Terms and Conditions

AOR: Agreement Officer’s Representative (under a contract, this position is referred to as the Contracting Officer’s Representative), the USAID official responsible for monitoring a grantee’s progress toward achieving the agreement’s purpose and for serving as technical liaison between the grantee and the AO. The AO will name and delegate authority for specific responsibilities to the AOR.

APS: Annual Program Statement, a funding solicitation that allows the USG to make multiple awards over a period of time.

Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA): A framework USAID uses to improve the effectiveness of development. CLA is based on the idea that strategic collaboration, continuous learning, and adaptive management are all linked together. CLA can help you address challenges by:

• Collaborating: Working with the right partners at the right time to promote long-term synergy
• Learning: Looking to the past, present, and future to produce lasting results; asking the right questions and finding answers that are relevant to decision making
• Adapting: Using the information we gather to make better decisions and make adjustments as necessary
• Enabling conditions: Working to create an organizational environment that supports collaborating, learning, and adapting efforts

M&E: Monitoring and Evaluation, the process of collecting and analyzing data and information for the purpose of identifying and measuring an activity’s impact, which is more commonly called Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL).

NGO: Non-Governmental Organization

RFA: Request for Applications, a mechanism for Grants or Cooperative Agreements, which means that USAID anticipates funding activities with limited oversight. RFAs are the most common means of soliciting applications from NGOs.

SOW: Scope (or Statement) of Work, also called Terms of Reference (TOR).

USAID: United States Agency for International Development, an independent U.S. Government agency that supports long-term and equitable economic growth and advances U.S. foreign policy objectives.

USG: United States Government.

Assistance: USG/USAID funding to an individual or an organization to achieve a public purpose. See also Acquisition.

Capacity Building: Strengthening the ability of an organization to manage itself and achieve its mission effectively.

Close-Out: The final phase of an activity in which activities are finalized and administrative tasks completed.

Cooperative Agreement: One of two methods the USG uses to provide assistance. The USG uses this method when it wishes to retain substantial involvement in an activity.

Direct Costs: Goods and services specifically purchased for the exclusive benefit of one activity that are charged to that activity.

Disallowed Cost: An incurred cost questioned by the audit organization that USAID has agreed is not chargeable to the U.S. Government.

Fiscal Year: Sometimes called a financial year or budget year, a period used for calculating annual (“yearly”) financial statements in businesses and other organizations. It may or may not correspond to the calendar year, which is January 1 through December 31. The USG fiscal year covers a 12-month period that begins October 1 and ends the following September 30.

Foreign Tax Report: The report that all USG recipients must fill out annually to report the Value-Added Tax (VAT) that was paid to the host government. The reports are used to ensure that U.S. foreign assistance is not being taxed.

Grants: A method the USG uses to provide assistance. Under Grants, the USG retains less control over the activity, compared to Cooperative Agreements. 

Indicator: A specific data point an organization tracks to monitor program progress. See also Target.

Key Personnel: Refers to activity positions and to the individuals who fill the particular slots. Typically, positions identified in a Cooperative Agreement as Key Personnel are those leadership slots considered essential to the successful implementation of the overall activity.

Management: The day-to-day operation of the organization.

Mission: The USAID representative body in a country receiving USAID assistance.

Pre-Award Survey: A review of an organization’s financial system to determine whether the system meets USAID’s minimum requirements before funding is awarded.

Prior Approval: Written authorization from the USAID Agreement Officer prior to a procurement or other action. 

Source: Where one procures an item or a service, regardless of its origin (where it was originally grown or manufactured). This is generally the physical location of the vendor.

Strategic Planning: An organization’s process of determining its direction or strategy and making decisions related to pursuing it. According to an adaptation from the Field Guide to Nonprofit Strategic Planning and Facilitation, “Simply put, strategic planning determines where an organization is going over the next year or more, how it’s going to get there and how it will know if it got there or not.”

Subaward: Funding issued to an organization through an intermediary that manages the funds for the original funder

Subawardee, Subrecipient (or “Sub”): An organization receiving financial assistance to carry out an activity or program through a primary recipient

Substantial Involvement: The right that the USG retains to provide input into an assistance project funded through a Cooperative Agreement. This right usually includes the ability to approve Work Plan, budgets, Key Personnel, monitoring and evaluation plans, and subrecipients. The Cooperative Agreement specifies the areas of substantial involvement.

Target: An estimated number of beneficiaries an activity expects to reach for a particular indicator within a defined period.

Terms of Reference: Provisions that describe the purpose and structure of a project, usually created during the early stages of project management. See also Scope of Work.

Unallowable Costs: Costs that cannot be reimbursed either because of regulations or because they are not reasonable or appropriate.

Work Plan: A document that lays out a program’s planned activities, associated resources, and targets.

Critical Assumptions: Those results and processes beyond the control or influence of USAID.

Development Hypothesis: Also known as Theory of Change, it identifies, through an “if …, then …” statement, the lower-level results that are needed to achieve a higher-level desired result, providing evidence supporting the hypothesized causal linkages.

