How to Work with GLOWS A Guide for field

How to Work with GLOWS A Guide for field offices of WWF WWF is partner in ‘GLOWS’, a global, USAID-funded program to promote integrated water resources management. As a partner, WWF is eligible to receive non-competitive support from USAID missions for project activities anywhere that USAID operates. This presents an exceptional opportunity to WWF’s Global Freshwater Program, as its objectives in integrated river basin management fall squarely within this agreement. Moreover, this program offers the expertise of partner organizations in complementary areas of water resources management. This pamphlet describes the GLOWS Program, the cooperative agreement mechanism through which it is funded, and the process for WWF Field Offices to follow in engaging with USAID missions under this Program. I. What is GLOWS? The Global Water for Sustainability (GLOWS) Program is a consortium financed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) working to increase social, economic, and environmental benefits to people of the developing world through clean water, healthy aquatic ecosystems and sustainable water resources management. Collectively, GLOWS activities seek to extend the application of integrated water resources management (IWRM) across the world through on-the-ground field activities, capacity building, and international leadership. The consortium is led by Florida International University’s Institute for Sustainable Science, and includes the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), an international conservation organization; World Vision, a Christian relief and development organization; Lake Net, a consortium of more than 1,600 individuals and organizations that works to protect lakes; and Amizade, a nonprofit organization that focuses on placing volunteers who will help improve infrastructure in developing communities. Each partner brings a complementary set of skills to the GLOWS consortium. As an academic institution, FIU has scientific and technical resources necessary for IWRM projects. WWF’s broad experience in environmental conservation, coupled with World Vision’s understanding of human development projects, further enriches the consortium’s capacity to implement IWRM projects. In addition, the global network of field offices in both organizations helps to facilitate GLOWS activities abroad. Lake Net, a non-governmental organization focusing on the lake basin context of freshwater conservation, complements WWF’s emphasis on river basin management, and further contributes to the promotion of freshwater activities in the international arena. Lastly, Amizade has expertise in recruiting and placing skilled US volunteers at GLOWS project locations worldwide. Thus, tapping the intellectual capital of FIU and global expertise of WWF, World Vision, Lake Net, and Amizade, the GLOWS consortium unifies the distinct strengths of its five partners to promote IWRM. Working at a basin, watershed or aquifer scale, the GLOWS consortium provides expertise across the policy, governance, institutional, educational, and technical dimensions of IWRM. The goals of the GLOWS program are to: • Establish a full-service, efficient, and easily accessible infrastructure of expertise, experience and implementation services to support USAID IWRM projects. • Increase understanding in USAID missions, governments, and stakeholders of the challenges, opportunities, and considerations of implementing IWRM projects to promote poverty alleviation, sustainable development, and biodiversity conservation. • Improve the policy environment for IWRM by establishing national and international laws, invigorating transboundary river basin authorities, and developing new instruments for sustainable finance of IWRM schemes. Learn more about GLOWS at www.globalwaters.net 2 • Build capacity for self-sustaining IWRM in the river basins in which we work, through field projects, education, and training. II. What is a Leader with Associates (LWA) Agreement? GLOWS operates as a ‘Leader with Associates’ (LWA) cooperative agreement. This means that there is a single agreement between USAID and the prime awardee, or ‘leader’, which is vested with central funds. Under this agreement, USAID missions can negotiate and fund multiple ‘Associate Awards’ which are associated with the leader award. Specifically, an LWA is a mechanism for USAID Missions to access technical expertise for field projects that address topics of interest to them. This mechanism enables USAID Operating Units worldwide to make noncompetitive ‘Associate Awards’ to carry out custom-designed programs implemented by GLOWS consortium partners in the mission country. III. What is an Associate Award? An Associate Award is a grant that the USAID mission awards under the authority and auspices of the GLOWS agreement between the consortium and USAID. The size of the Award depends on the amount of money available from the USAID mission, possibly ranging from hundreds to millions, but generally falling around a few hundred thousand US dollars. Since the Leader has already competed through a rigorous and open process against other organizations to secure the grant or cooperative agreement, it has obtained a seal of approval to implement certain types of activities. Missions can create their own agreements, or Associate Awards, with the Leader