Driving trade, technology, agriculture, business, and financial services to create jobs, reduce poverty, and enhance food security.
A pioneer of developing and implementing strategies for national competitiveness, DAI now works at the forefront of development strategies around low-carbon growth.
We work across all sectors—from rural agricultural to large-scale manufacturing and service industries—to boost firm-level innovation and productivity and develop ecosystems that foster innovation, entrepreneurship, and employment generation. We take a commercial approach to stimulating production efficiency and quality improvements, through new technologies and improved workforce skills. We work with companies to adopt innovative business models, reach high-value markets, leverage investments, and access new technologies.
We engage all stakeholders—policymakers, private sector, training institution, and business service providers—to generate partnerships that offer entrepreneurship and employment opportunities, particularly for youth.
Tim Bergstrom leads the Somali Business Catalytic Fund, managing the operational and grant teams to achieve the program objectives.
Edwin Berk has made a career of building the businesses of professional services companies where public and private sectors intersect. After a brief stint teaching at Yale University, he joined a public policy consulting firm.
Peter Brimble has worked extensively in Central, Southeast, and North Asia on industrial efficiency, investment promotion, foreign direct investment, private sector development, and public policy issues.
Kate Heuisler is a development practitioner with 15 years of experience designing and managing development programs in 16 countries.
Bobby Jefferson, a leader in the field of information and communications technology for development, is working to expand DAI’s range of digital health services.
Danijela Kostic performs management, coordination, planning, and assessments of information and communications technology (ICT) projects, writing technical documentation, reviewing ICT components for DAI projects, working on proposals with ICT components, and designing tailored solutions for project beneficiaries.
Kristi Ragan leads The Invest Project, a flagship USAID program to research, develop, and build “blended finance” solutions for development challenges.
Implemented on behalf of the Palestinian Ministry of Finance and Planning, the Finance for Jobs project addresses constraints to job growth in the West Bank and Gaza by developing financing instruments to promote business investment and job training.
Read MoreThe Jalin program, meaning “intertwined or interwoven” in Indonesian, promotes locally developed solutions to reduce maternal and child mortality in Indonesia by working with diverse partners to co-create and co-invest in new life-saving ideas.
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DAI was founded in 1970 by three graduates of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government intent on providing a more dynamic and effective brand of development assistance. See how DAI is turning this American success story, into a global one.
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