Robert Birkenes

Experience

• 

  Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

  Jun 1990 - Aug 1990

  Research Intern
• 

  USAID

  Jul 1993 - Jun 1994

  Private Sector Advisor, USAID/Moscow

  I helped manage the US assistance to Russia to privatize the Soviet economy. This included work on banking reform and other legal/regulatory work for private sector development, and technical assistance to the State Property Committee to help them privatize thousands of state-owned enterprises.

• 

  Save the Children US

  Oct 1995 - Jan 1996

  Manager, Survey on Household and Bazaar Economies

  In response to UNHCR's need to understand how people in Tajikistan were coping with the hardships of armed conflict and post-Soviet collapse, Save the Children hired me to lead a Survey on Household and Bazaar Economies. I hired and trained a team of ten local staff to design, implement, and analyze a survey or households and bazaars throughout Tajikistan; we then wrote and presented the report to the donor community, which was able to use the information to ensure that aid was more effective in helping people to survive. Show less

• 

  USAID

  Jan 1997 - Jan 2000

  Economic Analyst, Europe & Eurasia Bureau (Devtech Systems institutional contractor)
• 

  USAID

  Feb 2000 - Nov 2021

  Even before the pandemic struck, Iraq was confronting a range of complicated challenges: attempting to rebuild following the defeat of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS); contending with Iran-aligned paramilitaries and other malign foreign influences undermining the Iraqi Government’s authority; and confronting deep-seated anger from many Iraqis over corruption, poor essential services and the lack of opportunity. And in 2020, the Iraqi government faced a fiscal crisis due to a drop in oil prices at the same time as the world grappled with the Covid pandemic.Over the past fifteen years, USAID invested billions of dollars in Iraq, focusing on national and provincial government capacity building, community stabilization efforts, support for democratic elections, legislative strengthening, private sector growth and diversification, promotion of agricultural development and health. Our development assistance in 2020-2021 focused on governance, economic growth and stabilization activities. As the Deputy Mission Director, based in Erbil, I reported and served as the alter-ego to the Mission Director in all aspects of mission leadership and management. I guided and coordinated humanitarian (BHA) and stabilization (OTI) portfolios, ensuring congruence with Mission programming. Together with the Mission Director, I oversaw a development portfolio of over $1 billion, including a yearly budget of more than $150 million. I led engagement with Religious and Ethnic Minority communities, in coordination with Washington and other USG interagency partners, including the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM). In Erbil I served as a 'section chief' and participated in the Country Team, and served as the Senior USAID advisor to the Consul General and the Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM). I led our engagement with the Kurdistan Regional Government on issues related to streamlining public expenditures, budgeting, and public-private partnerships. Show less As Director of the Strategic Planning and Operations Office in the Middle East Bureau, I directly manage the Bureau's budget, strategic planning, vetting, and outreach teams, and support field missions to monitor and evaluate program performance, share their stories, strengthen evidence-based programming, and conduct overseas partner vetting programs as needed. My budget team works with USAID's Office of Budget and Resource Management (BRM), USAID's Bureau of Policy, Planning and Learning (PPL), F, NEA, and in the ME Bureau to build, justify, and implement integrated foreign assistance budgets, based on regional and country expertise and analysis. I lead Bureau participation in internal and external strategic planning processes, such as country development cooperation strategies, coordinate bureau review of Operational Plans to determine how to best allocate foreign assistance resources to achieve national goals, and serve as an expert advisor to Bureau leadership on formulating long-range development goals.I coordinate with the Department of State's Office of U.S. Foreign Assistance Resources, and work in tandem with the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (NEA) among others, on a wide range of strategic planning and foreign assistance issues. I am a leader and liaison for the ME Bureau Front Office on foreign assistance budget, strategic planning, policy analysis, monitoring and evaluation, partner vetting, and outreach matters. Show less I provide leadership and oversight in creating innovative operational improvements that harness the power of science, technology, innovation, and partnerships (STIP). I lead the Lab's Operational Innovations (OI) team, which collaborates closely with internal partners to acquire or generate new operational innovation ideas; assess these ideas for potential impact, barriers, risks, and costs; then transform the viable ideas to actionable interventions. Our internal partners include the Bureau for Policy, Planning, and Learning (PPL); Management Bureau's Office of Acquisition and Assistance (M/OAA); the Office of Human Capital Talent Management (HCTM); and the Office of General Counsel (GC). We improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Agency internal business processes, practices and procedures. To lead a diverse team of experts in Programming, Human Resources, Acquisition & Assistance, Information Technology and Management Services, I apply my creativity, solid knowledge of Agency business processes, and extensive experience working with a wide range of customers and stakeholders across the entire Agency. I lead the Agency's Non-Permissive Environments (NPE) working group, which improves the Agency's ability to operate more effectively and safely in NPEs around the world. Show less As Director for Office of Program Management (OPM), I led USAID/Pakistan to design a new Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS), and managed a staff of 31 professionals who oversaw all program planning, budgeting, design, analysis, implementation, performance monitoring, and evaluation. OPM supported programs and budget management for the USAID/Islamabad and the Provincial Offices in Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar. I managed the strategy, budget, project design, and performance monitoring and evaluation for a $200 million annual development assistance program and $1.7 billion portfolio. I also served as the interlocutor with the Government of Pakistan (GOP) counterpart dealing with tax and registration issues for implementation. I evaluated contributions and interrelationships of individual sector programs/projects toward achieving US development objectives, and helped to make recommendations on priorities. I reported directly to the Deputy Mission Director (DMD), and served for three months as acting DMD. Show less In 2009, USAID's Office of Conflict Management and Mitigation (CMM) was one of the newest offices in the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA), and was responsible for improving USAID’s ability to address the causes and consequences of conflict worldwide. We were the Agency's technical brain trust for conflict prevention and mitigation, led USAID’s applied research on best practices for conflict-sensitive programming, developed the Interagency Conflict Assessment Framework (ICAF), and conducts field assessments of conflict vulnerability and sources for resiliency. CMM also provided the Agency's training on conflict assessment and programming, helps missions to develop effective development programming from pre-conflict to post-conflict settings, and managed a highly-visible $26 million congressionally-earmarked program for people-to-people reconciliation projects targeted to the most conflict-vulnerable countries.I served as CMM’s Senior Program Officer, and led the Program Team composed of two civil service and three foreign service officers, two of whom were junior foreign service officers whom I directly supervised. I oversaw CMM’s $30 million program budget and $45,000 operating expenses budget that was used mainly for field support and training. I served as the Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative (COTR) for the five Instability, Crisis, and Recovery Program indefinite quantity contracts (ICRP IQCs), with a combined ceiling value of $600 million, which supported the Agency’s response to conflict-prone and fragile states. Show less I served as USAID/Iraq's representative on the Joint Inter-Agency Task Force (JIATF), situated within the Strategic Operations directorate of Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I). I served as a General Development Officer and performed a range of consultative, advisory, monitoring, and analysis and evaluation duties. The position required me to cooperate with and support senior- and mid-level officials mainly outside of USAID, working with representatives from US Government civilian and military agencies to design whole-of-government solutions to the top US national security problems in Iraq. I regularly briefed three- and four-star generals on progress in achieving these strategies.As USAID representative to the JIATF, I also provided reach-back to USAID/Iraq and USAID headquarters in Washington, and interfaced with US Embassy partners. I provided developmental expertise and recommendations on counterinsurgency and stabilization operations, governance, economic development, conflict resolution, humanitarian assistance and social factors--areas of common interest to defense and development. I also advised on ways to mitigate drivers of conflict--including infrastructure development and restoration of essential services, economic growth and job creation, reconstruction and reconciliation, anti-corruption, and civil society development. Show less

