INVEST PIVOT Racial Justice Consultant (5270)

 

PIVOT Racial Justice Consultant

August 4, 2020

June 30, 2021

110 days

Remote initially; potential for travel and meetings in Washington, DC pending Covid-19 restrictions.

PIVOT INVEST Facilitation Guide and INVEST Strategic Investment Advisor

 

Through INVEST, USAID seeks to unlock the potential of private capital to drive inclusive growth in countries around the world. Increasingly, private investors and businesses are looking to emerging markets for better returns and new market opportunities. Encouraging investment in high-impact areas important to USAID such as agriculture, financial services, infrastructure, environment, energy, health, and education, requires new forms of collaboration between USAID and the investment and business community. 

 

INVEST is in its second year of supporting USAID’s PIVOT, or the Practical InnoVative On-the-Job Training Cohort. PIVOT is the Africa Bureau’s organizational change management program funded by USAID that advances private sector engagement (PSE) through technical and leadership skills-building for greater development impact. It is inspired by the recognition that the majority of professional learning happens from hands-on, job-related experiences, and not in a formal classroom training setting. As such, the focus of the PIVOT program is on strengthening the capacity of staff participating in a cohort model to build skills in PSE, leadership development, and Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) (USAID’s adaptive management process) in a safe environment that encourages experimentation, reflection, feedback, and intentional learning. PIVOT uses on-the-job training and practice (learning-by-doing), mentoring, peer learning approaches and some traditional training methods.

 

Each year, a cohort of staff from different USAID Missions in Africa participate in this learning experience together. This year, PIVOT will include “change teams” from Ethiopia and Tanzania, which include both USAID American Foreign Service Officers and locally hired-staff (typically from the host country). PIVOT is delivered through two implementing partner projects, INVEST, managed by DAI, and PEPSE, managed by Resonance. The program includes frequent individual, Change Team, and cohort calls to provide feedback loops that facilitate continuous learning and adapting, and to strengthen connections between USAID headquarters in Washington and the field for more integrated, timely, and responsive support. Given the travel restrictions imposed as a result of COVID-19, the PIVOT Program currently is designed for virtual delivery.

 

PIVOT’s model aligns with INVEST’s learning mandate, which focuses on identifying and testing approaches USAID can use to mobilize private capital for development results. Inherent in this mandate is increased understanding on how to build the capacity within the Agency to effectively engage and collaborate with the private sector to mobilize their resources and expertise. PIVOT’s approach tests and validates the need to develop technical capacities alongside leadership and collaboration skills for better PSE and organizational change. It also demonstrates the potential for new forms of leadership and collaboration when mindfulness practices are integrated into learning opportunities. As USAID considers the design and needs for year two of the change management program, the Agency seeks to build intercultural knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSA) generally and anti-racism (KSAs) specifically throughout the curriculum and in the competency framework (see page 5 for more on “Competencies”). Addressing intercultural competence, racism and inequality -- its impacts on individuals, teams, and the institution itself -- is critical for directing and managing the transformative change envisioned by PIVOT that renders not only the cohort better professionals, but the Agency better poised to accomplish its development objectives.

In recent months, Black Lives Matter protests in the United States and around the world have reinvigorated discussions about racial inequity in all parts of society. The conversation has shifted dramatically as individuals and organizations reckon with the pervasiveness and impact of racism in society and the organizations that we work for and that support us. Part of the challenge when addressing racial inequity in the workplace (as well as broader society) is to move beyond the passive framing language of diversity and inclusion toward active anti-racism that addresses structural inequality and uncovers unconscious bias. That is to say, while diversity and inclusion efforts may successfully bring new people into an organization, to the “table” or in positions of leadership; we must also look to transform the organization itself to fit and support all people. As an international development agency, with missions throughout the world and a global staff, USAID is also grappling with finding appropriate responses to racism in the many intersections that exist among multiple cultural and racial experiences.

