3 February 2006

TO: All USAID Contractors and Recipients in Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova

FROM: Iris Young, Acting Office Director, Regional Contracts Office

SUBJECT: Limited Blanket Waiver to Allow Training in Selected Third
Countries

The Mission Director has signed a limited blanket waiver of the USAID
Automated Directive System to allow sending Ukrainian, Belarussian and
Moldovan trainees to third countries in Eastern Europe and the Newly
Independent States, under certain conditions. **Please note that this is
not the same as the existing blanket training waiver and should not be
understood as a continuation of current practice.** This waiver will be
in effect for two years, beginning February 15, 2006. A copy of the
waiver appears below. Implementers should keep a copy of this waiver in
their files for audit purposes.

Under this new limited blanket waiver, contractors and recipients are
responsible for determining if the proposed training event meets the
limited blanket waiver criteria. If so, contractors and recipients
should document their files and proceed with the training. If not,
contractors and recipients need to determine whether the proposed
training meets the criteria for an individual training wavier, in which
case a request for a waiver, with convincing justification, should be
submitted to the Cognizant Technical Officer.

Please also note that this waiver does not waive the nationality
requirements for training providers. While you may send trainees to
Eastern Europe under the limited blanket waiver, you still cannot hire
an Eastern European training provider without a nationality waiver.
However, because Geographic Code 110 (NIS) is an authorized Geographic
Code for all awards made by the Regional Mission, you may utilize
training providers from the NIS without a nationality waiver. Trainees
cannot be sent to Western Europe and training providers from Western
Europe cannot be utilized without: 1) a waiver to allow training in the
Western European country and 2) a nationality waiver to utilize a
training provider from the Western European country. Implementers with
any questions concerning the eligibility of proposed training are
encouraged to contact their cognizant technical officer or the Regional
Contracts Office.

Implementers should note that the definition of training includes, inter
alia, activities such as non-academic seminars, workshops, on-the job
experiences and observational study tours. All training is subject to
the policies in ADS 253 and its mandatory and supplemental references
which can be located at the following web site:
<http://www.usaid.gov/pubs/ads/200/>. In particular, I would like to
highlight the requirements that participants sent to third countries
must have medical insurance and, if trainees are not fluent in the
language of instruction, interpreters must be provided. In addition, the
use of the TraiNet database is mandatory.

![](media/image1.jpeg){width="6.489583333333333in"
height="0.8333333333333334in"}February 2, 2006

ACTION MEMORANDUM FOR THE MISSION DIRECTOR

From: Iris Young, Acting Office Director

Regional Contracts Office

Subject: Designation and Limited Blanket Waiver to Allow Training in
Selected Third

Countries

I. ACTION REQUESTED

Pursuant to ADS section 253.3.2(c), third country training may not take
place in designated Developed Free World countries without a waiver
signed by the Mission Director or designee. You are requested to approve
a limited form of blanket waiver of this restriction for a period of two
(2) years to allow participant training under the Belarus, Moldova and
Ukraine programs in certain third countries in Eastern Europe and the
Newly Independent States (NIS). In addition, you are requested to
designate the Mission's Participant Training Coordinator for purposes of
executing third country training waivers on your behalf.

II\. BACKGROUND

Training is defined in USAID's Automated Directive System as "a planned
intervention by organizational or independent professionals to solve
identified performance gaps through the acquisition and application of
new skills, knowledge, or attitudes (SKAs). These are acquired either
via structured learning and follow-up activities, or via less structured
means. Training can consist of long-term academic programs, short- or
long-term non-degree technical courses in academic settings,
non-academic seminars, workshops, on-the-job experiences, or
observational study tours." In addition to the U.S. and the host
country, according to ADS section 253.3.2(c), training may take place in
all countries except the following: 1) Developed Free World countries
(countries excluded from Geographic Code 941), 2) countries which are
donors to the USAID recipient country, 3) countries considered
unfriendly by the U.S. Department of State and 4) terrorist countries
identified by the Department of State. The Developed Free World includes
the countries of Eastern Europe and the three constituent countries in
the Mission -- Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova -- as well as all other
Newly Independent States (NIS). This means that participants from the
Regional Mission's three countries may not attend training in Eastern
Europe or in any other NIS country without a waiver.

The Mission Director (or designee) is permitted under ADS 253.3.2(d) to
waive this restriction when: 1) instruction at the training site and
country selected is critical to achieving strategic objectives; 2) the
participant has proficiency in the language of instruction in the
selected country; and 3) similar training is unavailable in the U.S. or
in an independent country included in Geographic Code 941 (Selected Free
World which consists of developing countries).

