The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) works to promote U.S. private sector involvement in infrastructure projects and open trading systems in emerging economies. As USTDA has increasingly focused on the development impact of its projects in host countries, the Agency has asked QED to help monitor and assess its impact.
Since 1999, USTDA has contracted QED to annually evaluate 400 Agency-funded training and technical assistance grants, feasibility studies, and conferences to assess the impact of these on U.S. exports, overseas infrastructure development, U.S. foreign policy objectives, and public-private partnerships.
QED evaluates the economic impact on the export generation rates of U.S. firms, as well as the infrastructure improvement, technology transfer, market-oriented reform and human capacity building benefiting the Agency’s targeted countries. Through interviews with high-level public and private officials in both the U.S. and abroad, statistical analysis, and political and economic research, QED has provided technical direction for the project, performed data collection, and created a database of project information, including the commercial successes and challenges of over 3,000 U.S. firms involved in USTDA programs. QED has developed and continues to test interview questions and reporting methods.
As USTDA has increasingly focused on the development impact of its projects in host countries, the Agency has asked QED to help monitor and assess its impact.
USTDA uses the results of QED's evaluations to determine next steps in program evaluation and to report to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the U.S. Congress. QED's technical experts have also engaged the Agency in a broader discussion of the role of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) in planning for, achieving, and measuring the Agency’s impacts.
After managing this project for 11 years, QED now provides the same high-level of M&E services as a subcontractor.
