A recruitment campaign led by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) initially seeks to deploy a Country Representative and Deputy Country Representative to Libya, where the vendors will work with the USAID Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) within the Bureau of Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA), according to personal contracting service (PSC) notices dated Aug. 15
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The contractors will at first establish a presence in the city of Benghazi, the notices said, without indicating other potential locations.
The announcements (active links in the Aid and Trade Monitor post) include this description of the Office of Transition Initiatives:
Created in 1994 as a distinct operating unit within USAID, OTI helps local, indigenous partners advance peace and democracy in priority conflict-prone countries by providing fast, flexible, short-term assistance targeted at key transition needs.
I'm glad someone sees a key transition coming to Libya in the near future. I wish I could be as optimistic, but the see-saw war between Qaddafi and the rebel coalition doesn't inspire high hopes. The USG's official spokesmen were lukewarm at best in remarks today:
Neither [White House spokesman Jay] Carney nor State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the rebels now have the upper hand ... One senior military official said the Pentagon is not ready to declare the opposition forces have reached a turning point, although it is not insignificant that they appear to have been able to hold the ground so far.
Not insignificant? That's faint praise, indeed. It sounds like we are doing a good job of containing our official enthusiasm.
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