation - Say Cheese, Sjenica

Serbia's Pester plateau is home to the famous Sjenica cheese, known for its unique taste derived from herbs grown in the area. Until recently, this cheese had no hope of reaching foreign markets, as the traditional method of its production does not meet international standards. With assistance USAID and the Czech Development Agency, Serbian dairy farms are embracing new technologies that will help bring their cheese to new markets.

E&E Audio Interviews: Episode One

AA Brock Bierman sits down with Nadezhda Mouzykina, NDI, and Alex Tarascio, IRI, to discuss growing political polarization across Europe and Eurasia, and how the European Democracy Youth Network offers a message of unity against this divisive backdrop.

Listen to their conversation!

Staff Highlight: Ron Sprout

Monitoring Country Progress Team Lead

How does your role contribute to USAID's mission in Europe & Eurasia? I think and hope that I contribute to the Bureau's ability to act more strategically. Using evidenced-based analysis, we can take stock of progress as well as remaining challenges in the region through analysis grounded in data. In my early years in E&E, we were "graduating" countries from USAID assistance in large part on intuition and anecdotes and without a system to compare progress across countries. I helped design that evidence-based system and of course it's evolved quite a bit since then.

What are you proud of in your work? Over the years, I've helped recruit and empower

some very talented and uniquely-skilled human capital for the Agency. Hiring empirical analysts for my "Monitoring Country Progress" team and helping to facilitate career advancement opportunities for them in other parts of the Agency is tremendously rewarding. I feel that's where my biggest impact has been and will continue to be. It's also been very gratifying to help the Agency advance the Journey to Self-Reliance metrics with the help of talented team -- Kraemer Lovelace and Mark Skeith.

What are you most excited about that's coming up? Trips to the field are always the highlight of my work for me. Meeting with colleagues in the field gives me a reality check on my work and helps me to see the bigger picture of which I am a part. It's a chance to see the positive impact that we are making on people's lives. So, I'm most excited about my next TDY, wherever that may be...

Tell us a fun fact about yourself. I biked from Seattle to Denver in the summer after completing my comprehensive exams, before embarking on the dissertation. Two and a half months on a bike; 2,500 miles; crossing the continental divided 11 times. Why 11? Once we got into Colorado, we decided to go west again to check out Utah!

What others say about Ron: Ron is our friendly neighborhood Spiderman, known throughout the Agency for his trademark spider-chart and his willingness to share his economic expertise with staff less versed in the quantitative field. While always staying true to his economist roots, Ron is an innovator at heart, seizing on opportunities to push the analytical frontier at USAID and encouraging his team to experiment. He pioneered an analytical approach to monitoring and visualizing country progress that has been institutionalized in the Bureau's phase-out policy and, now, replicated Agency-wide in the Journey to Self-Reliance Country Roadmaps. He may be old-school when it comes to computer skills, but he is a cornerstone and trailblazer when it comes to shaping quantitative analysis at USAID.

News & Events -

AA Bierman and EBRD launch new gas pipeline feasibility study in BIH
AA Bierman meets young entrepreneurs in Serbia -- Watch Here
Bosnia and Herzegovina wins Mission of the Year at USAID’s 12th Annual Small Business Conference.
DAA Sokolowski provides keynote remarks at Trans-Caspian Forum 2019: Intra-Regional Cross Border Commerce, Trade, and Investment.
AA Bierman represents USAID at the United States Energy Association Annual Membership Meeting & Public Policy Forum.