Insights

On September 15, 2020, NPI EXPAND Project Director Jeff Barnes participated in a webinar organized by USAID and the NPI Incubator called “The Art of the Milestone:  How to implement effective Fixed Amount Awards.” The webinar was hosted by Randy Tift, USAID’s Chief Acquisition and Assistance Policy Officer and the project’s Agreement Officer’s Representative, Daryl Martyris, and the Agreement Officer, Christopher Nikola, also participated in the discussion. Mr. Barnes shared NPI EXPAND’s experience in implementing grants using Fixed Amount Awards (FAA) during its startup phase. He emphasized a number of advantages of the FAA over cost reimbursable or other grants including:

• Reducing risk for the prime issuing the grant
• Reducing audit risk for both the prime and the awardee
• Reducing the pressure on the local organization’s cashflow
• Reducing the administrative budget for both the prime and the local organization
• The pay for performance nature of the award—encouraging the local organization to focus its energies on the results most important for the program

The discussion covered some of the challenges of designing effective milestones, pricing them accurately, and choosing the right partners to implement FAAs.