R. Christopher Gomes

Christopher T. Gomes serves as Executive Officer at USAID/Zambia, where he oversees the strategic alignment of procurement activities with the agency’s mission to advance sustainable development through technical assistance and institutional capacity building. In this leadership role, he ensures that acquisition strategies support core priorities in public health systems, agricultural resilience, and digital governance, with a strong emphasis on data-driven decision-making and supply chain transparency. Gomes typically manages high-impact, non-construction service acquisitions that require specialized expertise in health information systems, logistics modernization, and governance innovation, often coordinating with technical units to define requirements and evaluate vendor capabilities. While specific contractor names are not publicly available, Gomes engages with a diverse ecosystem of professional service providers, including international consulting firms, local Zambian implementers, and technical specialists in health informatics and data analytics. His procurement approach emphasizes performance-based contracting and outcome-oriented deliverables, fostering long-term partnerships with vendors capable of delivering adaptive, context-sensitive solutions aligned with USAID’s local capacity-building goals. Gomes’s procurement portfolio reflects a clear preference for open competition, with 100% of acquisitions classified as “No Set-Aside,” indicating a focus on merit-based selection over socioeconomic set-asides. This approach prioritizes technical proficiency and implementation track record over certification-based preferences, though it does not preclude participation by small or disadvantaged businesses that meet stringent performance criteria. His primary procurement focus lies in NAICS 812990 (All Other Personal Services) and 541990 (All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services), reflecting demand for expert consulting, monitoring and evaluation, training, and systems integration services. These contracts support critical initiatives in tuberculosis and malaria response, integrated health information systems, and digital governance tools, underscoring his deep expertise in procuring complex, knowledge-intensive services that drive measurable development outcomes.