 

USAID has taken important strides around anti-racism. Recently, its Office of Civil Rights and Diversity (OCRD) released a Diversity 2020 strategy. Two years ago, OCRD inaugurated the Respectful, Inclusive, and Safe Environments (RISE) Initiative with other U.S. Government agencies by launching a five-day training course to advance a respectful, safe, and inclusive environment in USAID’s workplace and programs. Since its inception, RISE has grown to be more than just a training course -- it is now an evolving platform for USAID staff to come together to learn and engage around the themes of respect, inclusion, and safety in the workplace. Most recently, USAID Africa Bureau’s Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Council is developing a new vision statement for its work. The D&I Council is considering fostering Agency change towards an anti-racist, non-discriminatory, equitable, and positive workplace culture where each staff member has a continuous responsibility to ensure that everyone has a fair, ongoing, and meaningful opportunity to thrive and is supported and encouraged to contribute to USAID’s success.

 

PIVOT seeks to complement and inform USAID’s efforts to address racial inequity. Equally important, the PIVOT program recognizes that to implement a mission-wide organizational change program successfully, a strategy and curriculum to address individual, institutional, and structural racism is required. It is envisioned the strategy will include (but is not necessarily limited to): ongoing PIVOT management education, accountability frameworks, iterative retreats, train the trainer programs, and revisions of all PIVOT program materials including curriculum, communications, values statements, competencies, and workshop designs.

 

In addressing the challenges and developing a strategy, the PIVOT management team seeks to build upon the program’s experience and track record with developing “adaptive leadership” in the Cohort. Adaptive leadership includes developing skills related to active listening, giving and receiving feedback, understanding and navigating power dynamics, and mindfulness and self-awareness. The complementarity that arises in developing interpersonal and technical skills can help link individual and institutional capacity for navigating change, including the change required to address racism at the individual, team, and organizational level.

 

Finally, given USAID’s global mandate and context (i.e., staff, footprint and application of programs), coupled with the varying identification and experiences of the cohort - multiple African, African-American, white American, and other identities - the approach must include a broader, global lens on racism and power structures. As such, we envision that strategy should also include a framing specific to the Ethiopia and Tanzania as well as the institutional context. Given this intersectionality of complex issues, the PIVOT team proposes building our KSA of anti-racism in a broader context of intercultural competence.

 

The Racial Justice Consultant will act as the point of contact for topics related to intercultural competence and anti-racism. The Consultant will inform the integration of mindfulness-based anti-intercultural competence and anti-racism strategy and approach throughout PIVOT activities, including (but not limited to): an ongoing education framework for management; delivery of train-the-trainer sessions for the PIVOT core delivery team; the development of the PIVOT curriculum and competencies; and, facilitation of sessions directly for the PIVOT cohort drawn from several USAID Missions. Specifically, the consultant will work at four levels:

 

 

 

 

 

If qualified, the consultant will advise on the use of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) or another appropriate assessment as part of the PIVOT curriculum, and deliver it virtually to PIVOT Cohort Members, PIVOT Core Delivery Team, and USAID/Washington.

 

The following section details illustrative tasks across the four areas above in more granularity.

 

The consultant will develop and deliver an ongoing education framework for the management team over the period of performance. The framework may include direct training/coaching sessions, a syllabus of relevant materials (readings, podcasts, videos, etc.), and/or recommended third-party training.

 

 

 

In addition to the illustrative activities above, the Consultant will be asked to provide reports and inputs as needed to INVEST and USAID, which may include email bullets/reporting summarizing key activities, meetings and achievements, issues encountered and proposed solutions.

 

 

The PIVOT program is currently built around five core competencies that include draft statements around anti-racism and intercultural competence. (Note: One of the illustrative activities above is informing the update of PIVOT competencies and values statement). The activities described in this SOW will build CLA and leadership skills across the five PIVOT competencies as follows:

 

Competency 1: Promote personal and team readiness to engage in a change management process around PSE in the Mission.

 

Competency 2: Identify areas of alignment between private sector and USAID interests.

 

Competency 3: Design and facilitate processes that involve people across the Mission (multiple sector/functions) in service of implementation of PSE at the Mission

 

Competency 4: Convert PSE opportunities into strategic programmatic approaches.

 

Competency 5: Develop and manage relationships with the private sector.

 

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin.