Orientation stuff

Overall, orientation has been interesting. We've learned a lot about the structure of the organization, our role as FSOs, and even interesting things like branding. For instance, did you know that the proper nomenclature for our organization is either the US Agency for International Development or just US A-I-D (saying the individual letters A,I,D)? However, this isn't to be confused with US AID (as in pronouncing the word "AID") which is the actual product that USAID delivers via foreign assistance. The part of the USAID logo - to the right - which states, "From the American People", represents the latter and is supposed to be displayed wherever US Foreign Assistance is implemented. The other logo, to the left - with the shield, represents the actual organization itself.

In terms of our structure, I found out that there are the technical backstops and administrative backstops (backstops are the USAID term for sector). Private Enterprise, my position, is one of the technical backstops along with Health & Population, Democracy & Governance, Environment, Economist, engineering, and agriculture. There are four administrative positions: Executive, Program, Controller, Legal Counsel, and Contracting. The technical backstops are the experts while the administrative backstops run the office, contracts, and programs at the US Mission. From everything that I have heard so far, I am glad that I am a technical backstop which seems more compatible with my career interests.

What else? Well, I found out that before USAID received authorization to ramp up their numbers of Foreign Service Officers, the agency had to rely on Private Service Contractors (PSCs) to fill positions within US Missions around the world. In our class of new Foreign Service Officers, there are about 10-15 or so former PSCs who - prior to this orientation - were working in the aforementioned technical and contacting backstop positions because the agency didn't have enough direct hire FSOs to go around. With this current administration, the agency finally got the funding to double its FSO staff to actually fill these technical/administrative positions with direct hires, like myself. After talking with many of these former PSCs, I just found it interesting that these former PSC guys in my orientation were basically doing the stuff that I will be doing because the agency was so gutted since the early nineties. Although money was being poured into various programs, USAID was basically subbing out much of the day-to-day work in the Missions due to its skeletal staff levels. In some cases, a US Mission might only have had one direct hire (the USAID Mission Director) on staff with the rest made up of Foreign Service Nationals (Foreigners) and US contractors. Subsequently, most of these former PSCs, in my orientation, are going in as Mid-level officers (meaning starting at a higher pay grade) because essentially they were working as Foreign Service Officers except without the title, or benefits package. It is crazy to think that AID was so short staffed for so long.