USAID Seeks Contractor to Oversee Caracas 'Transition' Office

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is recruiting a "country representative" to oversee its Venezuelan Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI), whose purported aim is to "strengthen independent civil society" groups while preserving "the basic rights and democratic space that still exist in Venezuela."

Although it's unclear whether this is a newly created position or an existing slot, the overall OTI program has been operating via the U.S. Embassy in Caracas since 2002. USAID describes OTI in official literature as a critical aspect "of a larger U.S. government effort to promote democratic stability in Venezuela." Among OTI-Venezuela's original actions was a partnership with Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI), an NGO that launched the so-called "Venezuela Confidence Building Initiative," or VICC as it was known under its Spanish acronym. VICC's stated goal was to provide "support to democratic institutions" and to promote "citizen participation and democratic leadership." It sought to accomplish these tasks -- "in the face of the current politically charged and polarized environment" -- through the airing of TV and radio ads under the theme of convivencia, or "peaceful coexistence."

According to the USAID/OTI Venezuela program description, DAI also embarked upon various "social impact projects" across the nation:

These high-profile projects serve to reinforce the favorable impression that most Venezuelans have of the American people and demonstrate the United States Government's solidarity with the global fight against poverty. The projects support such things as inner-city day-care centers, centers for street children, and cancer hospices for children of low-income families.

OTI-Venezuela likewise has partnered with other private-sector organizations since that time to bolster, as it claims, dialogue between Venezuelan governmment officials and opposition parties alike. Human rights training -- with a particular emphasis on the training of individuals and groups not typically involved in such activities -- is one of the specialty areas that USAID affiliates have been pursuing, according to a USAID-OTI Venezuela Field Report dated Jan.-March 2007. Those groups include the Pan American Development Foundation, the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute, and Freedom House
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The newly selected OTI country-representative will be responsible for conceptualizing and designing "program strategies and objectives in close coordination with OTI staff, USAID personnel, U.S. embassy and local civil society officials, based on political analysis and U.S. Government policy." According to a personal service contractor document dated Aug. 9, the selected candidate will earn between $79,115 - $102,848 annually.