THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2022 57 AFSA NEWS USAID VP VOICE | BY JASON SINGER AFSA NEWS Contact: jsinger@usaid.gov | (202) 712-5267 Collaboration Through Co-Creation: Putting Policy into Practice USAID and other development stakeholders have long touted the value of “cocreation,” particularly as the agency advances its efforts to work more closely with local partners. According to USAID, “Co-creation brings people together to collectively design solutions to specific development challenges. Partners, potential implementers, and end-users define a problem collaboratively, identify solutions, build consensus around action, and refine plans to move forward with programs and projects.” This statement got me thinking. What if the agency applied the co-creation approach internally, treating AFSA and other federal unions as local partners with whom to cocreate solutions? This shouldn’t be a radical idea—sound bases are already in place to build this approach on, not least the president’s executive order, “Protecting the Federal Workforce” (E.O. 14003). So, where to begin? Fortunately, USAID has issued a helpful “Co-creation Interactive Guide” (viewable at https://bit.ly/USAIDCo Creation) that includes definitions, clarifications, characteristics and how-tos related to the co-creation process. It’s a great resource—so great that I am sharing the USAID schematic here: “Co-creation is an intentional, collaborative design approach that brings people together to collectively produce a mutually valued outcome, using a participatory process that assumes some degree of shared power and decision-making.” I found this distinction and progression well considered but a bit depressing: AFSA-USAID relations are predominantly stuck at the consultation stage (if they are even on the chart); AFSA too often learns of concerns to the Foreign Service only after the fact. For example, if you’re like me, you were excited to read in the Administrator’s testimony on the Fiscal Year 2023 budget request her mention of increasing the size and agility of the career workforce, and “the launch of the Global Development Partnership initiative, a workforce expansion program, that will focus on democracy and anti-corruption, global health security, national security, climate change, operational management, and a more permanent humanitarian assistance workforce.” As positive as her plan sounds, this was the first AFSA had heard of “the Global Development Partnership Initiative.” As bureaucrats, we know that when initiatives get capitalized, they’re real! Strategically ambiguous words such as “more permanent humanitarian assistance workforce” raised my eyebrows, and rightly so: ASFA has since learned of the agency’s planned conversion of personal service contractors and institutional support contractors to Foreign Service Limited appointees. By contrast, the co-creation column of the schematic shared on this page contains phrases such as “shared power,”“mutually beneficial” and “a clearly defined, shared outcome.” These words remind me of the Biden-Harris administration’s own body of support for employees and their unions, including the February 2022 White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, which declares: “When federal employees organize a union, they should have an effective voice in workplace issues through their union, and federal management should work closely with these unions to solve workplace issues.” Of course there will not always be agreement, but surely collaborating on a common challenge is not asking too much. Still, I am hopeful. AFSA and USAID are exploring the revival of the Labor Management Forum, a structure that met with some success during the ObamaBiden administration. Such a forum could prove to be a positive platform for AFSAagency engagement and co-creation. In the meantime, I remain committed to engaging agency colleagues at all levels to advance mutually beneficial solutions to the glaring strategic workforce challenges facing USAID; whether we call it “co-creation” or some other name, hopefully we agree that it is a “shared outcome.” n USAID’S CO-CREATION INTERACTIVE GUIDE
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODIyMDU=