USAID Indo-Pacific Opportunity Project (IPOP)

IDG develops PFM tools and best practices for the Asia Bureau. The websites and e-tools we are creating ensures PFM, DRM, and trade/regulatory practitioners can utilize these tools to improve PFM practices. We also develop gender responsive budgets, macroeconomic policy, and trade activities that strategically incorporate gender issues into PFM.

The Kyrgyz Republic Strengthening Public Debt Management Activity is supporting the Ministry of Finance and its Public Debt Management Department (PDMD) to enhance their debt management capacities by providing targeted technical assistance, training, and on-the-job advice and capacity building. The team is helping Kyrgyz counterparts to identify impediments to the development of the government bond market and recommending measures to strengthen debt-related areas, such as budgeting and expenditure management, to better manage public debt.

This project maximizes DRM to lower the economic susceptibility of Indo-Pacific countries of generating excessive debt in infrastructure deals that lack transparency on terms, conditions, procurement policies, and restrictive contract clauses.

IDG is working to make regulatory frameworks more conducive to private sector investment in the Indo-Pacific region. We develop the private sector by providing training and coaching of counterparts of various technical subjects including taxpayer education, compliance management, debt management, using diagnostic toolkits, drafting technical manuals, advising on updates to official policies and procedures, preparing case studies, and case studies on what works.

We support Indo-Pacific economies to leverage PPPs in increasing investment for large infrastructure projects contributing to sustainable development that include improved roads, power generation, transmission and distribution, and transport facilities.

We improve business enabling environments of the Indo-Pacific economies to bolster sustainable economic growth by establishing better procurement processes and promote public private partnerships that minimize reliance on infrastructure projects that would yield excessive debt. To create a better enabling environment, we also maximize fiscal resources, implement DRM activities, and establish protocol that keeps the environment safe in infrastructure development.

We identify best practices in the space of trade reforms and trade implications for investment linkages. We also incorporate crosscutting issues of gender into trade activities. By identifying barriers to trade for Indo-Pacific economies, we also bring attention to the significance of leveling the trade landscape.

IDG minimizes barriers to trade including loosening border restrictions and utilizing technology to conduct more efficient trade. We provide technical expertise on border regulatory issues including safety, public health, service sector competitiveness, and the environment to Indo Pacific economies. We also actively engage with small businesses to conduct cross-border trade and engage with regional and global supply chains.

We work in SPS with the Indo-Pacific region to conduct better regulatory reform and trade facilitation.

Our MEL system examines and evaluates how effective our interventions in the Indo-Pacific region are and what best practices we can keep moving forward. Our system is developed from the Theory of Change (TOC) and accounts for project timeline, roles, responsibilities, and goals.

We work with Indo-Pacific countries to advance good governance by promoting independent media sources and the availability of information to the general public.

We build institutional capacity to improve their democratic systems so that their development decisions are aligned with international standards and increase transparency. We leverage the Indo-Pacific Transparency Initiative (IPTI) to achieve this.

We integrate capacity building into all of our projects to strive towards self-reliance of Indo-Pacific economies and local institutions. IPOP’s Sri Lanka Tourism Assistance activity has been collaborating with other USAID programs based in Sri Lanka. The focus of the cross-activity cooperation has assisted in promoting Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises, enabling business environments, and building capacity in targeted niche tourism industry. The teams continue to plan further interagency discussions to find best practices to provide technical support and sustainability frameworks for the Sri Lankan tourism industry.

We assist Indo-Pacific countries in achieving financial management objectives listed under the Indo-Pacific strategy. We also improve BEE and the investment enabling environment to strengthen the financial sector.