40 years of DAI

Photo by Expedito Belo, DAI
SWIFT Work in Timor-Leste
Timor-Leste had long lived in disappointment. In 1974,
Portugal gave it its independence, but within a short
time Indonesia took it over. In the fall of 1999, through a
UN-sponsored referendum, the people of Timor-Leste
again voted for independence. Indonesian-backed militia
responded by looting the cities and burning the countryside.
Just a month after the violence ended, a SWIFT team
moved in, making 30 grants in 40 days. The money helped
purchase tools, pay villagers to clean up the countryside,
and rebuild marketplaces and other basic infrastructure.
For a year, the SWIFT team paid wages in Timor-Leste
to build up a thriving cash economy. By mid-2002, DAI
had administered some 500 grants worth $15 million. By
then, the transition initiatives had grown beyond the basic
to encompass supporting local media, bolstering civil
society, furthering the rule of law, and fostering local economic
development. All along the way, it was the people of
Timor-Leste, working through DAI-run projects, who built
their own nation back to stability.
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Success in the Congo persuaded OTI to create a stronger
contracting platform in the shape of an IQC called “Support
Which Implements Fast Transitions,” or SWIFT. When the
RFP for this new vehicle emerged in the summer of 1998,
it included an “illustrative” task order calling for a technical
approach, staffing plan, and budget for an urgent new activity
in Indonesia. Once again, an uncertain political transition
was occurring, in this case after the collapse of the Suharto
regime, which had been far more competent than Mobutu’s
but almost as corrupt. Appropriately enough, awards under
SWIFT were made to the winning firms in record time, and the
first task order was issued to DAI, which put its start-up team
on a plane to Jakarta less than 72 hours later.
Bruce Spake had returned from his tenure as a Chief of Party
with the banking team in Bosnia to lead the SWIFT effort.
Indonesia proved to be an ideal proving ground for OTI’s flexible
approach, and USAID mission director Terry Myers (as it
happened, another old friend of Barclay’s, and Boomgard’s
client in Central Java 10 years earlier) decided to mainstream
the contract, declaring it “the type of instrument every mission
should have.” Having emerged from 30 years of oneparty
rule and rigged elections, Indonesia was heading into a
wide open, hotly contested presidential election. The stakes
were high, as was the risk of communal violence that could
undermine the new democracy. One of the biggest challenges
was convincing Indonesians that they could actually participate
in the process, and that their votes would be counted.
Between October 1998 and June 1999, DAI made 116 grants
worth $3.7 million in support of voter education, including
televised public service announcements and funding of Indonesia’s
first televised political debates. The peaceful outcome
of the election and the stability that followed proved the
wisdom of this investment.