Macedonia Competitiveness Activity Project in Macedonia

ME&A is pleased to be part of the new Macedonia Competitiveness Activity team. This USAID project is designed to build the competitiveness of Macedonian enterprises in domestic, regional, and global markets through “industry clusters,” which include all stakeholders in the performance of a given industry. ME&A serves as a subcontractor to Booz Allen Hamilton on the project. ME&A is providing long-term technical assistance in the key areas of consensus building, public education, and national dialogue about project objectives, processes, and outcomes.

ME&A’s role is to develop understanding of and support for critical economic and policy issues by a broad spectrum of players within Macedonia. Government and community leaders at the national and local levels need to be more thoroughly educated on the benefits of public-private dialogue as well as the need for reforms in support of Macedonian economic competitiveness. Implementation of these reforms will also be driven in part by popular understanding and support, and in particular, by the clarity of the message translating policy change into economic benefits for the average Macedonian.

ME&A Helps Health Delivery for Kurds in Northern Iraq

In cooperation with the U.S. Department of State and the Meridian International Center of Washington, DC, ME& A worked directly with the Patriot Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) of Northern Iraq to enhance the their health services delivery systems. In particular, ME&A will assist in the development of strategic planning capabilities of their respective health ministries; upgrade the delivery of health care services in under-served, rural communities; and strengthen the leadership and management skills of their health care administrators.

Another partner in this international health care coalition was the East Tennessee State University (ETSU) medical school, which has joined forces with the medical school faculties in the predominately Kurdish cities of Sulaymaniyah, Erbil and Dohuk to improve and revise medical school curricula. These goals are being pursued through computer-based, distance learning and visits by Iraqi medical staff to ETSU in Johnson City, Tennessee for hands-on training. ME & A is also administering a small grants program fund to be used for institution building and community health care initiatives in Northern Iraq.

ME&A Completes Egypt University Linkages Project II With Excellent Results

Since 1995, ME&A has been the prime contractor for USAID/Cairo to provide financial and project management services for the University Linkages Project II (ULP II). This $18 million grant program was designed to strengthen the responsiveness of the Egyptian university system to the country’s development needs. The project, which is scheduled to end on December 31, 2002, or soon after, has encouraged long-term relationships or “linkages” between Egyptian and U.S. universities as they collaborated on applied research to address key technology transfer projects.

ME&A designed, developed and implemented the procedures and tools necessary for the administrative, financial, and procurement management of the ULP II grant project. Over the seven years since ME&A was awarded this contract, the grant portfolio has supported over 80 grants to more than 700 researchers at 11 universities in Egypt, and more than 100 researchers at 27 universities in the U.S. Applied research has been undertaken in agricultural development and food production; industry, engineering and applied science; education, health and social services; and infrastructure and the environment. Results have shown that the research supported by ULP II has had a significant developmental impact in Egypt.

ME&A Completes Successful Local Economic Development Project in Ukraine

On November 30, ME&A completed its successful local economic development activity in the Kharkiv Oblast in Ukraine. The project began in 2001 as a regional economic activity in support of the Kharkiv Partnership between the U.S. and Ukrainian governments. The project was designed with two phases: economic sector studies of the region with the purpose of identifying priority sectors for investment, leading to economic development and job creation; and a second phase which was to create a regional economic development strategy.

Difficulties in finding data of sufficient quality to support the regional strategy as originally intended led to a modified project design. The new design emphasized assistance to local governments of the region in developing their own local economic development plans, and technical assistance to those local governments in developing institutional capacity at the local government level.

The project, led by Chief of Party, Paul Hoover, identified a number of successful approaches to local economic development. It also identified a number of constraints that inhibited LED. A complete report on this project will soon be made available on this website that analyzes project results and makes recommendations for future local economic development activity. Phase I project reports, which include 16 sector profiles, an economic overview of the Kharkiv region and other special reports can be viewed in the Economic and Community Development Section of this site. The project was funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. ME&A was assisted on the project by the Urban Institute and local subcontractors.

ME&A Wins NIH Conference Management and Travel Support Contract

In January, ME&A was awarded a five-year contract by the National Institutes of Heath to provide conference, meeting management and travel services, both domestically and internationally. ME&A will service the needs of the various institutes and organizations that are a part of or affiliated with NIH, whose mission is to uncover new knowledge that will lead to better health for everyone. NIH has 27 components, which includes institutes and centers such as the National Cancer Institute, the National Eye Institute, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the National Library of Medicine, just to name a few.

Under the contract, ME&A will serve travel support needs for visits by foreign and domestic scientists and officials to NIH and other institutes, universities, medical centers and research centers located throughout the United States. ME&A will also provide comprehensive conference management services and other administrative support. Services under this contract are also available to other health agencies of the Public Health Service, to the Department of Health and Human Services to which it is a part, and to other agencies of the federal government.

Learn more about services under our NIH contract.