III\. DISCUSSION

A. Limited Blanket Waiver

Training in Eastern Europe and the NIS in certain cases is critical to
the achievement of Mission strategic objectives. First, these countries
all share a legacy of Soviet rule or domination which contributed to the
development of similar political, economic and social structures and
their attendant problems in a post-communist world. These countries are
in varying stages on the path towards becoming modern democratic states
and converting to free market economies while coping with the social
disruption caused by the demise of the Soviet empire. The Eastern
European countries on the whole tend to have progressed further down
this path than those countries in the NIS and for that reason, their
experiences in making this transition are particularly relevant to
Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova. While training in the U.S. is still often
beneficial in many cases, participants often have difficulty relating
the situation in their country to that of the U.S. Eastern Europe offers
a vision of a more reasonable goal of what might be possible in the near
future. At the same time, most NIS countries are currently grappling
with the same types of issues, such as land reform and pension reform,
that the three countries in the Regional Mission face and it can be
particularly useful for participants to learn how other NIS countries
are approaching such issues and to share experiences.

Second, in the case of Belarus, the repressive political situation makes
in-country training extremely difficult since the entire USAID portfolio
consists of activities supporting democracy which are viewed unfavorably
by the current regime. For that reason, most training must be conducted
in neighboring countries if it is to be conducted at all.

As to the second criterion for a waiver, training provided in an Eastern
European or NIS country as the only way to draw on the experiences,
lessons learned and local access described above is necessarily
unavailable in the U.S. or in independent countries of the Selected Free
World. Such benefits cannot be transported to authorized countries in
the form of trainers; for example, training combined with visits to
local associations, organizations, communities, elected bodies, etc.
cannot be provided locally or in the U.S.

The third condition is that participants have proficiency in the
language of instruction in the selected country. To a certain degree,
Russian, which many Belarusians, Moldovans and Ukrainians speak, is
still the lingua franca of the NIS and, to a lesser degree, Eastern
Europe. In any event, this waiver will apply only to training events in
which the participants are proficient in the language of instruction or
will receive interpretation in a language they do understand. This
approach is supported by the ADS mandatory reference "Detailed Guide for
Training Results", which states that "interpreters must be used if the
participant(s) do not speak the language of training."

Accordingly**, training events fitting all of the following criteria
would be covered by the limited blanket waiver**, and would not require
individual waivers:

\(1\) The subject of the training event is one that makes the experience
of the waiver country[^1] relevant to the experience of the sending
country (Belarus, Moldova or Ukraine), as described above;

\(2\) At least one of the following is true:

\(a\) The training event is located in the waiver country because it is
a unique event organized or funded other than by USAID or a USAID-funded
program; or

\(b\) The training event is located in the waiver country in order to
draw significantly on that country's experiences via site visits,
meetings with local officials, or other similar relevant local resources
not available in the U.S. or the sending country (the fact that trainers
themselves are nationals of the waiver country does not itself satisfy
this condition); or

\(c\) The training event is located in Lithuania, Poland or Ukraine in
furtherance of a USAID democracy and governance program for Belarus; and

\(3\) All USAID-funded participants are proficient in the language of
instruction, or will receive interpretation in a language they do
understand.

A training event that satisfies the conditions in (1) and (2) also
constitutes training that "is unavailable in the U.S. or in an
independent country described under Code 941 of the Geographic Code
Book", and therefore satisfies the final criterion listed in ADS section
253.3.2(d). The implementing partner relying on this limited blanket
waiver is responsible for determining the applicability of the
conditions listed above to a given training event and documenting its
files accordingly. USAID retains the right to determine that training
costs are unallowable if the associated training event does not, in its
opinion, satisfy these conditions.

Approval of this limited blanket waiver does not imply that participant
training should take place in Eastern Europe and the NIS to the
exclusion of the U.S. and other authorized countries. The host country
and the U.S. remain the preferred sites for training. Strategic
Objective teams and their implementers should consider all relevant
factors when making a determination as to which training locale is most
appropriate for attaining the objectives of the activity. Approval of
this waiver does not waive any other requirement for third country
participant training, such as the requirements for medical insurance,
interpreters and use of TrainNet, nor does it waive the nationality
requirement for providers of training services.

Training events that do not meet all of the criteria above, such as
training in Western Europe, will require individual waivers.

B. Designation

In order to increase the Mission's capacity to efficiently process
case-specific third country training waivers, you should take advantage
of your authority to designate employees for purposes of approving such
waivers. The Participant Training Coordinator, a role assigned to the
Director of the Program Office pursuant to Mission Order 100-02-02, is a
logical designee and is proposed as such.

IV\. AUTHORITY

ADS E253.5.3(d) authorizes the Mission Director to waive restrictions on
third country training in the Developed Free World, and to designate
employees to approve such waivers.

V. RECOMMENDATION

That you sign below indicating your approval of the two-year limited
blanket waiver described above for activities managed by the Regional
Mission, and your designation of the Participant Training Coordinator
for purposes of approving case-specific third country training waivers.
This waiver is effective February 15, 2006 and expires February 14,
2008.

SIGNED 02/03/06

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

Approve Date

[^1]: "Waiver country" refers to any country in Geographic Code 110 and,
    in addition, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, the Czech Republic,
    the Slovak Republic, Croatia, Slovenia, Romania, Albania, Serbia,
    Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Montenegro and Hungary.