without going through a competitive (or sole source justification) process. Thus the Associate Award mechanism allows USAID missions and Bureaus to quickly and easily access technical support in response to development challenges. USAID awarded $3.75 million in core funding to the GLOWS consortium to develop the program and pilot its approach to IWRM in three river basins. Core activities build upon and complement WWF projects in the Mara Basin in Kenya/Tanzania and the Pastaza Basin in Peru/Ecuador, and World Vision’s project in the Wakal Basin of Rajasthan, India. Learn more about GLOWS at www.globalwaters.net 3 The Associate Award mechanism offers real advantages to the awarding USAID missioni: • The Associate Award activities are developed by the awarding USAID mission and reflect their own priorities and objectives. • The awarding mission designates its own Cognizant Technical Officer (CTO) to directly manage the Award. • All financial and program reports are submitted directly to the awarding mission. • The Associate Award grantee is subject to the Leader Award’s Standard Provisions. • The awarding mission provides a budget for the Associate Award that is separate from the leader award. • There is no ceiling to the total amount of funding support that missions can provide under an Associate Award. • The Associate Award has its own performance period. • The Associate Award can extend beyond the end of the Leader Award. Photo by: Fred Hoogervorst (www.fredhoogervorst.com) Learn more about GLOWS at www.globalwaters.net 4 Example Associate Award USAID’s East Africa Mission has issued an Associate Award to the GLOWS program that will be implemented by WWF’s Eastern Africa Regional Programme Office (EARPO) and Tanzania Programme Office (TPO). This project, entitled “Transboundary Water for Biodiversity in the Mara River Basin” will work to improve water resource management in the Mara River Basin in ways that reduce and mitigate threats to biodiversity in the MaraSerengeti Ecoregion. The objectives of the project are to: 1. Facilitate improved understanding of the water needs of biodiversity and harmonize river basin management plans and policies to provide a sufficient quantity of clean water to service multi-sectoral needs, especially biodiversity. 2. Promote a transboundary agreement between Kenya and Tanzania, under the authority of the East African Community (EAC), which will ensure water flows to sustain the biodiversity of the Mara-Serengeti Ecoregion. 3. Promote and monitor explicit biodiversity conservation results. This project expands ongoing activities of WWF EARPO and TPO in the Mara River Basin and provides needed technical expertise through Florida International University. It also builds collaborative bridges between WWF activities and newly initiated World Vision activities in the same basin. This is an example, after learning about the GLOWS LWA, the USAID-EA Mission, initiated a dialog with the GLOWS Secretariat at FIU. The Secretariat then engaged in a dialog with WWF EARPO and WWF TPO and supported these field offices in developing the technical and budgetary elements of the project. The award was made to FIU and funds were passed to WWF EARPO through a sub-agreement. GLOWS partners and Secretariat staff support EARPO and TPO in the management and execution of the project, including reporting to the USAID-EA mission. Learn more about GLOWS at www.globalwaters.net 5 V. How Associate Awards are Initiated Associate awards are a mechanism for USAID Missions to access technical expertise for field projects and thus all Associate Awards are initiated by USAID Missions. At no time should any GLOWS partner approach USAID missions with an unsolicited idea for working in the water sector under the LWA program. Many field offices of WWF already maintain productive relationships with USAID missions. The GLOWS LWA can serve as a useful mechanism for these missions to initiate new project activities without entering a bidding process. Should a USAID mission approach your WWF Field Office with a water-related project idea, you can and should inform them about the GLOWS Consortium and the LWA mechanism under which it operates. You can also present a description of existing GLOWS project activities around the world in any public outreach setting (e.g., conference, seminar, workshop), including those in which USAID staff may be participating. Occasionally, USAID Missions may already be familiar with the GLOWS LWA mechanism and contact our Washington-based Cognizant Technical Officer (CTO/W), Sharon Murray, directly to suggest an associate award project and receive CTO approval to proceed. In this case, the GLOWS Secretariat would immediately be informed of the opportunity and would invite the appropriate consortium field office(s) to participate in the design and development of the project. The Secretariat and field office then work jointly with the mission to prepare the technical and budgetary components of the project. The individual steps in the initiation of an associate award are detailed below. Steps in the Development of an Associate Award Step 1. Mission expresses formal interest to develop a project and seeks permission to proceed with project discussions by sending an email to the CTO/W. The email should be approximately one page and generally outline what the mission plans the Associate