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Data Collection & Management

Assessment & Analysis

Strategic Planning & Design

Capacity Building& Institutional Strengthening

Policy & Legal Program Support

Technical Program Support

Information Sharing, Cooperation, & Coordination

Performance Monitoring & Evaluation

Commodity Procurement

Volunteer Programs

Strategic Planning & Design - Illustrative Capabilities within the ME&A Team

In support of the Albanian American Trade & Development Association and other local entities in the South Balkan region, ME&A has provided direction and technical assistance in the development of a coalition of local governments and private sector organizations that are organized around the development of the Pan European Transportation Corridor VIII, a multifaceted corridor of highways, rail connections and oil pipelines that traverse Albania, Macedonia and Bulgaria, connecting the Black Sea ports of Varna and Bourgas with Durres and Vlore in Albania. The main purpose of the project is to connect localities and their private sector stakeholders to the process of developing the corridor. Through these means, localities will have a voice in development plans and be able to take advantage of economic and business development potentials while at the same time protecting themselves from negative environmental impacts. The tools used to accomplish this are local economic development strategic planning and coalition building for effective advocacy. ME&A is working directly with network members to build communications (including a web site), and provide training and technical assistance in LED strategic planning. The current grant program includes a survey of LED plans to be used for economic development coordination purposes. These same techniques can be employed in assisting localities and stakeholders in water resource, coastal resource and environmental planning, and advocacy under IWRM.

Since incorporating in 1998, the Heron Group, LLC, has been awarded contracts including but not limited to: a) providing a forest pest management monitoring system in Siberia for USAID/Moscow's 5 year FOREST Project; b) training African and U.S. professionals in the use and application of knowledge engineering/decision support software NetWeaver™ and GeoNetWeaver™ that address complex issues related to the environment, agriculture, and natural resource management in Africa; c) applying knowledge engineering software (NetWeaver™) to community-based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) in Africa for USAID; d) applying knowledge engineering software (GeoNetWeaver™) to strategic planning and monitoring in USAID's Eastern Europe and Eurasia Bureau; e) facilitating a strategic research-planning workshop in Malaysia for the Sustainable Forest Management Programme of the International Center on Forestry Research (CIFOR); f) facilitating organizational development, team building, and management in a new unit in the East Asia and Pacific region for the World Bank; and g) integrating social and ecological information in a decision-support system for the USDA Forest Service.

For USAID/Kiev, ME&A designed and implemented a two- phased project that was to lead to a participatory regional economic development strategy for the Kharkiv Oblast. The project included a phase one in-depth analysis of industrial, agricultural and small business sectors that appeared most promising and would be used as a base for an oblast level participatory economic development strategic planning exercise. When it became apparent that this was not possible due to a difficult local political situation and lack of reliable data, a mid-course correction was made by ME&A emphasizing local government LED planning and organizational development. This new approach yielded positive results that were used as a model for a new USAID mission program of nationwide LED.