Ester R. Pura

Ester G. Pura serves as a Senior Acquisition and Assistance Specialist at USAID/Philippines, where she leads the design, solicitation, and award of complex technical assistance and capacity-building contracts aligned with the agency’s mission of sustainable development. Her work centers on procuring professional services that strengthen public sector governance, financial management, and climate resilience through expert-led interventions. She manages the full lifecycle of acquisition instruments, from needs assessment and market research to contract closeout, ensuring compliance with FAR, ADS, and U.S. government foreign assistance regulations. Her portfolio primarily supports institutional strengthening initiatives across local government, civil society, and technical implementing partners. While no specific contractor relationships are currently identifiable in the dataset, Ms. Pura engages a diverse pool of international and local professional service providers, including consulting firms, research institutions, and technical experts with deep domain knowledge in public administration and development economics. Her contracting patterns reflect a preference for performance-based, outcome-driven agreements that emphasize measurable impact, local ownership, and adaptive management principles. She fosters collaborative partnerships with vendors capable of delivering long-term, context-sensitive solutions tailored to the Philippine setting. Ms. Pura demonstrates a strong commitment to socioeconomic inclusion, with 90% of her acquisitions conducted as unrestricted procurements and 10% designated as Total Small Business Set-Asides under FAR 19.5. While no other set-aside categories are currently utilized, her consistent allocation to small businesses signals a deliberate effort to expand opportunities for locally registered firms and U.S.-based small businesses with development expertise. Her procurement focus is exclusively concentrated under NAICS 541990, encompassing all other professional, scientific, and technical services. This includes expertise in institutional assessment, policy advisory, monitoring and evaluation, training design, and technical capacity development—domains critical to USAID’s mission of building enduring local capacity in governance, economic growth, and climate adaptation.