Award to achieve, indicating specific parameters of the proposed project: area of activity, background of host country, type of involvement, ballpark figure for funds available, and approximate time period. Step 2. CTO/W approves the activity based on whether the activities outlined in the mission email fit with the broader scope of work of the GLOWS award. The clearance from the CTO/W can be given through the email. Learn more about GLOWS at www.globalwaters.net 6 Step 3. After receiving clearance from the CTO/W, the mission begins a formal dialog with the GLOWS Secretariat and Field Office to develop the scope of work, which may be further developed into a formal request for application. Step 4. GLOWS Secretariat works with the Field Office Project Director to prepare the technical and budgetary elements of the application. Step 5. The GLOWS Secretariat (FIU) submits the formal application package to the mission. Step 6. The mission either declines to support the project (at this point the process would end and there would be no Associate Award) or accepts the application. Step 7. The mission CTO, mission Contract Officer (CO), GLOWS Secretariat, and GLOWS field office work together to finalize the Program Description and budget details. Step 8. When the mission and GLOWS are in agreement regarding the program description and budget, the mission Agreement Officer (AO) awards the Associate Award to the consortium. Success! Step 9. The award is made to FIU and funds are transferred to the field office through a sub-agreement. VI. Important Considerations The likelihood of your office being approached by a USAID Mission with a water-related project idea is influenced by two very important factors. First, there is great variability among USAID mission priorities, and not all fund water related development. Fortunately, water is an important component of many of USAID’s core program areas, including agriculture, governance, gender and health. Field offices interested in collaborating with GLOWS are strongly encouraged to become knowledgeable about the programmatic areas emphasized by their local USAID missions so that you are prepared in the event that USAID contacts your office. The USAID web site (www.usaid.gov) is a good place to begin in this investigation, as all missions make their strategic plans available for download via the web. Another important consideration is the funding cycle of your local missions. USAID missions generally commit the majority of their funds at the beginning of a strategic cycle and may not have significant funds for new Learn more about GLOWS at www.globalwaters.net 7 projects for several years thereafter. Missions are only likely to approach GLOWS in the early stages of these cycles, sometimes as much as one-year before the funds become available. WWF Field Offices are encouraged to learn where local USAID Missions are in their funding cycles in order to be prepared when Missions enter their planning stages. Occasionally, however, missions have funds that have been set aside or left over from a previous year which must be spent. In this case, it is advisable for Field Offices to always be prepared in the event of a sudden request from the local Mission to initiate project activities. (The GLOWS cooperative agreement with USAID extends between October 1, 2004, and September 30, 2009. Associate Award projects must be negotiated during this time frame but once approved may extend beyond the term of the agreement up to an additional five years.) Finally, USAID is currently undergoing a significant reorganization and strategic planning exercise in the context of overall U.S. government foreign assistance. As a consequence, there is some additional degree of uncertainty around country strategies, operational plans, and budgets that may make it difficult to anticipate exactly when and where missions may be interested in a potential associate award with GLOWS. In all cases, the best strategy is to remain informed and prepared to act quickly should any opportunities present themselves. For More Information Please refer to our website http://globalwaters.net, or contact me: Carissa Wong World Wildlife Fund 1250 24th Street, NW Washington DC 20037 Tel: 202-778-9751 Fax: 202-530-0743 Email: carissa.wong@wwfus.org Learn more about GLOWS at www.globalwaters.net 8 Consortium Partners Florida International Univ. Leader Contact: Michael McClain Department of Environmental Studies Miami, FL 33199 Tel: 305-348-6826; Fax: 305-348-6137 Email: mcclainm@fiu.edu Amizade Contact: Michael Sandy PO Box 110107 Pittsburgh, PA 15232 Tel: 412-441-6655; Email: michael@amizade.org LakeNet Contact: David Barker 300 State Street Annapolis, Maryland 21403 Tel: 410-268-5155; Fax: 410-268-8788 Email: drbarker@worldlakes.org World Vision Contact: Braimah Apambire 34834 Weyerhaeuser Way South Federal Way, WA 98063-9716 Tel: 253-815-2459; Fax: 253-815-3424 Email: bapambir@worldvision.org World Wildlife Fund Contact: Chris Williams 1250 24th Street, NW Washington, DC 20037 Tel: 202-293-4800; Fax: Email: chris.williams@wwfus.org USAID CTO Sharon Murray Freshwater Program Manager USAID Water Team Tel: 202-712-0515; Fax: 202-216-3174 Email: smurray@usaid.gov (adapted from http://www.coreinitiative.org/USAID_missions/ and http://www.accesstohealth.org/usaid/aboutlwa.htm) i Learn more about GLOWS at www.globalwaters.net 9