Disaggregation: Data broken out by key categories of interest (such as demographic characteristics, sex, geography, etc.).

Goal: The highest level of impact to which USAID, the partner country, civil society, and other development partners contribute, within the CDCS timeframe. The USAID Mission contributes to the CDCS goal by achieving the Development Objectives (DOs).

Logic Model: A logic model is a graphic or visual depiction that summarizes key elements of a Theory of Change and it is often used as a facilitation tool during the design process. Logic Models provide a road map, showing the sequence of related events, connecting the need for a planned program with the program’s desired outcomes and results. Both Results Frameworks and LogFrames are types of Logic Models.

Logical Framework (LogFrame): A management tool used to improve the design and evaluation of interventions that is widely used by development agencies. It is a type of Logic Model that identifies strategic activity elements (inputs, outputs, outcomes, impact) and their causal relationships, indicators, and the assumptions or risks that may influence success and failure. See this logical framework template for reference.

Performance Indicators: These indicators measure expected outputs and outcomes of strategies, projects, or activities based on a Results Framework.

Performance Monitoring: The ongoing and routine collection of performance indicator data to reveal whether desired results are being achieved and whether CDCS, projects, and activities implementation are on track.

Project: A group of activities that are designed and managed in a coordinated way to advance results at a USAID Mission level. Through a project approach, USAID Missions can create synergies among complementary activities that generate higher-level results than can be achieved through the sum of their individual performances.

Results Framework: A diagram of the cause and effect logic for achieving a Development Objective over a defined time period. It is a management tool that presents the logic of an activity, project or program in a diagrammatic form. It links higher level objectives to its intermediate and lower level objectives. The diagram (and related description) may also indicate main activities, indicators, and core program evaluation term strategies used to achieve the objectives. The Results Framework is used by managers to ensure that its overall program is logically sound and considers all the inputs, activities, and processes needed to achieve the higher-level results. This is a type of Logic Model.

Sub-Intermediate Results (Sub-IR): Changes that contribute to the IR if the critical assumptions hold.

Theory of Change: A Theory of Change is a description of the logical causal relationships between multiple levels of conditions or interim results needed to achieve a long-term objective. It may be visualized as a roadmap of change and outlines pathways or steps to get from an initial set of conditions to a desired end result. A Theory of Change is analogous to a USAID development hypothesis or an activity hypothesis

AO: Agreement Officer

AOR: Agreement Officer’s Representative

CFR: Code of Federal Regulations

COI: Conflict of Interest

DSSR: Department of State Standardized Regulations

GSA: General Services Administration

AOR: Agreement Officer’s Technical Representative (formerly referred to as the Cognizant Technical Officer. Under a contract, this position is referred to as the Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative), the USAID official responsible for monitoring a Grantee’s progress toward achieving the agreement’s purpose and for serving as technical liaison between the Grantee and the Agreement Officer (AO). The AO will name and delegate authority for specific responsibilities to the AOTR named in a Cooperative Agreement.

APS: Annual Program Statement, a funding solicitation that allows the USG to make multiple awards over a period of time.

CFR: Code of Federal Regulations, the codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the executive departments and agencies of the USG.

Federal Financial Report (FFR): Also known as SF-425, a new USG financial reporting form that replaces, and consolidates into a single form, the two most common USG financial reports—the Financial Status Report and the Federal Cash Transaction Report.

Generally Accepted Accounting Procedures (GAAP): A standard framework of guidelines for accounting and financial reporting. It includes the standards, conventions, and rules accountants follow in recording and summarizing transactions and in preparing financial statements. Many countries use the International Financial Reporting Standards.

M&E: Monitoring and Evaluation, the process of collecting and analyzing data and information for the purpose of identifying and measuring a activity’s impact. 

M&IE: Meals and Incidental Expenses, costs incurred during travel, such as breakfast, lunch, dinner, gratuities and tips for services, laundry, toiletries, etc. 

MOU: Memorandum of Understanding, a document that may be used as a confirmation of agreed-upon terms when an oral agreement has not been captured in a formal contract. It may also set forth the basic principles and guidelines under which parties will work together to accomplish their goals. This should not be used if a transfer of funds is involved.

SOW: Scope (or Statement) of Work, also called Terms of Reference (TOR).

RFA: Request for Applications, a mechanism for Grants or Cooperative Agreements, which means that USAID anticipates funding activities with limited oversight. RFAs are the most common means of soliciting applications from NGOs.

RFP: Request for Proposals, a mechanism for contracts. Contracts may be Awarded to any type of organization, though they are used frequently for for-profits.

TA: Technical Assistance. 

USAID: United States Agency for International Development, an independent USG agency that supports long-term and equitable economic growth and advances U.S. foreign policy objectives.

USG: United States Government.

VAT: Value-Added Tax, levied on the purchase of goods and services, similar to U.S. sales tax.

Allocable Cost: A cost that specifically and exclusively supports or advances an Award.

Allowable Cost: A cost that can be paid by your Award and is not subject to restrictions or limitations.

Assistance: USG funding to an individual or an organization to achieve a public purpose. See also Acquisition.