What is VEGA?

Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA) is a consortium of sixteen (16) member organizations that provide, under a Leader with Associates Cooperative Agreement with USAID, technical services in economic growth program development and implementation, with a focus on private market development, financial services, agribusiness, and opportunities for the rural and urban poor.

How do USAID Missions/Offices acquire VEGA’s services?

VEGA is accessible to USAID Missions/Offices through the execution of an Associate Cooperative Agreement. By taking the following steps, Mission can ensure that its needs are met as quickly as possible:

1. Mission sends draft Program Description (SOW) requesting VEGA’s services to USAID CTO Steve Silcox at ssilcox@usaid.gov for approval.
2. Once the Program Description is approved to be in accordance with VEGA’s Leader Agreement, Mission submits same to the appointed Acquisition and Agreements Officer.
3. The Acquisition and Agreements Officer approves the Program Description and sends same to VEGA.
4. VEGA conducts an internal competition among its member organizations to select the best qualified proposal.
5. The proposed VEGA program design and budget is submitted to Mission for final negotiation and execution of Associate Cooperative Agreement.
6. Implementation begins as provided in the Agreement.

How long does it take to acquire VEGA’s services?

If rapid response is very important to the requesting Mission/Office, VEGA can respond to Request for Program Description within 2-4 weeks, depending on the details and complexity of the program. VEGA can also provide a more comprehensive response within 6-week period.

What is the distinction between using VEGA and its individual members?

VEGA, the Associate Cooperative Agreement Recipient, is a services consortium composed of its individual members. One of its principal values is easing the acquisition and agreements workloads of USAID Missions/Offices. It provides a rapid response to requests for services, and a streamlined - single point of contact – mechanism for USAID Officers to acquire the services and monitor the operations of several programmatically coordinated implementing organizations on a single project.

How broad are VEGA’s resources in implementing EG programs?

As an Alliance of leading economic development organizations, VEGA derives great strength from the combined capabilities and experience of its 16 member organizations, which are active in more than 140 countries collectively. The collective and diverse expertise of both large and small organizations, including niche organizations such as International Senior Lawyers Project, International Real Property Foundation, and Financial Services Volunteer Corps, provides VEGA the advantage of combining resources and expertise of its organizations to find the most effective way to assist USAID Missions in reaching their economic growth goals. Please see the attached list of VEGA members’ capabilities.

Who is ultimately accountable to the Mission for delivery of the program? Who will the Mission go to discuss quality assurance issues?

VEGA, the designated Recipient in the Associate Cooperative Agreement, is accountable to the Mission for delivery of the program.
The Mission’s points of contact for quality assurance purposes are the Chief-of-Party for project implementation issues in the field, and the VEGA Project Management and Support Officer for Agreement management or compliance issues.

What is a “VEGA Volunteer Expert?” Who fields the volunteer expert/pro bono business consultants? Is it just the implementing partners? How does this process work? How does VEGA ensure the quality of volunteers?

A “VEGA Volunteer Expert” is a pro-bono business consultant, selected from the database of a VEGA member organization and deployed to the services requirement in question on the basis of his/her experience and demonstrated professional skills. VEGA’s implementing organizations provide paid and pro-bono consultants.
Volunteer Experts provide USAID Missions with the benefit of ready access to quickly identified and deployed expert consultants to provide short and long-term technical assistance to accomplish program objectives. The experts who have registered with the VEGA member organizations carry diverse experiences and talents. Thirteen VEGA members recruit Volunteer Experts internationally, as well as domestically, and have registered Volunteer Experts who are third-country nationals, Diaspora, and bi- or multi-lingual. Over 75% of the volunteers in our members’ databases have previous international experiences, and a substantial amount of volunteers have citizenship in another country.

What is the value of working with Volunteer Experts in tandem with paid staff and consultants?

Volunteer Experts can provide greater flexibility and availability at reduced cost. They also bring in vast experience on specific technical areas that complement the experienced field management and local staffing of our members. The knowledge exchange between VEs and local staff and clients provides a strong basis for sustainable development especially since many volunteers, with their greater availability, maintain relationships with the local community long after assignments have ended.
They also sometimes continue to conduct support activities back in the US through advocacy and outreach in their hometown communities. Volunteers may also be recent graduate students who are interested in sharing their newly-developed skills with communities, businesses, or governments. These graduate students are VEGA’s Long Term Business Advisers (or LTBA) who can be integrated into any VEGA program.

How does VEGA handle project monitoring and evaluation?

All VEGA programs lasting longer than one year must employ VEGA’s Monitoring and Evaluation templates. The templates have been designed by VEGA and approved by USAID. The program staff and implementing organizations collect the necessary information to measure economic impact and the success of using pro-bono and paid experts for technical assistance. VEGA home and field staffs take care to ensure that VEGA’s general Monitoring and Evaluation measures are consistent with and supportive of M&E required by the Mission.

What is the added cost of awarding an Associate Cooperative Agreement to VEGA over a contract/agreement with one of more VEGA members (or other implementing organizations)?

The marginal cost of doing business through VEGA is about 2%. For this marginal cost, you will get:

1. Very fast turn-around in the acquisition.
2. VEGA providing a competitively selected sevices provider or team of such providers.
3. A single point of contract –in VEGA – on all Associate Cooperative Agreement management and accountability issues.
4. Maximized use of Volunteers Experts.