Presenter(s)
Presenter Bio
x closeDirk Dijkerman currently serves at the OECD as a Special Advisor on OECD Development Strategy, helping to mainstream development across the organization. Previously, he served as the U.S. Government Delegate to the Development Assistance Committee (DAC). In this capacity, he co-led an international effort to increase the use and quality of country systems by donors and partner countries. In USAID/Washington, he has served as acting Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, Chief Operating Officer in the Office of the Director of United States Foreign Assistance, and Deputy Assistant Administrator in USAID’s former bureaus for policy and planning and for Asia and Near East affairs. Overseas, he has served as Mission Director in the Republic of South Africa, Rwanda, and REDSO/ESA, where he was responsible for technical and administrative support to bilateral USAID programs in Eastern and Southern Africa. He retired from USAID as a Career Minister in 2012.
Presenter Bio
x closeDr. Elizabeth Dunn has over 20 years of experience designing evaluations and leading research on low-income households and factors affecting their participation in market systems. She has worked on projects related to micro- and small enterprise development, smallholder agriculture, inclusive value chain development and microfinance. As a thought leader in the evaluation of inclusive market systems, Dunn uses concepts from complex adaptive systems (CAS) and social network analysis as an analytical framework for evaluating the evidence from inclusive value chain development projects and improving understanding of the factors affecting smallholder participation, value creation and value capture in regional and global market systems. Dunn was a major contributor to USAID’s work on value chain development under the AMAP project. She provided technical leadership for a wide variety of evaluations, including a longitudinal, mixed-method evaluation of the effectiveness of USAID's GMED project in India and served as Technical Director for core impact assessments under USAID's AIMS project.
Presenter Bio
x closeAllan Best is Managing Partner for InSource, a Vancouver-based health services and population health research group with expertise in knowledge translation and exchange, systems thinking, and communications. InSource serves health systems decision makers at the regional, provincial and national levels, offering innovative “whole systems” research, planning, and evaluation tools to support large-scale organizational change. Mr. Best also is Associate Scientist in the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluation, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. His research focuses on systems thinking and organizational change creating the teams, models, structures and tools that foster effective knowledge to action for health policy and programs that improve the health of the population. He was elected Fellow for outstanding research contribution by the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, Canadian Psychological Association, Society of Behavioral Medicine, American Psychological Association, and American Academy for Health Behavior.
Presenter Bio
x closeDr. Derick W. Brinkerhoff is Distinguished Fellow in International Public Management with RTI International (Research Triangle Institute) and a specialist in policy implementation, strategic management, democracy and governance, decentralization, civil society and NGOs, post-conflict reconstruction, and organizational change. He has worked with public agencies, NGOs, the US military, and the private sector across a broad range of development sectors in 30 countries and has undertaken long-term and short-term assignments in a number of fragile and conflict-affected states. He was the health governance team leader for USAID's Health Systems 20/20 Project for six years, and is currently health governance advisor for the RTI's Health Financing and Governance project and the Health Policy Project. Previously, he was a Principal Social Scientist at Abt Associates for ten years, where he spearheaded the research program of USAID's Implementing Policy Change Project and worked on health sector reform under USAID's Partners for Health Reform project.
Presenter Bio
x closeDr. Ronald Oakerson is professor of political science and former academic vice president and dean at Houghton College. Previously, he was senior research scientist at Indiana University, where he worked with USAID’s Decentralization: Finance and Management (DFM) project, and senior analyst at the U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (ACIR), where he directed research on metropolitan governance in the U.S. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Indiana University in 1978. Oakerson has consulted extensively for USAID, beginning in 1989 with a series of assignments related to policy reform and economic liberalization in Cameroon. In the mid-90s he was a member of the Working Group of Democracy and Governance organized by USAID/Africa, and a team member of the Benin Governance Assessment (a joint project of USAID and the European Commission). More recently, in 2004-05, he was a team member with the Fragile States Framework Project, organized for USAID by the IRIS Center. Currently, his principal international involvement is as consultant to the Mango Outgrowers Project in Sierra Leone.
Presenter Bio
x closeJohn Gillies is the Director of FHI 360's education practice. He has over 35 years of experience in international development, including as a Peace Corps Volunteer, USAID Foreign Service officer, consultant, researcher, and technical specialist. He has been an adviser to donors and national officials in numerous countries on education policy, program design, management, evaluation, and strategic planning. From 2003-2010, he was the director of the USAID Education Quality Improvement Program 2 (EQUIP2) and led a consortium of 15 universities, NGOs, and consulting firms in conducting policy research and advocacy for improving education policy, systems, and management. Prior to his work with FHI 360 and AED, Gillies ran a consulting firm with diverse clients ranging from USAID, Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), community development agencies, and various international NGOs. In the early 1980s, he was a Foreign Service Officer and served as Project Development Officer in USAID/Honduras.
DATE
November 28, 2012
LOCATION
Washington, DC United States
About this Event
Please note: A full list of presenters can be found here »
USAID hosted an Experience Summit on “Strengthening Country Systems,” November 27-28 in Washington, DC to foster a robust dialogue around how USAID’s past and present assistance efforts strengthen country systems. This event promoted an active exchange of ideas and opinions from USAID and partners that distilled lessons learned and identified challenges that USAID should bear in mind as it develops a strategy to guide its support to country systems.
The Experience Summit and the guidance to follow brought together two strands of development practice to chart a common way forward. One strand encompasses USAID’s programming, motivated by long-standing commitment to aid effectiveness and promote country ownership, currently exemplified by USAID’s implementation and procurement reforms. The other strand embraces efforts across the Agency to approach development more systemically—to think, for example, of health care delivery in terms of health systems or food production in terms of agricultural market systems, and to design development projects that seek to improve the performance of the system as a whole.
This Experience Summit was born out of a recognition that, while the articulation of a comprehensive approach to strengthening country systems may be new, a large body of past and present work experience exists. The event tapped into the accumulated experience of USAID staff and implementing partners by maximizing opportunities for participants to share their experiences and build consensus on the most important lessons.
To access resources, please refer to the "Event Resources" at the top of the page as well as the "Related" section at the bottom of the page. We also encourage you to submit additional resources about country systems strengthening to build upon our collective experience. To contribute resources, please email us.
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