40 years of DAI

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in the forefront, serving an unprecedented six years as Chief of Party and gaining praise from all quarters for the project’s excellent results. He managed a diverse team, incorporating subsector analysis methods that had been refined by Bill Grant and Boomgard’s other GEMINI colleagues, and tapping industry experts from the United States and partners from the Moroccan private sector. Together, they coaxed efficiencies out of every step of the production chain. Reflecting the shift in emphasis from agriculture for subsistence to production for export, the MAPP team worked hard to get Moroccan products into foreign markets. At the June 1998 seminar that wrapped up the project, one USAID official noted that “MAPP has shown how public and private cooperation in agribusiness can succeed.” Technical assistance was something DAI knew a great deal about. In 1989, distinguished development economist Elliot Berg had signed on as DAI’s Vice President for Policy and Research. In 1993, assisted by Craig Olson, Berg authored an influential book for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) called Rethinking Technical Cooperation. The book documented the uneven track record of donor-financed technical assistance projects in Africa. It sparked some controversy with its findings, which showed that much technical assistance was being supplied by donors without evidence of real demand from African governments. The clients at UNDP got cold feet after the book’s provocative findings gained critical notice. Mickelwait, who had been instrumental in attracting Berg to join DAI, quipped to his colleague: “Elliot, your book could put us out of business … but if it’s only in Africa, I can live with that.” (Mickelwait’s enthusiasm for Southeast Asia and lack of interest in Africa, Barclay’s “turf,” was a standing joke in the firm.) But he was proud of the solid analysis that forced DAI’s clients and a wider readership to reconsider conventional wisdom and traditional development approaches, and DAI suffered no adverse consequences from the study. Agriculture also led DAI onto the front lines of the international drug war, as it took on projects aimed at promoting “alternative livelihoods” for peasant farmers producing coca or opium poppy. The firm gained some experience from early experiments in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province in the 1980s, followed by a Pakistan-based project to manage cross-border activities in Afghanistan after Soviet troops Don Humpal, now a 30-year DAI veteran, led the flagship Moroccan Agribusiness Promotion Project. 57
With its long history of farming projects, it made sense for DAI to get into agribusiness work. Shown here is a vegetable production operation in the Philippines. The CONCADE project was a successful example of “alternative development.” Here, workers prepare bananas for export from the Chapare region of Bolivia. 58 Photo by John Bowman, DAI Photo by Steve Huffstutler, DAI evacuated that country in 1989. The latter effort faltered in 1991 when Afghan militants took project vehicles and equipment “hostage,” and DAI had no recourse because it could operate only across the border. Far more successful was the Cochabamba Regional Development Project in Bolivia (1992–1999), known as CORDEP, and its successor, CONCADE (1999–2005). Over this extended period, a DAI team, largely staffed by Bolivian professionals, worked with producer associations, exporters, and wholesale distributors to help farmers switch from growing coca to producing bananas, pineapples, and passion fruit for export. DAI learned from these experiences that development could only work in a secure environment. Since the growers themselves did not share in the profits of the drug trade, said Max Goldensohn, “we were able to
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2 DAI, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA www.
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FOreWOrd There are three reasons we
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chapter One Something to believe In
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Chapter One Something to Believe In
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Development By 1979, the notion tha
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It was Charles Franklin “Charlie
Page 16 and 17: law in Delaware, where many small c
Page 18 and 19: ects in Africa. Hatch held a newly
Page 20 and 21: Most staff members who joined DAI i
Page 22 and 23: tise, energy, and especially money.
Page 24 and 25: Barclay encountered Charlie Sweet,
Page 26 and 27: after Barclay. In early 1978, he be
Page 28 and 29: norm after this. The offering docum
Page 30 and 31: gathered in the well-appointed surr
Page 32 and 33: Chapter Two Learning by Doing, 1981
Page 34 and 35: spending, and demand in the technic
Page 36 and 37: several senior managers, including
Page 38 and 39: Back on the Growth Path Don Mickelw
Page 40 and 41: second was that the firm was ready
Page 42 and 43: spurs and become assets in the firm
Page 44 and 45: A Different Direction By 1981, soon
Page 46 and 47: in rural enterprise development and
Page 48 and 49: cided to begin providing annual cas
Page 50 and 51: DAI began to grow again, he grew re
Page 52 and 53: front, it seemed likely that ICF wo
Page 54 and 55: Chapter Three The Fresh Faces of De
Page 56 and 57: household word. USAID had commissio
Page 58 and 59: epublics. For the work in Poland, D
Page 60 and 61: tion. Calculating the growing impor
Page 62 and 63: to development policy, but no chang
Page 64 and 65: to realizing Mickelwait’s vision
Page 68 and 69: find alternatives as long as the Go
Page 70 and 71: Transition These successes and fail
Page 72 and 73: Mickelwait knew that Barclay had in
Page 74 and 75: Chapter Four Farther and Faster, 20
Page 76 and 77: Barclay could not have known then t
Page 78 and 79: Tactical deployment of grants was t
Page 80 and 81: DAI on track to cross the $100 mill
Page 82 and 83: ECIAfrica as a reliable service pro
Page 84 and 85: highly successful. Said Abu Hijleh,
Page 86 and 87: able expertise in federal procureme
Page 88 and 89: When new projects first appeared in
Page 90 and 91: Transformation and Transition The e
Page 92 and 93: to improve as soon as this change o
Page 94 and 95: Chapter Five Pulling Together, 2005
Page 96 and 97: in the ESOP were distributed throug
Page 98 and 99: Ownership, however, could be figura
Page 100 and 101: advantage, USAID would favor a comp
Page 102 and 103: As Jim Boomgard noted, “Developme
Page 104 and 105: governments on all levels to better
Page 106 and 107: In his role as COO, empowered by Ba
Page 108 and 109: the mid- and late 2000s, the compan
Page 110 and 111: the mid-1990s, DAI had begun to ext
Page 112 and 113: immense—and DAI’s projects are
Page 114 and 115: ard Winkler. Few will dispute that
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DAI Advancing Human Prosperity
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