  • Deputy Mission Director for USAID/Iraq

    Oct 2020 - Nov 2021

  • Director of Strategic Planning and Operations Office (Bureau for the Middle East)

    Aug 2019 - Oct 2020

  • Supervisory Program Officer & Chief of Operational Innovations, US Global Development Lab

    Nov 2017 - Jul 2019

  • Supervisory Program Officer

    Oct 2016 - Oct 2017

  • Program Officer, USAID/Regional Development Mission to Asia

    Aug 2012 - Sept 2016

  • Indonesia Desk Officer

    Jul 2010 - Aug 2012

  • Senior Program Officer

    Oct 2009 - Jul 2010

  • USAID Representative, Joint Interagency Task Force, Multi-National Force-Iraq

    Sept 2008 - Sept 2009

  • Supervisory Program Officer, USAID/Jamaica

    Aug 2007 - Sept 2008

  • Deputy Program Officer, USAID/Egypt

    Aug 2003 - Aug 2007

  • Deputy Program Officer, Central Asian Republics

    Aug 2001 - Jul 2003

  • New Entry Professional, USAID/AFR/DP

    Feb 2000 - Jul 2001
• 

  USAID - Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance

  Jan 2022 - now

  Senior Humanitarian Advisor, US Mission to the EU

  As Senior Humanitarian Advisor (SHA) based at the U.S. Mission to the European Union in Brussels, Belgium, I coordinate humanitarian cooperation with the world’s largest humanitarian donor, help to strengthen the U.S. Government’s relationship with the EU, and promote more strategic and productive humanitarian outcomes.I provide senior representation with extensive crisis experience to work directly with EU counterparts, and advise the Mission in support of US Humanitarian Assistance priorities and goals in line with US foreign policy priorities. I monitor and evaluate EU policies and budgets and provide guidance to USEU and BHA’s Office of Global Policy, Partnerships, Programs, and Communications on emergent and chronic humanitarian issues to flag potential areas of agreement and disagreement and to leverage opportunities for shared action.I also assist in developing strategies for engaging with donors on humanitarian crises, advocate and educate on humanitarian issues with counterparts, provide input and guidance on EU policy issues and prepare key briefings. I serve as the USAID liaison to the EU on all issues relating to global humanitarian assistance in coordination with the senior USAID Representative and other related US Government representatives at USEU including State/PRM. In the interest of the Agency, I may also serve on BHA response teams in the event of a disaster that necessitates US engagement. Show less