Digital Development Advisors (DDAs) are digital generalists, responsible for helping USAID Missions implement the Digital Strategy, supporting the integration of digital tools and approaches across the Mission’s portfolio, and serving as both a coordinator and a resource for Mission and Operating Unit (OU) digital programming. They serve as the expert on “digital ecosystems and provide guidance on anticipating, recognizing, and reacting to changes and opportunities in these ecosystems.”
This initiative builds on the pilot DDA program launched in 2016 out of the Technology Division in the Bureau for Development, Democracy, and Innovation (formerly the Center for Digital Development in the U.S. Global Development Lab) that helped 10 Missions hire 12 experts in specific fields such as digital finance and geographic information systems. Over the last five years, DDAs have worked on increasing financial inclusion, expanding connectivity through negotiations with the telecommunications sector, migrating Mission data to the Development Information Solution (DIS), and creating data visualization products with geographic information systems to support Mission monitoring, evaluation, and learning.
DDAs are integral interlocutors between other bilateral donors, multilateral organizations, private sector organizations, civil society organizations, and host country government ministries and offices.
Download the Digital Development Advisors (DDA) factsheet.
For more information, please contact digitaldevelopment@usaid.gov.