Latest News
RAISE Plus - Ukraine Agricultural Policy, Legal and Regulatory Reform Project
Abt Associates has been awarded a four-year, $8.8 million dollar task order in Ukraine under the RAISE Plus contract to help remove the legal and regulatory impediments to the growth of competitive private agricultural enterprises and to provide support to the champions of market reform who have appeared after the recent Orange Revolution. The main results are expected in the areas of privatization, subsidies and taxes, and restructuring regulators. It is also expected that the quantity and quality of public discussion of important agricultural policies, laws and regulations will increase significantly.
RAISE Plus - Guatemala Trade and Competitiveness
Abt Associates Inc. has been awarded a four-year $3+ million task order under the RAISE Plus contract to assist USAID/Guatemala in its support of the Government of Guatemala’s efforts to create new economic and rural growth strategies, develop contemporary approaches to national competitiveness, investment promotion, and globalization of select market clusters.
USAID/Guatemala, through this Competitiveness and Trade Assistance Project is committing its full support to these GOG economic development policy and strategy efforts. This assistance will not only support current GOG efforts, but will also influence the course of economic policy for the coming crucial years.
Abt Associates Awarded RAISE Plus Task Order in Afghanistan
Abt Associates has been awarded a task order in Afghanistan under the RAISE Plus contract to conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment for the USAID/Afghanistan Alternative Livelihoods Program (ALP). The environmental assessments will be primarily conducted for rehabilitation and reconstruction works for roads, buildings, and irrigation canals in the ALP project areas located in the southern, eastern and northern regions of Afghanistan. The purpose of the Environmental Assessment is to provide USAID and Afghan decision makers with a full discussion of significant environmental effects of a proposed action. The assessment includes alternatives, which would avoid or minimize adverse effects or enhance the quality of the environment so that the expected benefits of development objectives can be weighed against any adverse impacts upon the human environment or any irreversible or irretrievable commitment of resources. The environmental assessments will be carried out between October and November of 2005.
Abt Associates to Assist USAID in Improving Agriculture in Developing World
Cambridge, Mass. - The U.S. Agency for International Development announced that Abt Associates was awarded an Indefinite Quantity Contract (IQC) to help improve agricultural performance in the developing world. Abt Associates has assembled a consortium of organizations to implement the contract, worth $480 million over five years. Three other organizations will also head consortia that will share in the task of implementing the contract.
Called Rural and Agricultural Incomes with a Sustainable Environment Plus, or RAISE PLUS, the contract aims to create "more competitive, prosperous and sustainable agricultural and rural sectors in developing countries," according to USAID documents. RAISE PLUS will encompass activities ranging from strategic planning, enterprise and market development, and sustainable production, to policy analysis in areas such as food safety, agribusiness, post-harvest storage and processing, and agricultural trade.
"Abt Associates has been a leader in international agriculture consulting for many years, and our people are recognized around the world," said Mike Conti, Managing Vice President of the Environment, Trade and Agriculture Division of Abt Associates. "We are excited to partner again with USAID and begin this next phase of strengthening agriculture in the developing world."
Abt Associates will team with organizations from across the United States to implement the IQC, including non-profit organizations, universities and corporations. Given that 95 percent of the world's 850 hungry people live in the developing world, that 1.2 billion people live on less than one dollar per day, and that agricultural commodities are the most important source of export revenues for many developing countries, the IQC promises to play a critical role in world efforts to address poverty and hunger. Abt Associates believes that agricultural growth that is competitive and sustainable is the most effective engine of pro-poor economic growth that will benefit rural areas in developing countries.
IQCs are vehicles for USAID to provide services quickly to its missions around the world. Over the next five years, USAID will award Task Orders to Abt Associates and other of the IQC's various consortia to perform tasks under the scope of the contract.
Abt Associates, a private, employee-owned company, applies scientific research and technical assistance expertise to a wide range of social, economic and technological policy issues; international development; clinical trials and registries; and complex business problems. Founded in 1965, Abt Associates provides services to U.S. federal, state and local governments; foreign governments; international organizations; foundations; and business and industry. Its staff of over 1,000 is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Bethesda, Maryland; Chicago, Illinois; and in Africa, Asia, Central Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.
For more information, contact:
Gordon Straub
Project Manager
Gordon_Straub@abtassociates.com
(301) 718-3193